Congress of the Federation in 1899, declared: "The unions should support the candidates of any party who openly declared themselves supporters of the legislative program of the American Federation of Labor".
For organized labor policy of "impartiality" on actually meant that they may be Democrats in cities with a strong party machine Democrats and Republicans in those areas that were under the influence of the Republican Party. In other words, the unions focused on the Democratic Party by voting for her, where her position was significant, and vice versa. Hence, preaching the slogan of "impartiality", leader of the American union movement prevented independent political action by trade unions United States and subject them to the influence of bourgeois ideology.
The Federation does not do much for the practical implementation of policy actions, even in such a limited way, to conduct "non-party politics." American Federation of Labor unions are not guided in their political work to implement the
Federation slogan "reward friends and punish enemies,ยป It does not create financial assets, not engaged in publishing and distribution of literature, not to organize rallies and campaigns in support of candidates who did not inform the workers about the electoral. The unions had no leading center in the form of organization that would coordinate their activities in the political arena. Political activity was carried out by them at the local level, was poorly organized, inconsistent, sporadic. American Federation of Labor did not participate in the presidential election campaigns. Each union member could participate or not participate in the election campaign, "supporting friends" or "punishing enemies" at will, especially as the lists of "friends" and "enemies" are defined by their relation to labor legislation, the systematic component of the federation. In general, trade unions, most of whom followed in line with the "non-partisan politics," did not represent a single political force that can make reckoned with the ruling class. The exceptions were the individual unions of the AFL, marching in the footsteps of the strategic course of the Socialist Party, and the brotherhood of railway workers did not belong to the American Federation of Labor Which differed from the federation more active political stance and the broad formulation of the anti-monopoly problems. But they were too small to determine the nature of the entire U.S. labor movement. |