Gus Tyler
Encyclopedia
August "Gus" Tyler was an American
socialist
activist of the 1930s, a labor union official, author, and newspaper columnist. Tyler is best remembered as a leading American labor intellectual of the post-World War II era and as the author of a history of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
.
, the leader of an English peasants' revolt
in 1381.
Tyler was the product of a radical upbringing, as he later recalled in a 1988 interview with New York Newsday:
Tyler attended New York University
on a scholarship in the early 1930s, where he became involved in left-wing political activities, including public speaking on street corners on behalf of the Young People's Socialist League
(YPSL), the youth section of the Socialist Party. Upon graduating in 1932, Tyler briefly worked as a writer for the Yiddish-language socialist newspaper the Jewish Daily Forward. He also served as editor of Free Youth, one of the YPSL's short-lived publications of the early 1930s.
Tyler rose through the ranks of the YPSL, rising to the top leadership position in the group. This post gave Tyler a seat with top leaders of the adult party, making him a key leader in the bitter factional war that occupied the Socialist Party in that period. Tyler was a supporter of the so-called "Militant faction
" of the Socialist Party against the older generation of party regulars known as the Old Guard
and was later active in the far-left "Clarity caucus" after the Militants themselves fragmented.
Along with many on the American left, Tyler was a vigorous opponent of rearmament for a new World War, authoring a resolution which declared the Socialist Party would support no war except a war for socialism. In making this pronouncement Tyler reasoned that the distinction between democratic-capitalist and fascist
countries would be essentially meaningless in the event of war since the militarization of society inherent in the act of going to war would reduce the democratic nations themselves to reactionary dictatorships.
Tyler declared that the only course for the Socialist Party was to organize the dissident forces created by a new war in order to "smash the capitalist system." He condemned the ongoing agitation for collective security
against fascism being preached by the Communist Party and many liberals, as "asking the working class to sign a blanket check even before a war, endorsing support in the event of war."
The Socialist Party imploded in a frenzy of factional warfare during the second half of the 1930s, with the party's Old Guard right wing leaving to form the Social Democratic Federation (established in 1936) and the Trotskyist
left wing expelled en masse to form the Socialist Workers Party
(established in 1938). With its membership and funds depleted, many activists in the Socialist Party were forced to turn their efforts elsewhere.
(ILGWU) president David Dubinsky
. Despite the fact that Dubinsky was himself a stalwart of the Socialist Party's Old Guard, Tyler was offered a staff job with the ILGWU in its education department. Tyler held a succession of positions in the union rising in 1945 to the post of Assistant President — position which he ultimately held until his retirement in 1989.
In an autobiographic essay, Tyler once noted that his career in the ILGWU was interrupted by the war. "When I returned from my stint as an aerial gunner, I suggested to Dubinsky that the union create a full-time political department. He argued that no union had such a department. I told him he had a reputation as an innovator. He was flattered. I got the job."
Tyler later worked with the ILGWU's successor union, UNITE
, as an assistant to the president, and for many years hosted his own radio program on station WEVD
(a radio station owned by The Forward Association and named after Eugene Victor Debs) in New York.
When the English language version of the Forward launched in 1990, Tyler began writing for the publication, penning a weekly column in the paper until 2006.
Tyler authored several works of historical scholarship, including a 1995 history of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union published by the noted academic publisher M. E. Sharpe
. As a leading public intellectual, Tyler wrote prolifically. He continued to write a periodic column for The Forward
entitled "Tyler Too" well into his 90s.
, at the age of 99. He was survived by two children and three grandchildren.
Tyler, it was recalled in New York Times at the time of his death, "tumbled through life like a Saul Bellow
character, full of analytic thought and urban vitality. He wore multifarious hats: pamphleteer, professor and poet, but insisted on defining himself with a single word: agitator.... His most powerful weapons were words, in books, newspaper columns, radio commentaries and speeches he wrote for labor chieftains."
Tyler's papers are included in several collections at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
activist of the 1930s, a labor union official, author, and newspaper columnist. Tyler is best remembered as a leading American labor intellectual of the post-World War II era and as the author of a history of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
.
Early years
August Tyler was born Augustus Tilove to Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, New York in 1911. He later changed his surname in honor of Wat TylerWat Tyler
Walter "Wat" Tyler was a leader of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.-Early life:Knowledge of Tyler's early life is very limited, and derives mostly through the records of his enemies. Historians believe he was born in Essex, but are not sure why he crossed the Thames Estuary to Kent...
, the leader of an English peasants' revolt
Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt, Wat Tyler's Rebellion, or the Great Rising of 1381 was one of a number of popular revolts in late medieval Europe and is a major event in the history of England. Tyler's Rebellion was not only the most extreme and widespread insurrection in English history but also the...
in 1381.
Tyler was the product of a radical upbringing, as he later recalled in a 1988 interview with New York Newsday:
"As far as my mother was concerned, socialism was what God ordained. You didn't learn it from MarxKarl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
or anybody; it was just the natural thing. People are people and they shouldn't be rich and they shouldn’t be poor. I just thought this was the way you live. You're supposed to be a socialist and ultimately the whole world goes socialist."
