Turner, Marx and the A.F. of L.

AMERICAN Federation of Labor: History, Policies & Prospects, The (Book); LORWIN, Lewis L.; LABOR movement; LABOR unions; CIVIL war; SOCIAL movements; BOOKS

This article discusses the book "The American Federation of Labor," by Lewis L. Lorwin. Lorwin has managed to write the best overt history of the American Federation of Labor. And covertly, between the lines, he develops and interprets the whole sad story. With subtle implication he brings out the abject failure, the social cretinism of the jurisdictional jealousy, or in other words of the permanent civil war, which has been disrupting the organized labor movement. He brings out the fundamental folly of "pure and simple" unionism in a highly complex order, of "non-partisan" political action, the growing ineptness and softening in the higher ranks of the oligarchy, and the growing gangsterism and corruption in its lower ranks.