Born from a rebellion against the bureaucracy of the United Garment Workers’ Union, a look at what had become of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers a decade after their founding.

‘Ten Years of the Amalgamated’ by P. Yuditch from Workers Monthly. Vol. 4 No. 5. March, 1925.

DURING the last month of January the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union has been celebrating its tenth anniversary. The 13th of October, 1924, marked ten years since the birth of the Amalgamated. It was on October 13, 1914, that the clothing workers were compelled to split the United Garment Workers’ Union. On that day, the delegates of the clothing workers were driven out of the convention ruled by the Rickert machine, which was in session in Nashville, Tennessee.

The ten years in the life of the Amalgamated have been full of varied experiences. Its achievements have often been regarded with amazement by people of quite different sorts, who not only wondered at its accomplishments, but even at the peculiar nature of its activities. For the Amalgamated never pursued a clear-cut line of action. It constantly shifted its conduct, giving battle on the one hand, trusting to conciliation on the other, following a policy of class struggle and also of class collaboration. While launching an attack at one place, it very often, at the same time, made a peaceful retreat in another. The pages of its history are painted in varying designs, so that one finds it hard to know which is the truly typical pattern.

What has been the cause of these contradictions? It is worth while analyzing this for two reasons: first, so as to understand the path followed by the Amalgamated up to the present; second, to understand where it may lead in the future.

The Amalgamated was born in October, 1914, as a child of revolt. The clothing workers rebelled against the Rickert machine of the United Garment Workers’ Union. They left Nashville quite alone, deserted, hated by enemies and repudiated by so-called friends.

At such a critical moment, the utmost revolutionary determination was necessary. To establish their new organization, the clothing workers had to break through an iron wall, which was defended both by the clothing manufacturers and the yellow leaders of the labor movement. This barrier could not be destroyed by folded arms, nor by a policy of diplomatic conciliation. To accomplish this, there was required of the clothing workers the same revolutionary spirit which they developed before their revolt against the leadership of the United Garment Workers.

It happened, however, that the Amalgamated immediately after its birth, became a combination of two entirely different forces: on the one hand the rank and file, and on the other the new leadership under the control of Sidney Hillman.

Though the rank and file consisted of elements saturated with the spirit of revolt, the leadership was intrusted to a man who had won power as a mediator. It is no secret Hillman was popular at that time because he followed a policy of class collaboration as a representative of the workers in the employ of Hart, Schaffner & Marx. Hillman was not considered a revolutionist, socialist or anarchist, certainly not a Communist. He was known simply as an able mediator

Years of Struggle.

Despite these contradictory forces, the Amalgamated began to break down the iron wall of capitalist resistance and started on its difficult up-hill climb to build and secure the new organization. It must be admitted, that notwithstanding the contradiction of forces, the Amalgamated at that time was driven forward. Both elements without doubt, served the organization faithfully. The spirit of class collaboration was not much of a hindrance then as the urge of the struggle for existence was far stronger than that. Most of the gains of the Amalgamated had to be fought for, and could not be obtained by begging. Even Hillman’s spirit of conciliation was, to a certain degree, useful during that period. Hillman, the mediator, could very easily make his peace with the revolutionary spirit of the masses when he had no other alternative.

However, not all the positions won by the Amalgamated were obtained through battle. There were also cases where the leadership quietly made arrangements a la Hart, Schaffner & Marx. Thus from the very beginning, the Amalgamated followed a zig-zag path in all its activities. In general, however, its actual achievements surrounded the union in the early years of its existence with a revolutionary glamor.

As soon as the positions gained by the Amalgamated were firmly secured, the glamor quite noticeably began to fade. The entrance of America into the World War produced an industrial revival in the clothing industry. The manufacturers needed “hands.” They were forced to make peace with the organization of the clothing workers. Even government officials then became mediators for the Amalgamated. It was during this period that the leaders of the union began to assume the upper hand over the revolutionary rank and file.

