"The 1946-47 Allis-Chalmers Strike and the Unraveling of the Popular Fr" by Nathaniel Tease

Date of Award

August 2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Urban Studies

First Advisor

Amanda Seligman

Abstract

Led by militant unionist Harold Christoffel, UAW-CIO Local 248 emerged at Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company in West Allis, Wisconsin in 1937. The union challenged the supreme authority of company management and established a sense of dignity and self-determination for workers during WWII. However, post-war tensions led to an eleven-month strike beginning in 1946, which was successfully put down by the collaborative efforts of the company, the press, the government, and right-wing unionists through a coordinated campaign of red-baiting and anti-Communism. As the Cold War commenced and McCarthyism emerged across the United States, unions like Local 248 were condemned as Communist-dominated and subservient to the Soviet Union. Left-leaning members were purged. Testimony by Christoffel before the House Congressional Committee on Education and Labor led to a lengthy legal battle, ultimately resulting in his imprisonment on charges of perjury. Meanwhile, anti-Communist campaigns also targeted progressive organizations and activists oriented around anti-fascism, anti-racism, and civil rights that had aligned themselves over the course of decades with the burgeoning industrial labor movement that Christoffel had championed. The long-term impact of these campaigns contributed to the decline of union influence, the suppression of progressive social policies, and a rightward shift in American political culture.

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