The Labor and Radical Press
by Karla Kelling Sclater
Denied access to established newspapers, the burgeoning labor movement of the late 1820s and early 1830s launched newspapers to provide a forum for working men's voices. Born in antagonism to both merchant capitalists and the mainstream press, labor leaders in Philadelphia and New York published the Mechanics Free Press and the Working Man's Advocate, criticizing corrupt politics and demanding that capitalists and politicians alike reckon with working-class men as citizens and the "blood, bone, and sinew" of the market place. Early labor papers commanded political and social recognition, calling for reduced working hours, public education, and the abolishment of debtors' prisons.
By the end of the 19th century,
working-class newspapers proliferated in cities across the country.
Between 1880-1940, thousands of labor and radical publications
circulated, constituting a golden age for working-class newspapers.
Although both radical and labor newspapers struggled to finance their
publications, utopian, socialistic, and independent journalism
produced thousands of papers during this period that contributed
significant alternative voices to mainstream journalism and society.
Socialist, Wobbly, and Anarchist papers printed in many languages,
burgeoned from the late nineteenth century until World War I, when
anti-sedition laws succeeded in suppressing radical left-wing
publications. Labor union publications, however, increased after
Socialist and Wobbly papers declined.
During the Depression unionizing
gained momentum, and the labor press continued to grow. Historians,
however, have largely ignored the labor journals of this era, as well
as the decades that followed. No published work discusses the content
of the many Central Labor Council newsparers or the AFL-CIO's the American
Federationist. The historiography of the labor press is
surprisingly small considering its prevalence. The extant literature,
nonetheless, provide some important ideas about the course of
working-class journalism, pointing to fertile research ground, while
also offering insight into the variegated and complicated history of
labor in America.
Nearly 2,000 different labor
periodicals have been preserved in research libraries and by labor
unions. There is no up-to-date guide, but several older bibliographies
provide extensive lists, some with annotations. See the
to labor periodicals
by Andrew Lee of Tamiment Library.
Free Press, founded in 1828 by activist editor William Heighton,
looked to politicize laborers. Rodger Streitmatter's article, "Origins
of the American Labor Press"
argues that early labor journalism profoundly affected politics and
society in the United States. Communication was key to forging a
strong social movement and Heighton called for Philadelphia's trade
societies to convene and nominate candidates for City Council and the
Pennsylvania legislature. The Working Men's Party initially succeeded
in seating city officials in 1828 and 1829. New York elected labor
candidates as well, sweeping Syracuse elections in 1830. The Working
Men's Party won local offices in Newark, New Jersey, and state
legislative seats (one each) in New Hampshire and Connecticut.
Although the Working Men's Party's success was short-lived due to the
combined efforts of the Federalist and Democrat parties who allied
with mainstream newspapers to effectively crush the labor party, the
ten-hour day in Philadelphia and other cities was established.
Likewise, imprisonment for debt became a relic of the past. Public
education supported by tax dollars also took shape beginning in
Pennsylvania in 1834, precipitating a nationwide public educational
system. The development of the labor press was not only crucial to the
development of working-class movements, but for shaping popular
political and social agendas.
Despite these significant implications, no extensive study
exists on the early labor press. "The press as a subject itself
has barely begun" Jon Bekken lamented in 1988. Historians have
used papers to recreate the struggles and structures of working-class
organizations, but neglect the labor and socialist press as subjects
themselves. Journalism historians, Bekken continued, similarly neglect
the labor-press, instead focusing on commercial newspapers. In
'No Weapon So Powerful': Working-Class Newspapers in the United
sketches some of the early workers' papers, suggesting research
opportunities for the daily labor press as well as socialist,
anarchist, and foreign-language papers. This article, along with its
discussion of the lacunae in working-class journalism, details some
holdings for newspapers, suggesting outside sources that might shed
light on working-class papers: post office records, police and
government records can provide circulation information as well as add
to the understanding of working-class activism.
Journalism's High Tide, 1880-1940
Radical and labor publications
proliferated during the last two decades of the 19th
century. Foreign-language papers constituted a significant portion of
this published material. As Jon Bekken points out, the first workers'
newspapers printed in Chicago were German language papers, and as late
as 1925, only six out of fifteen daily labor papers published in the
United States were identified as English language papers.
