| − | William Foster was born in Massachusetts in 1881 to poor European immigrants and began to work full-time from the age of 10. As he entered his twenties he began to subscribe to socialist views, joining the Socialist Party in 1901 but was expelled in a faction war, and later the Industrial Workers of the World in 1909, leaving the latter organisation when his plan to infiltrate the American Federation of Labor was turned down. He went on to join the [[AFL]] in 1919 led the very large, but unsuccessful, Steel Strike. | + | William Foster was born in Massachusetts in 1881 to poor European immigrants and began to work full-time from the age of 10. As he entered his twenties he began to subscribe to socialist views, joining the Socialist Party in 1901 but was expelled in a faction war, and later the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] in 1909, leaving the latter organisation when his plan to infiltrate the American Federation of Labor was turned down. He went on to join the [[AFL]] in 1919 led the very large, but unsuccessful, Steel Strike. |