United States 1949-1950

Synopsis

In November 1949, at its eleventh annual convention in Cleveland, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) expelled two member unions—the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America and the Farm Equipment Workers—for their alleged disloyalty to the CIO and support for the Communist Party. Within a year, an additional nine affiliates had been expelled. The eleven unions together represented approximately one million members. The expulsions were the culmination of long-simmering tensions that erupted in the context of the developing cold war. The strife within the CIO halted the federation's growth and paved the way for its merger with the American Federation of Labor in 1955.

Timeline

• 1928: At the first Academy Awards ceremony, the best picture is the silent Wings.
• 1933: Newly inaugurated U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt launches the first phase of his New Deal to put depression-era America...