Historians mainly have been interested in publications of the
Knights of Labor, Socialist organizations, and the union newspapers
that emerged with American Federation of Labor. These newspapers have
provided source material for many recent books about these
working-class movements. Yet, only a handful of articles and a few
bibliographies contain essential reference and source material for
future research on radical and foreign-language publications. Ample
room exists for studies focusing on the newspapers themselves, and
Anarchist publications have yet to receive serious attention.
Joseph R. Conlin's compilation, The American Radical Press, 1880-1960, remains an important source for radical newspapers, although few of the essays focus on the content of the publications. David Brody's essay on the Journal of United Labor (Chicago,1880-1889), and the Journal of the Knights of Labor (Chicago, 1889-1917) asserts that they provide crucial insight into the leadership of the Knights. He notes that the early editions contain data on finances, district organizers and leaders, as well as lists of local charters. Although the Journal is silent about the failed strikes of 1886, the internal conflicts, and the rival union organization, the American Federation of Labor, Brody suggests that there is much to gain from a comprehensive analysis of the Journal.
Several essays on socialist
papers are included in Conlin's anthology. Herbert Gutman's research
suggestions for Chicago's International Socialist Review
(1900-1918) point to a better understanding of the success and
failures of American radicalism, tackling previous historiography of
American socialism, rather than presenting the details of the
magazine's content. Gutman states that the Review contains
unusual data useful to historians, but does not say what the data is.
Joseph Conlin's discussion of the Socialist Party Monthly Bulletin
(1904-1913) and The Party Builder (1912-1914), argues that
these internal newsletters should be consulted in any study of the
Socialist Party because they provide administrative data and
statistics instead of propaganda, but he cautions that consulting
these newsletters alone would create a distorted picture of the
Socialist party. The data in these publications include reports from
foreign-language federations, financial information and correspondence
from local chapters.
The Industrial Workers of World (IWW),
founded in Chicago in 1905, also published numerous journals. Melvyn
Dubofsky looks at the Industrial Union Bulletin (Chicago,
1907-1909), and Wobbly papers in Washington State, including the
in Spokane and then Seattle (1909-1918). Dubofsky's focus, like the
other essays included in the Conlin volumes, is not about the papers
themselves. Instead, Dubofsky gives a critical overview of the
Wobblies, suggesting that IWW publications would help scholars answer
questions about the work done to integrate black and white workers,
unskilled labor, and the prominence of the Wobblies in the West. This
leaves journalism historians with ample opportunities to explore the
content of IWW newspapers.
Essays on American Communist
papers also offer general overviews of the party's history rather than
presenting specific content from the communist press. Witold S.
Sworakowski, speculates that the Communist International (New
York, 1919-1940), the official organ of the Communist (Third)
International, has failed to gain scholarly attention because no
library in the world has a complete collection of the English
editions. Nor do cumulative indexes exist for different language
editions. Harvey A. Levenstein addresses the development of The
Worker (Cleveland, Chicago, and New York, 1922-1924) and Daily
Worker (Chicago and New York, 1924-1958). Levenstein sketches the
history of these journals, providing circulation numbers. The Daily
Worker's readership increased throughout the 1930s, and the its
content changed, replacing articles on strikes and jeremiads against
capitalism with political cartoons and features that aligned communism
with American ideals. Levenstein's essay gives the reader more
information about issues covered in these newspapers then do many of
the other authors, providing some examples of what the papers
contained, including advertising. [See our report on
Voice of Action, a
Seattle Communist Party newspaper]
Anarchist publications have
historically received short shrift as scholars have paid attention
instead to Socialist journals. The essays on anarchism in the Conlin
anthology, once again, offer a historical sketch of the anarchist
movements rather than concentrating on the publications' content.
Herbert Gutman states that the Liberty (Boston and New York,
1881-1908) and the Alarm (Chicago and New York, 1884-1889) both
provide insight into the intellectual development of anarchism during
the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He suggests that a better
understanding of nonviolent working-class movements would include the
role anarchism played in connecting the nonviolent periods of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The "Jeffersonian
rhetoric" that Gutman says fills the pages of these anarchist
publications appears to be uncharted territory for scholars, however.
[See reports on the
Mother of Progress]
Mari Jo Buhle briefly discusses
early twentieth-century women's Socialist papers that sought a wider
audience than contemporary socialist newspapers. The Socialist
Woman, (Chicago and Girard, Kansas, 1907-1909) became the Progressive
Woman in 1909. These papers published letters from women
throughout the Midwest, which offer insight into the thoughts of
Socialists and the appeal of the movement for rural and urban women.
