Scissione e nuovo schieramento nel campo sindacale mondiale [Split and new alliance in the world-wide syndicalist camp]. New York: American Federation of Labor, International Labor Relations Committee, 1949.

This 16-page pamphlet is a republication of a  magazine article, that is, "Ripubblicato, in seguito a speciale autorizzazione, dal numero di gennaio 1949 de FOREIGN AFFAIRS, rivista americana trimestrale, 58 East 68th Street, New York [Republished, following special authorization, from the number of January 1949 of FOREIGN AFFAIRS, triannual American review, 58 East 68th Street, New York]."

A long history of the relationship between the International Ladies Garments Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Italian left, with shifting alliances, precedes this 1949 work.

In years past, the ILGWU, of which author David Dubinsky was president in the 1940s, had an uneasy historical relationship with Italian syndicalists who were also anti-fascist, as well as with Italian communists.

One of the ILGWU's more influential leaders then was Luigi Antonini, born in Avellino (Campagna), who was then head of the famous Local 89.

The split took place because many of its members dissented over the use of violence and, above all, because of the presence of communists.

Going back to the 1920's, because the socialists considered the Anti-Fascist Alliance domineering under Carlo Tresca, in February 1927 they broke off from AFANA and founded the Anti-Fascist Federation of North America for the Freedom of Italy.

Note that there was yet another spinoff from AFANA - the Anti-Fascist United Front, which in 1933 published a handbill in the Collection, Athos Terzani, Facing trial for murder on the false story of "General" Art J. Smith of the Khaki Shirts, will put his case before the people of Philadelphia at a Mass Meeting Friday, November 24, at 8 P.M.

Also in the collection is a 1942 work, DRESSMAKERS ITALIANI, volete che la nostra Locale 89 sia la piu forte e la piu nita della I.L.G.W.U.? Votate per il "leadership" di Luigi Antonini! [ITALIAN DRESSMAKERS, do you want our Local 89 to be the strongest and sharpest of the ILGWU? Then vote for the leadership of Luigi Antonini!], in which Cacchione issues support for Antonini as head of Local 89 of the ILGWU.

But only two years later, in 1944, in La verità su Luigi Antonini [The Truth about Luigi Antonini]. Brooklyn: Peter V. Cacchione Association, 1944, q.v., Cacchione criticizes Antonini for treating his union members badly, hypocritically (according to Cacchione) decreeing the lack of democracy around the world while he doesn't abide by democracy's rules in running his union  

The split discussed in the present work carried over from some of the same issues from many years before - support or not of communists among the ranks - but took place, of course, with the backdrop of the end of World War II and the different as well as continuing issues relating to support of or opposition to the Stalinist Soviet Union despite its membership in the Allies during the war, and the anti-communist hysteria in the U.S. that was soon to follow.