Teachers Guild

{{Short description|American labor union for teachers}} {{Infobox union | name = Teachers Guild (TG) | full_name = New York City Teachers Guild – Local 2, AFT | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | founded = 1935  | predecessor = New York City Teachers Union | successor = United Federation of Teachers | dissolved = 1960 | merged_into = United Federation of Teachers | num_members = | publication = | location = United States of America | affiliations = American Federation of Teachers (AFT) | key_people = Henry Linville, Abraham Lefkowitz (co-founders) | headquarters = | website =  | footnotes = }} The New York City '''Teachers Guild''' (1935-1960), AKA "Local 2, AFT" as of June 1941, was a progressive labor union that started as breakaway from the New York City Teachers Union and later merged into the United Federation of Teachers.<ref name=Kheel-TG> {{cite web | title = AFT Local 2 Records, 1918-1957 | publisher= Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library | url = https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05279.html | date = | accessdate = 30 September 2018}}</ref><ref name=Toloudis> {{cite journal | first = Nicholas | last = Toloudis | author-link = | title = Teacher Unions conflict in New York City, 1935–1960 | publication = Labor History | volume = 56 | issue = 5 | pages = 566–586 | date = 21 December 2015 | doi = 10.1080/0023656X.2015.1116805 }}</ref>

==History==

===1930s=== The New York City Teachers Union (TU) had experience conflict internally for more of the early 1930s. The opposing groups were the founders (Henry Linville and Abraham Lefkowitz–at the time called "administrators") and "Rank and File" members (many of whom were also Communist Party members).<ref name=Alexander> {{cite book | first = Robert J. | last = Alexander | title = The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s | publisher = Greenwood Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MnoEAQAAIAAJ | pages = x, 56 | date = 1981 | accessdate = 29 September 2018| isbn = 9780313220708 }}</ref><ref name=Kheel-TU> {{cite web | title = Teachers Union of the City of New York Records, 1920-1942 | publisher= Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library | url = https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05445.html | date = | accessdate = 30 September 2018}}</ref>

During an August 1935 national convention, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) voted down a TU administrators' request to reorganize (100 to 79). On October 1, 1935, Linville and Lefkowitz led all officers, nearly all executive board members, and nearly 800 members (including Communist Lovestoneite members of a rival "Progressive Group") out of the TU to form the Teachers Guild (TG).<ref name=Alexander/><ref name=Kheel-TU/>

===1940s===

On March 29, 1940, the New York State Legislature formed the "Rapp-Coudert Committee" to investigate finances (Rapp in the New York State Assembly) and subversive activities (Coudert in the New York State Senate). From September 1940 through December 1941, Coudert investigated more than 500 people regarding their affiliation with the Communist Party USA. Coudert's subcommittee focused on the TU Local 5 as well as a college professors union Local 537. Former TU leaders who had helped found the TG, Henry Linville and Benjamin Mandel, testified against TU members. On June 20, 1941, the AFT designated the TG as "Local 2, AFT."<ref name=Toloudis/> On December 29, 1940, the AFT voted and in May 1941 officially expelled three communist-influenced locals: the TU (Local 5, AFT), the [http://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/5722 New York College Teachers Union] (Local 537, AFT), and the Philadelphia Teachers Union (Local 192, AFT).<ref name=Kheel-TG/><ref name=Toloudis/> In June 1941, the AFT made the TG its "Local 5, AFT" in New York City.<ref name=Toloudis/> In 1943, the Rapp-Coudert Committee endorsed school financing policies of the TG.<ref name=Toloudis/>

===1950s===

(Forthcoming)

===1960===

In March 1960, the TG and Committee of Action Through Unity (CATU) merged into the United Federation of Teachers (Local 2, AFT). In August 1960, New York's Board of Education and the UFT conducted initial collective bargaining.<ref name=Kheel-TG/>

==People==

The TU was a client of Harold I. Cammer.<ref name=Zitron>

{{cite book | last = Zitron | first = Celia Lewis | title = The New York City Teachers Union, 1916-1964 | publisher = Humanities Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PTo8AAAAIAAJ | page = 268 | year = 1969 | accessdate = 26 October 2018}}</ref>

===Presidents===

All TG presidents were former members of the TU:<ref name=Toloudis/> # Henry Linville # Albert Smallheiser # Rebecca Simonson # Charles Cogen

