ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the activities of organized trade unions and their national federations. It reviews labor’s historical experiments in political activity. After the war of 1812, however, a new political generation appeared, and labor was becoming aware of the fact that its status was being reduced from its colonial position of dignity as the handicraft stage of American industry gradually gave way to the age of “merchant capitalism”. If the first half of the 19th century was characterized by the oscillation of labor between political and economic activities the second half was characterized by a split within the labor movement itself as to which course of action proved most promising as a permanent course of action. Non partisanism was the method favored by Gompers to implement the Massachusetts Federation of Labor (AFL) political program. The AFL’s formation of its Non Partisan Political Campaign Committee followed the inattention paid to its Bill of Grievances in 1906.
