ABSTRACT
For two decades, from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, the American labor movement was deeply divided. To an outsider, unschooled in the intricacies of unions, the dispute between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations must have looked like the silly rivalry of children in a playpen. They were arguing about “form.” Should unions be organized along craft or industrial lines? The brouhaha did not seem very grown-up. Why should a spat over form take precedence over content, that is, the need for labor unity to promote the best interests of working people?
