ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reasons for Progressive Labor's (PL) perennial interest in garment workers, the conditions that prevailed in New York City's garment industry during the 1960s, PL's critique of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and the party's first attempts to influence garment workers. PL first tested its approach to building socialism within the labor movement in New York City’s garment district. The garment industry loomed large in the economy of New York City. Until the 1960s, when public and service sector employment took precedence, the garment industry was New York City’s largest employer, public or private, employing hundreds of thousands of workers. New York City’s economic importance nationally and internationally as a major producer of goods and services, a corporate headquarters and a commercial and financial center cannot be overestimated. Communists saw society as mainly divided into two antagonistic social classes, a hegemonic capitalist class and an exploited working class, rather than in terms of ethnicity, race, and gender.
