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Coal miners in the United States and indeed in most countries were the most radical of all workers and their support was critical for Communism.  The brief history of the National Miners Union (NMU) during 1928-31 sheds light on the role of the CPUSA in the Pennsylvania anthracite [[coal mining]] industry and on the polarized views of the CPUSA as either a functionary of Soviet and Communist International (Comintern) policy, or as a progressive response to regional and local interests. The NMU provided a militant alternative to the American Federation of Labor ([[AFL]]) and United Mine Workers of America ([[UMW]]), but failed to meet the CPUSA goal of defeating the AFL and UMW and taking control of the union movement. Although theoretically supporting revolutionary goals, NMU activists rejected them as impossible and impractical and focused on immediate issues such as working conditions, wages, benefits, and social reform. The NMU's failure to take control of strikes, the rise of labor violence, internal dissension, police harassment, press hostility, and nationwide anti-Communist attitudes contributed to the demise of the red union.<ref>Walter T. Howard, "The National Miners Union: Communists and Miners in the Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1928-1931." ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 2001 125(1-2): 91-124. 0031-4587</ref>  

Coal miners in the United States and indeed in most countries were the most radical of all workers and their support was critical for Communism.  The brief history of the National Miners Union (NMU) during 1928-31 sheds light on the role of the CPUSA in the Pennsylvania anthracite [[coal mining]] industry and on the polarized views of the CPUSA as either a functionary of Soviet and Communist International (Comintern) policy, or as a progressive response to regional and local interests. The NMU provided a militant alternative to the American Federation of Labor ([[AFL]]) and United Mine Workers of America ([[UMW]]), but failed to meet the CPUSA goal of defeating the AFL and UMW and taking control of the union movement. Although theoretically supporting revolutionary goals, NMU activists rejected them as impossible and impractical and focused on immediate issues such as working conditions, wages, benefits, and social reform. The NMU's failure to take control of strikes, the rise of labor violence, internal dissension, police harassment, press hostility, and nationwide anti-Communist attitudes contributed to the demise of the red union.<ref>Walter T. Howard, "The National Miners Union: Communists and Miners in the Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1928-1931." ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 2001 125(1-2): 91-124. 0031-4587</ref>  

The American Federation of Labor ([[AFL]]) demonstrated its respectability and Americanism by articulating a strong patriotism and fervent anticommunism. From 1917 onward, the AFL used such groups as the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy and the [[National Civic Federation]] to circulate its views. Moreover, it cooperated covertly with the [[American Legion]] (a society for veterans of World War I) and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], energetically investigating and purging itself of communist labor activists. Beginning in 1935 the anticommunist campaign of the AFL was stepped up in response to the Comintern's Popular Front strategy and the rivalry with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was heavily infiltrated by Communists. This use of anticommunism moved the AFL to the right. Whereas during the 1920s it had presented itself as a bulwark against Bolshevism, during the [[Cold War]] after 1947 it characterized itself as a defense for free enterprise and strongly opposed the [[Soviet Union]]. After the CIO expelled its Communists in the late 1940s, the two union coalitions merged and redoubled their international activities to fight Communism.

The American Federation of Labor ([[AFL]]) demonstrated its respectability and Americanism by articulating a strong patriotism and fervent anti-Communism. From 1917 onward, the AFL used such groups as the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy and the [[National Civic Federation]] to circulate its views. Moreover, it cooperated covertly with the [[American Legion]] (a society for veterans of World War I) and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], energetically investigating and purging itself of Communist labor activists. Beginning in 1935 the anti-Communist campaign of the AFL was stepped up in response to the Comintern's Popular Front strategy and the rivalry with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which was heavily infiltrated by Communists. This use of anti-Communism moved the AFL to the right. Whereas during the 1920s it had presented itself as a bulwark against Bolshevism, during the [[Cold War]] after 1947 it characterized itself as a defense for free enterprise and strongly opposed the [[Soviet Union]]. After the CIO expelled its Communists in the late 1940s, the two union coalitions merged and redoubled their international activities to fight Communism.

The unionization of the Ford Motor Company's giant River Rouge complex inaugurated a brief era during which workers held much of the power to determine the pace and staffing of production. Their shop-floor power was sustained by a dense system of stewards and committeemen, the "abdication" of the foremen, who formed their own independent trade union, and by the growth of Communist Party influence in the new United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 600. But in a protracted struggle after World War II, Ford management recaptured much of its lost authority. The company negotiated a more favorable UAW contract in 1946, smashed the foremen's union in 1947, and began a decentralization/automation program that shifted jobs and production away from the more militant units of the Rouge complex in the early 1950s. Corporate efforts to rewin control of the shop floor were aided by the UAW national leadership, which focused its energies on company-wide monetary and fringe benefit contract improvements, and by the eruption of Cold War political conflicts within Local 600, which discredited Communist-led militancy and facilitated the accommodation of the local to the UAW's more orthodox brand of unionism in the late 1950s.<ref>See William Andrew, "Factionalism and Anti-Communism: Ford Local 600." ''Labor History'' 20 (1979): 227-55; Nelson Lichtenstein,  "Auto Worker Militancy and the Structure of Factory Life, 1937-1955." Journal ofAmerican History 67 (September 1980): 335-53 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890412  in JSTOR]</ref>

The unionization of the Ford Motor Company's giant River Rouge complex inaugurated a brief era during which workers held much of the power to determine the pace and staffing of production. Their shop-floor power was sustained by a dense system of stewards and committeemen, the "abdication" of the foremen, who formed their own independent trade union, and by the growth of Communist Party influence in the new United Automobile Workers (UAW) Local 600. But in a protracted struggle after World War II, Ford management recaptured much of its lost authority. The company negotiated a more favorable UAW contract in 1946, smashed the foremen's union in 1947, and began a decentralization/automation program that shifted jobs and production away from the more militant units of the Rouge complex in the early 1950s. Corporate efforts to rewin control of the shop floor were aided by the UAW national leadership, which focused its energies on company-wide monetary and fringe benefit contract improvements, and by the eruption of Cold War political conflicts within Local 600, which discredited Communist-led militancy and facilitated the accommodation of the local to the UAW's more orthodox brand of unionism in the late 1950s.<ref>See William Andrew, "Factionalism and Anti-Communism: Ford Local 600." ''Labor History'' 20 (1979): 227-55; Nelson Lichtenstein,  "Auto Worker Militancy and the Structure of Factory Life, 1937-1955." Journal ofAmerican History 67 (September 1980): 335-53 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890412  in JSTOR]</ref>