author
William Z. Foster
1881–1961
A fierce labor organizer and one of the best-known American radicals of the early 20th century, he moved from factory and railroad work into national politics. His life traces the turbulent overlap of labor struggles, socialism, and the rise of the Communist Party in the United States.
1 Audiobook
The Great Steel Strike and its Lessons
by William Z. Foster
About the author
Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1881 and raised in poverty, William Z. Foster left school young and worked a string of tough jobs, including railroad and industrial labor. Those experiences shaped his politics and pushed him toward the labor movement, where he became known as a determined organizer with a gift for reaching working-class audiences.
Foster played a major role in union campaigns in the 1910s and 1920s, especially in the packinghouse and steel industries. He was associated at different times with syndicalist and socialist currents before becoming a leading figure in the Communist Party USA. He later served as the party's general secretary and ran for U.S. president as its candidate in 1924, 1928, and 1932.
He also wrote extensively about labor, class politics, and American communism, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both his organizing experience and his ideological commitments. Foster died in Moscow in 1961, but he remains an important and controversial figure in the history of American labor radicalism.