PATTERNS OF WORKERS’ EDUCATION

Social Science in 1906, long before any trade union colleges or educational
departments within labor organizations were founded.’ Seventeen years
later, the Communists founded their Workers’ School in New York City.
Since that time, other instructional agencies have been formed by various
opposition units within the two groups. The purpose of instruction has been
to further social change. The final goal depends upon the specific philosophy
of the sponsor. Students are not necessarily party members who wish to be
taught definite techniques of action. Many are individuals who desire merely
to study different theories in order to determine for themselves an everyday
mode of thought and conduct. Therefore, the courses which make up the
major part of the curriculum contain a heterogeneous group of educated
liberals and radicals as well as uneducated workers. All meet to discuss
common problems.

Because they recognize trade unionism as an effective medium for social
change, however, political groups have furthered specific instruction in this
connection. For example, the Rand School has always had training courses
and classes for organized workers but in 1936 they were transformed into a
definite Trade Union Institute. The labor organizations which recruit for
the Institute and contribute financially have a political philosophy. They view
the labor movement as a broad process and accordingly recognize workers’
education in political schools as a necessary supplement to their own courses.
First, they wish their members to learn the concepts of trade unionism; sec-
ondly, they value political training for social action. They know that some
workers will proceed from the trade union institute classes to the more general
political courses.

The political groups, with similar expectations, first work within the pri-
mary interest of organized workers, that of collective bargaining. “How a
trade union works” and “what trade union officials need to know” are intro-
ductory topics. Students advance into classes “designed to show how a ttade
union functions in our economic and political society.”* The educational
directors of the specific institutions have stated that the political parties which
sponsor the work do not exercise close control. Although teaching is frankly

* Algernon Lee, “Socialist Activity in Workers’ Education,” Proceedings of the Fifth
Annual Conference of Teachers in Workers’ Education, The Place of Workers’ Educa-
tion in the Labor Movement, at Brookwood, February 24-26, 1928, p. 38.

18 oer School of Social Science, Bulletin: Trade Union Institute of the Rand School,

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