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By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of the depression.  There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work.  The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

By 1935 membership in labor unions had sunk to a low figure as a result of the depression.  There were men around the President at this time that saw the tremendous possibilities of organizing labor as a political force. An industrial union is one in which all the people engaged in a single industry are included without regard to the type of skills at which they work.  The industrial union was the one great instrument by which all labor could be organized and the President was urged to promote this idea as the starting point in building up a powerful political labor movement. There were three large industrial unions at that time, [[John L. Lewis]]’s [[United Mine Workers]] (UMW), the International Ladies Garment Workers Union of David Dubinsky and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of [[Sidney Hillman]].

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.). Green and the A. F. of L. opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis,  Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

Roosevelt tried to sell the plan to John L. Lewis of the UMW, and William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.). Green and the A. F. of L. opposed the idea of industrial unions and refused, but under the leadership of Lewis, a new group of unions was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  The Comintern maneuvered [[Lee Pressman]], of the [[Ware group]] into the position of general

counsel.  The year 1936 was a period of furious organizing work by it among the unskilled workers of the country. As Lewis,  Dubinsky, and Hillman set about organizing millions of workers they were immediately up against the problem of finding skilled organizers to promote and manage the new unions.

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of revolution. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the A. F. of L. and instructed their members to withdraw from the A. F. of L. and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998,  Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>

There had been in the United States a [[Communist]] labor organization known as the Trade Union Unity League which took its instructions directly from [[Moscow]]. It is estimated that ten or fifteen thousand Communists were in these unions. In 1934, Moscow directed the Communist party in the United States to dissolve the Trade Union Unity League unions and to march the members of those unions into the American Federation of Labor. The purpose was not to advance the cause of labor unions or to get better working conditions for the members, but to use the apparatus of the labor union as an instrument of revolution. The Communist leaders saw in the rise of the CIO a better opportunity for their own revolutionary objectives than in the A. F. of L. and instructed their members to withdraw from the A. F. of L. and go into the CIO where they achieved disproportionate influence. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, Yale University Press, 1998,  Document 13, pp. 58-68. ISBN 0-300-07150-7. </ref>