The editor of these publications, Josephine Conger-Kaneko, finally
launched the Coming Nation in 1912, attempting to recapture the
social popularity of the 1890s Socialist newspaper of the same name.
The Coming Nation survived for just one year, ultimately
falling victim to the hostile factionalization within the left.
Although the shortcomings of the women's Socialist movement are
documented through these publications, there is also the story of
successful organization, and the ability of these papers to reach
women inside and outside of the Socialist movement who were attracted
to political and social activism. The inclusion of letters from
readers in these publications presents excellent source material for
scholars to examine Midwestern women's contributions to these
Recent developments of gender and whiteness studies enable historians and journalism scholars to take fresh approaches to working-class publications. These analytical frameworks promise to enrich the understanding of working-class movements, the development of class-consciousness, the construction of gender-identity, and proscriptions for proper gender roles within labor unions and radical organizations. Few scholars have grappled with women or gender analysis in the labor press. Holly Allen's "Gender, the Movement Press, and the Cultural Politics of the Knights of Labor," argues that ethnicity and kin presented barriers to the cohesiveness of "Universal Brotherhood" espoused by the Order. In 1882, the Journal changed the phrase to "Universal Organization," but stood uneasily positioned alongside the masculine rhetoric that the Knights deployed to make connections across lines of race and ethnicity. The inclusion of wage-earning women in the Knights' organization and their newspapers are linked to broader social trends that emphasized companionate marriages and heterosocial activities.
Another important contribution to women in the labor press is
Ann Schofield's Sealskin
and Shoddy, a
collection of labor press fiction representing working women from
1870-1920. While only a couple of the stories included in this book
were written by working women, contributions by reformers, union
officials, and popular fiction writers offer substantial material for
cultural representations of proper sex roles as traditional familial
roles transformed to make room for young wage-earning women. Schofield
argues that the projected fantasies of this fiction offer insight into
solutions for the upheaval caused by a restructuring of the labor
market in addition to understanding how gender roles were
conceptualized. The dissertation that led to Schofield's book, "The
Rise of the Pig-Headed Girl"
provides more information on working women, and offers analyses of the
discussion of women in the labor press in addition to including
fictional accounts of working women in labor publications. Further
research is required to better understand working-class journalism's
content regarding gender roles.
The most successful radical
newspaper was the Appeal to Reason, a socialist publication
that survived from 1895-1922. The Appeal reached its greatest
circulation in 1913, boasting more than 750,000 subscribers. Much has
been written about the Appeal and its dynamic founder, J.A.
Wayland. Elliott Shore's Talkin'
an insightful look at the controversial Wayland, but John Graham's Yours
For the Revolution: The
Appeal to Reason, 1895-1922
provides excerpts from the newspaper as well as introductory essays to
chapters that address the Appeal's political philosophy, poetry
and fiction, and World War I, among other topics. [See our reports on
state Socialist newspapers]
The most extensive bibliography
for the working-class press is Dirk Hoerder's,
Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s.
An annotated bibliography, these three volumes include introductory
essays as well as detailed information on publication dates, frequency
of publication, language, circulation (when available), and the
affiliation of the periodicals. This impressive bibliography contains
a wealth of information for anyone examining immigrant working-class
In his recent paper,
a Rumbling in the Air"
(click to read it) Mitchell Newton-Matza argues that the New
Majority, the official organ of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL)
was influential despite its financial struggles. First published in
1919, the New Majority changed to the Federation News in
1924 and is still published today, although it now exists as a
newsletter available only to delegates of the CFL. The paper's
longevity, Newton-Matza asserts, demonstrates the paper's significance
to workers in Chicago. Financial problems are the historical hallmark
of most of the labor and radical journals, and remain a concern today,
although the internet is changing the nature of publishing for labor
unions, which will be discussed below.
While historians have developed a
literature on the radical press, far less attention has been been paid
to the newspapers produced by American Federation of Labor unions or
their affiliated Central Labor Councils. In addition to these
publications, the Federated Press has also been ignored in the
historiography. A news-gathering cooperative, the Federated Press,
which began in 1920, was the first news service that provided
affiliated papers with international reports of interest to the
working class. Jon Bekken states that the Federated Press survived
into the early 1950s as the only independent news service that
supplied information to 150 papers including newspapers in Germany,
Russia and Australia. Labor, socialist, and other newspapers utilized
the Federated Press. To date, only one unpublished master's thesis
discusses Carl Haessler, one of the founders of the Federated Press
wire service, and the Federated Press.
