Community Organizing under the AFL-CIO Umbrella

This chapter demonstrates how, after five years of heading up a few of the left-led Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) refugees, the DPO and District 65 were attacked and on the verge of collapse. It had proved almost impossible to continue to organize without the security provided by the CIO, and the union's Executive Board finally decided to accept the CIO's terms for reinstatement. The chapter follows District 65 as it attempted to rebuild and, essentially, prove its worth to the rest of the labor movement and to civil rights organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The chapter explores the consequences of the reaffiliation for the union's “militant” fight for economic equality and offers an analysis of how District 65's organizing strategies were affected by reaffiliation with the CIO.