Jay Lovestone Papers

The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States founded in 1900 by local union delegates representing about 2,000 members in cities in the northeastern United States. It was one of the first U.S. Unions to have a membership consisting of mostly females, and it played a key role in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. The union is generally referred to as the "ILGWU" or the "ILG". The ILGWU grew in geographical scope, membership size, and political influence to become one of the most powerful forces in American organized labor by mid-century. Representing workers in the women's garment industry, the ILGWU worked to improve working and living conditions of its members through collective bargaining agreements, training programs, health care facilities, cooperative housing, educational opportunities, and other efforts. The ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union in 1995 to form the Union of Needle trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). UNITE merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) in 2004 to create a new union known as UNITE HERE. The two unions that formed UNITE in 1995 represented only 250,000 workers between them, down from the ILGWU's peak membership of 450,000 in 1969.

Jay Lovestone was born on December 24, 1898 in Lithuania, which was then a part of Russia. His father obtained a job in a New York synagogue and Lovestone came with his family to the U.S. at the age of 9. He graduated from City College in 1918 and soon found himself involved in the Socialist and Communist movements. Lovestone became a founding member of the American Communist Party in 1919, and became editor of the Communist Party publication "The Communist" in 1921. Lovestone led the party from 1927 until his expulsion in 1929. Lovestone and his followers formed the Communist Party of the United States, later the Independent Labor League of America, but more commonly known as the "Lovestonites," which disbanded in 1940. In 1943, Lovestone was appointed the founding director of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' (ILGWU) International Affairs Department. He went on to serve as Secretary of the Free Trade Union Committee, director of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and director of the AFL-CIO's Department of International Affairs, serving from 1963 until his retirement in 1974. Lovestone died on March 7, 1990 at the age of 91.

The collection is divided into six series: Correspondence, Foreign Files, Speeches, Writings and Reports, Miscellaneous, Personal Paraphernalia, and Financial Documents. Spanning Lovestone's work as the Director of the ILGWU's International Relations Department, as well as Director of the AFL-CIO's Department of International Affairs, these papers include correspondence with individuals and organizations with considerable interest in the growth of trade unionism abroad. The Correspondence Series consists of general correspondence, files, and documents that are arranged alphabetically by either individual or organization. This series occupies the bulk of the collection. It includes correspondence to and from Lovestone, as well as clippings and articles. The individuals and organizations contained within the correspondence reflects the international nature of Lovestone's work, including material to and from Europe, Africa, and Asia, while not all of the material is in English. There is correspondence to both national and international organizations, as well as the U. S. Department of Labor and the State Department. Individuals that Lovestone communicated with include consulate generals, diplomats, labor attaches, labor leaders (both national and international), senators, and congressmen. There is substantial information from organization of which Lovestone was involved, including the AFL-CIO and The Atlantic Council of the United States (of which Lovestone was a director). Notable individuals in the collection that Lovestone communicated with include Irving Brown (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions representative to the U.N.), Harry Goldberg (Department of International Affairs at the AFL-CIOletters and reports regarding missions to various countries), Dale Good (labor attach at the United States Embassy in Germany), Fritz Heine (senior figure in the German Social Democratic Party), Lane Kirkland, George Meany, Walter Reuther, Bayard Rustin, and Philip Taft, and important ILGWU leaders such as Sol Chaikin, David Dubinsky, Roy Godson, Mark Staar, Louis Stulberg, and Charles Zimmerman.

The remaining series contain foreign files which contain reports, notes from trips to various countries regarding delegation visits, and reports that were written and compiled by individuals and sent back to Lovestone; speeches presented at conferences and meetings as well as drafts of chapters and reports; general reports, many to the Free Trade Union Committee of the Labor League for Human Rights, of which Lovestone was executive secretary, as well as "News from the AFL-CIO" and a typed copy of Theodore Draper's "The Roots of American Communism"; notes business cards and collected letters and documents; and receipts, invoices, and expense reports.

Related Collections:
5780: ILGWU records
5780/014: ILGWU Local 22, Charles S. Zimmerman Papers
5780/062: ILGWU International Relations Department Records
6036/023: Jay Lovestone Interview by E. Finn

Series I. Correspondence

Series II. Foreign Files

Series III. Speaches, Writings, and Reports

Series IV. Miscellaneous

Series V. Personal Paraphenalia

Series VI. Financial Documents