Territory: The Labor Press Since 1940
Plenty of research opportunities
await labor journalism historians. The AFL-CIO's The American
Federationist, along with thousands of local labor newspapers
published across the country offer substantial material to examine.
Comparisons between AFL and CIO papers with the AFL-CIO publications
after they reunited in 1955 could tell us a great deal about changes
in labor journalism. The changes during the last quarter of the
twentieth century also await historians' attention.
The 1992 book The New Labor Press: Journalism for a Changing Union Movement discusses contemporary union newspapers, speculating on the possibilities of a national labor paper and what it might accomplish for the labor movement. Most compelling are two essays about labor and community. One of these essays, "An Isolated Survivor: Racine Labor" by Richard W. Olson, discusses the survival of a small-city labor newspaper in Wisconsin. Olson points up the importance of an alternative community paper which competes with a mainstream daily, in this case, the Journal Times. Racine Labor, first published in 1941, survives to this day, attesting to its significance for working-class people of Racine, as well as the strength of the Racine labor movement. Prior to the Racine Labor, the Racine community supported two successive labor weeklies titled, the New Day and the Racine Day. The success of Racine Labor, according to Olson is attributable to its leftist, but not too radical political position as well as its commitment to the Racine labor community. In turn, the labor community has supported the paper, bailing it out of trouble in the 1980s by holding fund raisers for the struggling weekly. Olson also credits strong editors who are dedicated to labor interests for the longevity of the paper. Although its future is not secure, and rising postal rates exacerbate economic strains, this labor paper demonstrates that the combination of being both a labor and a community paper, as Olson emphasizes, seems to be the key to the Racine Labor's survival.
Local labor newspapers offer a
necessary forum for laborers and their communities. The future of the
labor press is a work in progress. As Newton-Matza's paper suggests,
the internet will likely be the primary forum through which an
increasing number of locals publish newsletters. Saturation as well as
repetition of information will certainly challenge the ways that
unions reach rank and file members. While the new labor movement gains
energy, and new technologies change the means of communication, both
contemporary publications and the historical record of working-class
and radical publications have much to teach us about labor journalism.
Holly, "Gender, the Movement Press, and the Cultural Politics of
the Knights of Labor," in William S. Solomon and Robert W.
McChesney, eds., Ruthless Criticism: New Perspectives in U.S.
Communication History (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
Jon. "A Paper for Those Who Toil: The Chicago Labor Press
in Transition" Journalism History 32:1 (Spring 1997).
Press at the Turn of the Century," in William S. Solomon and
Robert W. McChesney, eds., Ruthless Criticism: New Perspectives in
U.S. Communication History (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1993), 151-175.
Alice. "Memories of the Milwaukee Leader" Milwaukee
History 13 (1990).
C. K., and Robert L. Thistlewaite. "Labor press Demands Equal
Education in the Age of Jackson" Journalism Quarterly 65:3
Mitchell. "There’s a Rumbling in the Air," paper
Rodger. "Origins of the American Labor Press" Journalism
History 25:3 (Autumn 1999).
Alice M. and Edward D., eds., From Kona to Yenan : the political
memoirs of Koji
Chapin, Helen G. Shaping
History: The Role of Newspapers in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1996.
Leon. Workingmen's Democracy: the Knights of Labor and American
Politics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983.
, ed. Essays on the
Scandinavian-North American Radical Press, 1880s-1930s. Bremen:
Labor Newspaper Preservation Project, Universitat Bremen, 1984.
Sam and Fred J. Solowey eds. The New Labor Press: Journalism for a
Changing Union Movement. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1992.
Ann. Sealskin and Shoddy: Working Women in American Labor Press
The German-American Radical Press: the Shaping of a Left Political
Culture, 1850-1940. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
Strouthous, Andrew. U.S.
labor and political action, 1918-24: a comparison of independent
Bekken, Jon, "Working-Class Newspapers, Community and Consciousness in Chicago, 1880-1930," University of Illinois, 1992.
