Playing for Power: The European Worker Sport Movement and the Seeds of the American Labour Sports Movement, 1919-1940

Abstract

In the late 1930s until the early 1950s, a large Labor Sports movement existed in the United States, especially in unions under the leadership of Socialists or Communists. I argue that it is impossible to understand the Labor Sports movement outside of this wider global context, because Labor Sports in the United States were directly linked to Worker Sport via both individuals and organizations. Indeed, Americans with knowledge of Worker Sport sought to establish similar institutions in the United States, even though the results were ultimately quite different. Labor Sports was inspired by Worker Sport, and so to understand the American Labor Sports, I will start with the European Worker Sport. American left-wing sports organizing prior to the rise of the CIO largely sought to create the American wing of Worker Sport, albeit with limited success.