===Leaders===

* Ben Davidson (politician) * Layle Lane * David Selden

==Assessment==

In 2015, '''Nicholas Toloudis''' attributed the demise of the TU not only to Red Scares in the 1940s and 1950s but also to competition with other city teachers associations. In particular, the TG was "accommodating to the government, while the radical Union was confrontational" and "consistently sacrificed its commitment to academic freedom by collaborating with public authorities" to reveal TU ties to the CPUSA.<ref name=Toloudis/>

==References==

==External sources==

* {{cite book | title = Subversive Influence in the Educational Process | publisher = US GPO | url = https://archive.org/details/1952SubversiveInfluencesSchools | pages = | date = 1952 | accessdate = 27 September 2018}} * {{cite book | first = David | last = Alison (pseudonym) | author-link = | title = Searchlight: An Exposé of New York City Schools | publisher = Teachers Center Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k90WAAAAIAAJ | pages = 302 | date = 1951 | accessdate = 27 September 2018}} * {{cite book | first = William Edward | last = Eaton | author-link = | title = The American Federation of Teachers, 1916-1961: a history of the movement | publisher = Southern Illinois University Press | url = https://archive.org/details/americanfederati00will | url-access = registration | pages = [https://archive.org/details/americanfederati00will/page/240 240] | date = 1 November 1975 | accessdate = 27 September 2018| isbn = 9780809307081 }} * {{cite journal | first = Sidney C. | last = Gould | author-link = | title = A History of the New York City Teachers Union and Why It Died | publication = The Educational Forum | volume = 29 | issue = 2 | publisher = Labor History | pages = 207–215 | doi = 10.1080/00131726509339359 | year = 1965 }} * {{cite book | first = Robert W. | last = Iversen | author-link = Robert W. Iversen | title = The Communists & the Schools | publisher = Harcourt, Brace | pages = 175 (post-WWII, ammunition), 360 (products), 361 (rejected), 362 (concentrated) | date = 1959 | lccn = 59011769 }} * {{cite book | first = Marjorie | last = Heins | author-link = Marjorie Heins | title = High Priests of Democracy | publisher = New York University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=y8-lrxMhObwC | pages = | date = 2013 | accessdate = 8 September 2018| isbn = 9780814790519 }} * {{cite book | first = Lana Darlene | last = Muraskin | author-link = | title = The Teachers Union of the City of New York from Inception to Schism, 1912-1935 | publisher = University of California, Berkeley | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yZxQAQAAMAAJ | pages = 444 | date = 1979 | accessdate = 27 September 2018}} * {{cite book | first = Marjorie | last = Murphy | author-link = | title = Blackboard Unions: The AFT and the NEA, 1900-1980 | publisher = Cornell University Press | url = https://archive.org/details/blackboardunions0000murp | url-access = registration | pages = [https://archive.org/details/blackboardunions0000murp/page/284 284] | date = 1990 | accessdate = 27 September 2018| isbn = 9780801423659 }} * {{cite book | first = Ellen | last = Schrecker | author-link = Ellen Schrecker | title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America | publisher = Princeton University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6uM9DwAAQBAJ | pages = 573 | date = 1999 | accessdate = 8 September 2018| isbn = 9780691048703 }} * {{cite book | first = Philip | last = Taft | author-link = Philip Taft | title = United they teach: the story of the United Federation of Teachers | publisher = Nash Pub. | url = https://archive.org/details/unitedtheyteachs0000taft | url-access = registration | pages = [https://archive.org/details/unitedtheyteachs0000taft/page/283 283] | date = 1974 | accessdate = 27 September 2018| isbn = 9780840213310 }} * {{cite book | first = Clarence | last = Taylor | author-link = Clarence Taylor | title = Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights, and the New York City Teachers Union | publisher = Columbia University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KSAgAQAAQBAJ | pages = 1–8 (overview), 11–13 (1916–1935) | date = 1 September 2013 | accessdate = 8 September 2018| isbn = 9780231152693 }} * {{cite book | first = Celia Lewis | last = Zitron | author-link = | title = The New York City Teachers Union, 1916-1964; a story of educational and social commitment | publisher = Humanities Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PTo8AAAAIAAJ | pages = 288 | date = 1969 | accessdate = 27 September 2018}}

Category:Trade unions in New York (state) Category:Trade unions established in 1935 Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1960 Category:1935 establishments in New York City