Lessons of the Post-WW2 US Soldiers' Movement: the Strikes of 1945-1946
The five years after the end of the Second World War were some of the stormiest years ever seen in the United States. The entire nation had been mobilized for war - millions of workers were drafted into the military, and millions more were employed in the newly-created arms plants. The State set up hundreds of specialized committees to regulate everything from food rationing to enforcing the reactionary "No Strike Pledge," which was held in place partly by the influence of the Communist Party and the Stalinist-dominated unions as well as by the leadership of the AFL and CIO. This "No Strike Pledge" flew in the face of the newly created Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) but yet was supported by the "statesman" like leadership over the will of the millions of workers of the CIO, with the help of the Stalinists.