Trouble on the Right, Trouble on the Left

Abstract

The early years of the American Newspaper Guild were filled with intense internal conflict as well as determined resistance from publishers. Starting in 1933, Guild members engaged in a vigorous debate about whether the organization should be a professional society or a trade union wielding the threat of a strike. Faced with publisher opposition and frustrated by government labor-management mechanisms, the Guild affiliated with the American Federation of Labor in 1936 and a year later joined the more militant Congress of Industrial Organizations, launching a campaign to organize commercial employees. Many journalists who opposed the Guild were alienated by leftist leadership in national offices during the late 1930s and in prominent local offices until the late 1940s. This article uses archival records and contemporary accounts to examine the growth of the Guild, a pioneering white-collar union that faced numerous obstacles.