The policy of class collaboration with the manufacturers began to spread throughout the industry. The officialdom reckoned less and less with the will of the membership. Little by little they began to forget that the clothing workers are capable of revolt. They began to regard them as a flock of sheep, and to deceive them.

From 1916 to the end of 1918, the most prosperous years in the needle industry during the war period, no serious struggles for better conditions were undertaken. It was only toward the end of 1918, when prosperity in the clothing industry was declining, that the rank and file began to demand a fight for the 44-hour week. This, however, was not begun until November of that year, when the prosperity had vanished. When at last the clothing workers went out on strike for their demands, they struck magnificently. The rank and file had not lost the spirit of battle of former years. In New York, they were on strike for 13 weeks. The 44-hour week was won. But in the settlement made, the power of the class collaborationists was as evident as that of the class-conscious strikers. The workers made one gain, but the manufacturers received their little something in return.

The revolutionary spirit of the workers was again revived at the end of 1920, when the enemies of the Amalgamated made a strong attempt to destroy the organization. At that time, the spirit of revolt among the clothing workers once more obtained the upper hand. The manufacturers staged their first offensive in the clothing market of New York. In this they were encouraged and assisted by the National Manufacturers’ Association. The workers, however, stood firm in a lockout lasting 26 weeks, and did not surrender. They fought bravely and won.

Right and Left Wing.

Right after that the situation again changed. The labor movement began to manifest two distinct and opposing tendencies. In the ranks of the Amalgamated a right and left wing developed. This division gave the leadership new opportunities for the exercise of their inherent spirit of mediation. They began to maneuver in all directions, ever ready with their policy of conciliation. Inside the organization, their tactics were to prevent either the right or the left from gaining the upper hand. Outside the organization, they began again to maneuver with the bosses. Within the union they exerted themselves to prevent the power of the rank and file from dictating. Without, they began to co-operate with the employers in the old spirit of the Hart, Schaffner & Marx negotiations. The revolutionary glitter had altogether disappeared.

The officialdom of the Amalgamated then began to play the dual game of supporting the lefts and fighting the rights in one city, while they followed just the opposite in another place. At the same time, their peace policy with the manufacturers continued undisturbed. Thus day by day the manufacturers are enabled to rob the workers of more of their standards and conditions. The clothing workers are deceived on all sides, and their situation grows steadily worse.

Within the organization itself, the determined stand of the left wing has partly compelled the officialdom to give up their pussyfooting policy, of supporting left and right at one and the same time, and compelled them to take a definite position. Of course, the position was on the extreme right.

The leaders of the Amalgamated have lined up with all the yellow forces, which are cordially hated by most of the active and sincere elements among the rank and file of the union.

The officialdom has even brought back into positions of power such corrupt elements as had actually been driven out of the organization previously by both Hillman and Schlossberg, the president and secretary of the Amalgamated. They made a united front with all those forces with whose help they are now carrying on a fight against the left. The union is now being dragged deeper and deeper into a swamp. The conditions in the shops become more and more unbearable. Demoralization and chaos in the union have reached a climax. The workers are enraged against both the officialdom of the union and the bosses.

So ten years have passed. Ten years in which the officialdom of the Amalgamated has already forgotten that the clothing workers can also revolt; that they can yet break the power of the new Rickerts of the union as well as of the clothing manufacturers.

The Workers Monthly began publishing in 1924 as a merger of the ‘Liberator’, the Trade Union Educational League magazine ‘Labor Herald’, and Friends of Soviet Russia’s monthly ‘Soviet Russia Pictorial’ as an explicitly Party publication. In 1927 Workers Monthly ceased and the Communist Party began publishing The Communist as its theoretical magazine. Editors included Earl Browder and Max Bedacht as the magazine continued the Liberator’s use of graphics and art.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/wm/1925/v4n05-mar-1925.pdf