In the early cold war years, an unprecedented anticommunist purge took place in the United States. The second largest American labor union—the CIO became the chief target of the purge owing to its close relationship with the communists and its different political views. The 1946 CIO convention marked the beginning of the purge. The 1949 CIO convention reached the climax of the purge. The anticommunist purge led to the decline of the first industrial union in American history, and consequently exerted negative influence on American labor movement. Ever since the purge, the CIO became conservative and shifted to right; its affiliated unions and union members decreased sharply, the internal division and strife weakened the CIO influence on American labor movement; meanwhile, the ruling class took advantage of the purge and began to obtain more economic profits against the labor.

The Cold War; The “CIO”; The American Anticommunist Purge