The 1946-47 Allis-Chalmers Strike and the Unraveling of the Popular Front

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.