Stephen J. "Carl Haessler and the federated press: Essays on the
history of American labor journalism," M.A. thesis, University of
Donald. "Birth and Establishment of the Labor Press in the United
States," M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1950.
Mary J. "The Seattle Union Record, 1918-1928," M.A. thesis,
University of Washington, 1964.
© 2001 by
* * *
* * *
By Andrew Lee, Tamiment Library
The books on this page provide a great deal of information on trade union periodicals. In many you can look up the name of a union and see what journals it published, some even tell you the editors, number of pages, and advertising policies. The call numbers reflect those in the Tamiment Library and may not be applicable to your local library. The call numbers reflect those in the Tamiment Library and may not be applicable to your local library.
Z 7164 L1 N14 Naas, Bernard G. and Carmelita J. Sakr. American Labor Union Periodicals: A Guide to Their Location. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1956. Begun under the sponsorship of the Committee of University Industrial Relations Librarians, this acts as a union serial list with entries for over 1700 periodicals. While out of date for holdings and listing only twenty libraries, this guide does provide important information on each title in the traditional union list format. It is divided into two parts with separate indexes for each part. Part I includes periodicals of federations, national, and international unions and their locals; Part II contains the periodicals of regional organizations in both the United States and Canada.
Z 7164 L1 R4 Reynolds, Lloyd George and Charles C. Killingsworth. Trade Union Publications: The Official Journals, Convention Proceedings, and Constitutions of International Unions and Federations, 1850-1941. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1944-45. 3 volumes. This is a subject index to journals and convention proceedings of fifty international union and federations from the collections at Johns Hopkins University, the first university library to make an exhaustive effort to collect union publications. The indexing is not exhaustive but does include letters to the editor. Volume 1 is in two sections. Part I clearly describes the project and what was or was not indexed. Part II is a listing by industry of unions. Volume 1 has its own indexes to unions and subjects covered in these two parts. Each union entry gives the basic directory information followed by an evaluative section on its history and publications. Volumes 2 and 3 are the subject index to the union publications using fifteen hundred subject headings. T providing detailed access to the journals. There is a glossary of headings, explanation of the citation system, and a list of the unions indexed and their code numbers. An important and unique source of information.
Z 7164 L1 W4 State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Labor Papers on Microfilm; A Combined List. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1965. A list of labor papers published in the United States available on microfilm and is meant to complement Naas' American Labor Union Periodicals, a Guide to their Location (see above). Each entry is arranged by title (except where noted in parentheses) within a topical section: [national] unions (by union), state & local (by state and then city), socialist & communist, anarchist, liberal & reform, farmer organizations, and general periodicals. There are indexes and limited bibliographic information.
Z 7164 L1 A45 The American Labor Press: An Annotated Directory. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Public Affairs, 1940. Compiled at the University of Wisconsin as a WPA project, this directory lists 676 periodicals, including 30 from Canada. The titles are arranged by union federation (at this time, the AFL and CIO were separate organizations) including independent unions and cooperatives. It also includes union publications issued by left political parties and organizations, general labor publications, and finally a separate section for Canada. The information provided includes the size, average length, price, advertising policy, and more. This provides a brief but useful view of the field and has a short introduction by John R. Commons.
Z 6953.5 A1 H63 1987 v.1-3 Hoerder, Dirk. The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, c1987-. The Labor and Newspaper Preservation Project, based at the University of Bremen in Germany, has compiled an impressive guide to an important historical source. The selection criteria is complicated but ably explained. Basically, the bibliography covers both Canada and the United States but excludes the publications of French-Canadian, Chicano, and Puerto Rican residents. It also omits those from South America, Asia, and Africa due to the "refusal" of any North American foundation to participate in the project. Each entry contains an introductory essay with endnotes, and a bibliography of sources. The annotated listings provide extensive bibliographic information. The listings are by ethnicity within a geographic region of Europe. Volume 1 covers Northern Europe: Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes. Volume 2 is Eastern and Southern Europe: Albanians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Byelorussians, Carpatho-Rusyns, Czechs, Estonians, Greeks, Hungarians, Jews, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, and Yugoslavians. Volume 3 contains Southern and Western Europe: "Dutch-Speaking Peoples," English and Scots, "French-Speaking Peoples," "German-Speaking Peoples," Irish, Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Welsh. Each volume ends with a combined title index. The "Speaking Peoples" sections also have their own indexes. The introductory essays are valuable in their own right making this an important and irreplaceable source