American Union of Associationists

Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary The American Union of Associationists (AUA) was a national organization of supporters of the economic ideas of Charles Fourier (1772–1837) in the United States of America.

[3] Committed believers in Fourier's ideas did not see a structural cause to the mass failure of Fourierist "phalanxes" (communes) however, instead concentrating on the obvious underfinancing and haphazard operation of the first experiments in communalism.

Intent on making a new start, Fourierist leaders sought to create a national organization to share ideas through publications, raise funds, and to concentrate efforts onto the formation of a single properly founded phalanx which would serve as a practical model for emulation.

[9] The Boston convention also led to the formation in January 1844 of a formal regional organization, the New England Fourier Society, in which Brisbane and William Henry Channing played a leading role.

[9] Efforts in Western New York proved somewhat fruitful, with a March 1844 meeting in Rochester resulting in the formation of a group called the American Industrial Union (AIU), attended by representatives of seven phalanxes.

Albert Brisbane, leading figure of American Fourierism in the 1840s, as he appeared at the time of publication of his seminal book, Social Destiny of Man (1840).
Unitarian minister George Ripley (1802-1880), whose Brook Farm was one of the most prominent communal experiments of the 1840s.