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CHAPTER V

Coordinating Agencies and Resident Schools

 

A PICTURE of workers’ education is incomplete without a description
of coordinating agencies. Cooperation has seemed to be necessary in order
to prevent duplication of educational services. Certain groups have attempted
to meet the need. Some have been active since the beginning of the move-
ment; others recently have arisen to cope with new and increased demands.
A few have served trade unions primarily, whereas a number have aided any
organization which has asked for assistance.

In 1921 a group of trade unionists and teachers established the Workers’
Education Bureau to promote inter-union cooperation in education." Eight
years later, membership in the Bureau was restricted through the following
statement:

All trade unions and labor organizations, not dual or seceding in character,
shall be eligible to membership. All workers’ education enterprises under
trade union control, approved by city central bodies and state federations of

labor and not antagonistic to the bona fide organized labor movement and
devoted to the general education of workers, shall be eligible for membership.”

As a result the Bureau has been limited in its scope. No workers’ education
program has been able to receive active aid, if criticism of the American
Federation of Labor is allowed. In recent years, therefore, mainly craft unions
have been assisted. Very seldom has the Bureau conferred with representa-
tives of industrial unions, and then only if discussion has not centered about
the craft-industrial issue.

Within its limitations, the Workers’ Education Bureau has helped many
AF. of L. unions develop varied programs. Because effective teachers have

* Consult Chapter III for instances of independent cooperation of various unions.
® Workers’ Education Bureau, Constitution of Bureau, 1929.

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