[3] The CLS was founded in August 1942, in premises above a car showroom at 678 Turk Street in San Francisco, and named for labor leader Tom Mooney, who had died on March 6 that year.
[1] Its initial program "promised to analyze social, economic and political questions in light of the present world struggle against fascism".
[5] The school taught students on many subjects such as labor organization, journalism, music, drama, history, women's studies, economics and industrial arts.
[6] The school offered different kinds of services such as preparing union pamphlets and newspapers, conducting dance concerts and theatrical shows at local meetings.
[1] The Graphic Arts Workshop (GAW) of San Francisco, a cooperative print studio, was founded in 1952 by several artists from the California Labor School.
Oliver Carlson testified that William Wolfe of the ILGWU education department ran it, succeeded by Sidney Davison (sent from New York); Herbert Biberman taught there (Soviet theater), as did Guy Endore Robert Lees.