The International Workers Order (IWO) was an insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951 on the grounds that the organization was too closely linked to the Communist Party. At its height in the years immediately following World War II, the IWO reached nearly 200,000 members and provided low-cost health and life insurance, medical and dental clinics, and supported foreign-language newspapers, cultural and educational activities. The organization also operated a summer camp and cemeteries for its members.

Organizational history

Factional war in the Arbeter Ring (1920s)

The International Workers Order began as the byproduct of a split of The Workmen's Circle (Der Arbeter Ring, now called The Workers Circle), a Jewish mutual benefit society of social democratic coloration. Principal functions of the Workmen's Circle included the provision of unemployment insurance, medical insurance, and life insurance for its members, as well as providing a setting for the discussion of social problems at its meetings. During the factionally charged political climate of the American Left in the 1920s, a parallel Communist fraternal benefit society emerged—the IWO.

The origins of the split that established the IWO date back to 1922. In February of that year, a nominating conference of the Arbeter Ring was held, at which a new Executive Committee was to be nominated. Nearly 200 delegates attended this conference, which was dominated by adherents of the Socialist Party of America (SPA), who prevented adherents of the Communist movement from gaining a single seat on the Credentials Committee. A spontaneous walkout of Left Wing delegates resulted.

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Establishment of the IWO

thumb|right|upright=1.2|IWO President William Weiner (right) shakes hands with [[National Maritime Union President Joseph Curran at an anti-Dies Committee rally at Manhattan Center, April 24, 1940]]

The first General Secretary of the IWO was Rubin Saltzman and the first President was William Weiner, both "open and prominent" members of the Communist Party USA.

The IWO described itself in the following manner in its "Declaration of Principles":

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<small> The IWO provides sick, disability and death benefits. It organizes for its members medical aid and other forms of fraternal services. It pledges aid and comfort to its members in case of need. The ranks of the International Workers Order and its societies are open to all regardless of sex, nationality, race, color, creed or political affiliation. 31.4% were Yiddish speakers with Ukrainian, Hungarian, Slovak and Russian language speakers being the next largest respectively on foreign language speakers, while only 8.9% were English language speakers. According to the testimony of IWO General Secretary Max Bedacht, these members had organized into over 19,000 branches and generated an income for the organization of over $1 million per year.

Post-war years

At its height in the years immediately following World War II, the IWO had almost 200,000 members and provided low-cost health and life insurance, medical and dental clinics, and supported foreign-language newspapers, cultural and educational activities. The IWO offered insurance to all working people at the same rate regardless of race or occupation and was, at the time, the only service provider where African Americans could obtain insurance at the same rate as others and also the only place where workers in dangerous occupations such as coal mining could obtain insurance at a rate equivalent to other occupations.

The IWO also ran a Jewish summer camp, Camp Kinderland and the racially integrated camp Wo-Chi-Ca. Additionally the IWO owned and operated cemeteries throughout the US and Canada, a common practice among left wing Jewish mutual-aid organizations like the Farband and the Workmen's Circle.

While the leadership of IWO sections were members of the Communist Party, most of the IWO's rank-and-file members were not party members.

The IWO was made up of a total of 15 sections, the largest section of which was the Jewish section representing one-third of the membership of the IWO and which in 1944 was renamed the Jewish People's Fraternal Order. There was also an English section and 13 other language sections including the Hungarian Workmen's Sick, Benevolent, and Educational Federation; the Ukrainian-American Fraternal Union; the Carpatho-Russian National Society; the (Spanish) Cervantes Society Mutualista Obrera Puertorriqueña; the (Italian) Garibaldi American Fraternal Society; the Hellenic-American Brotherhood; the Serbian-American Federation; the Russian American Mutual Aid Society; the Slovak Workers Society; the Polonia Society; the Rumanian American Fraternal Society; the Czech Workers Society and the Finnish American Mutual Aid Society (descended from the Finnish Socialist Federation).

Demise

As early as 1944, the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the US House of Representatives (best known as the Dies Committee) attacked the IWO as a "huge patronage machine furnishing positions for a host of Communist functionaries, who serve as the party's controlling commissars within the organization." The Dies Committee expressed its confidence that "a comparison made in each local area will bear out the charge that the personnel of the Communist Party and the International Workers Order interlock closely." (also considered for mutual aid societies more broadly), though others have questioned the IWO's contemporary relevance if based on intersectionality."

Conventions

  • Founding Convention – May 1931
  • 2nd Convention – Chicago, June 1933
  • 3rd Convention – New York City, May 5–11, 1935
  • 4th Convention – Pittsburgh, PA, April 23–30, 1938
  • 5th Convention – New York City, June 1940
  • 6th Convention – New York City, July 2–7, 1944
  • 7th Convention – New York City, June 12–19, 1947

References

Further reading

  • Tim Davenport, "International Workers Order (1922 - 1946): Organizational History," Early American Marxism website, Corvallis, OR. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  • "Guide to the International Workers Order Records," Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  • "International Workers’ Order (IWO) and Jewish People's Fraternal Order (JPFO) collection," Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  • "Guide to the International Workers Order Records," Tamiment Library at Bobst Library, New York University, New York City. Retrieved August 11, 2010.