Conference for Progressive Labor Action
[3] Muste outlined a program for militant progressive union activists in the pages of Labor Age, a New York monthly with which he was closely associated.
They have aroused the unorganized in Passaic and Gastonia; but they have given no promise of leaving anything permanent to them, and they have resorted to a campaign of vituperation and strikebreaking that is not helpful to progress, to say the least.
[12] At the time of its launch, the CPLA was governed by a 26-member National Executive Committee, which elected Muste as its chairman and James H. Maurer and Carl Holderman as its vice-chairmen.
[16] The group also attempted to mobilize unemployed workers by speaking before thousands at New York City's Free Municipal Employment Bureau.
It has lacked vigor and aggressiveness in supporting, inspiring, and leading efforts to organize the masses of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the basic industries....
[18] That was a left turn for the organization despite its continued distrust and ideological distance by the Communist Party USA and its trade union auxiliary.
"[19] Despite its political aspirations, the CPLA remained focused on the labor movement in 1931 and worked hand in glove with Alexander Howat in support of a dissident Reorganized United Mine Workers Union.
[20] The CPLA was also active from January to March 1931 in assisting in the organization of coal miners in West Virginia's Kanawha Valley mine fields.
[21] In the summer of 1931, the organization also worked Paterson, New Jersey, with silkworkers who were members of independent unions that merged with the United Textile Workers, in the AFL.
"[23] Furthermore, Muste declared that the new organization needed to offer a "sound view of Soviet Russia", with a demand for diplomatic recognition, to recognize the limitations of parliamentary action, and to "be realistic" and to "grow out of the American soil.
"[20] According to Muste, the CPLA sought to forge cooperative partnerships with other organizations in establishing "a genuinely militant left-wing political group in the United States.
"[20] Despite having had at least seven educational and political conferences over the first three years of its existence, the CPLA did not hold its "1st Official Convention" until the Labor Day weekend of September 1932.
[25]No procedure for the systematic selection of delegates was specified but rather "existing political or propagandist groups which are in agreement with CPLA aims and methods are invited to correspond with the NEC in regard to attendance and representation at the convention.
"[28] The group remained unwilling to declare itself a political party, however, with Muste maintaining a union-oriented perspective, asserting that "members will work within existing economic organizations.