Tyler attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
on a scholarship in the early 1930s, where he became involved in left-wing political activities, including public speaking on street corners on behalf of the Young People's Socialist League
Young People's Socialist League (1907)
The Young People's Socialist League , founded in 1907, was the official youth arm of the Socialist Party of America. Its political activities tend to concentrate on increasing the voter turnout of young democratic socialists and affecting the issues impacting that demographic group.- Foundation and...
(YPSL), the youth section of the Socialist Party. Upon graduating in 1932, Tyler briefly worked as a writer for the Yiddish-language socialist newspaper the Jewish Daily Forward. He also served as editor of Free Youth, one of the YPSL's short-lived publications of the early 1930s.
Tyler rose through the ranks of the YPSL, rising to the top leadership position in the group. This post gave Tyler a seat with top leaders of the adult party, making him a key leader in the bitter factional war that occupied the Socialist Party in that period. Tyler was a supporter of the so-called "Militant faction
Militant faction
The Militant faction was an organized grouping of Marxists in the Socialist Party of America who sought to steer that organization from its orientation towards electoral politics and towards direct action and revolutionary socialism. The faction emerged during 1930 and 1931 and achieved practical...
" of the Socialist Party against the older generation of party regulars known as the Old Guard
Old Guard faction
The Old Guard faction was an organized grouping of Marxists in the Socialist Party of America who sought to retain the organization's traditional orientation towards electoral politics by fighting generally younger party members who factionally organized to promote greater efforts at direct action...
and was later active in the far-left "Clarity caucus" after the Militants themselves fragmented.
Along with many on the American left, Tyler was a vigorous opponent of rearmament for a new World War, authoring a resolution which declared the Socialist Party would support no war except a war for socialism. In making this pronouncement Tyler reasoned that the distinction between democratic-capitalist and fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
countries would be essentially meaningless in the event of war since the militarization of society inherent in the act of going to war would reduce the democratic nations themselves to reactionary dictatorships.
Tyler declared that the only course for the Socialist Party was to organize the dissident forces created by a new war in order to "smash the capitalist system." He condemned the ongoing agitation for collective security
Collective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...
against fascism being preached by the Communist Party and many liberals, as "asking the working class to sign a blanket check even before a war, endorsing support in the event of war."
The Socialist Party imploded in a frenzy of factional warfare during the second half of the 1930s, with the party's Old Guard right wing leaving to form the Social Democratic Federation (established in 1936) and the Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
left wing expelled en masse to form the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
(established in 1938). With its membership and funds depleted, many activists in the Socialist Party were forced to turn their efforts elsewhere.
Union career
Tyler's intelligence and commitment seems to have caught the attention of International Ladies' Garment Workers' UnionInternational Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
(ILGWU) president David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky was an American labor leader...
. Despite the fact that Dubinsky was himself a stalwart of the Socialist Party's Old Guard, Tyler was offered a staff job with the ILGWU in its education department. Tyler held a succession of positions in the union rising in 1945 to the post of Assistant President — position which he ultimately held until his retirement in 1989.
In an autobiographic essay, Tyler once noted that his career in the ILGWU was interrupted by the war. "When I returned from my stint as an aerial gunner, I suggested to Dubinsky that the union create a full-time political department. He argued that no union had such a department. I told him he had a reputation as an innovator. He was flattered. I got the job."
Tyler later worked with the ILGWU's successor union, UNITE
Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
The Union of Needle trades, Industrial, and Textile Employees was a labor union in the United States, formed in 1995 as a merger between the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union...
, as an assistant to the president, and for many years hosted his own radio program on station WEVD
WEVD
The call letters WEVD are associated with the following:* WWRV AM 1330 in New York City, which held the WEVD call sign until 1981* WSKQ-FM 97.9 in New York City, which held the WEVD-FM call sign from 1952 to 1989...
(a radio station owned by The Forward Association and named after Eugene Victor Debs) in New York.
When the English language version of the Forward launched in 1990, Tyler began writing for the publication, penning a weekly column in the paper until 2006.
Tyler authored several works of historical scholarship, including a 1995 history of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union published by the noted academic publisher M. E. Sharpe
M. E. Sharpe
M.E. Sharpe, Inc. is an academic publisher that was founded in 1958. Its headquarters are in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York. It is a privately held publisher of books and journals in the social sciences and humanities.- Books :M. E...
. As a leading public intellectual, Tyler wrote prolifically. He continued to write a periodic column for The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
entitled "Tyler Too" well into his 90s.
Death and legacy
Gus Tyler died on June 3, 2011 in Sarasota, FloridaSarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
, at the age of 99. He was survived by two children and three grandchildren.
Tyler, it was recalled in New York Times at the time of his death, "tumbled through life like a Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
character, full of analytic thought and urban vitality. He wore multifarious hats: pamphleteer, professor and poet, but insisted on defining himself with a single word: agitator.... His most powerful weapons were words, in books, newspaper columns, radio commentaries and speeches he wrote for labor chieftains."
Tyler's papers are included in several collections at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
.
Works
- The United Front. New York: Rand School Press, 1933.
- Life of Karl Marx. Chicago: Young People's Socialist League, Educational Dept., n.d. [c. 1934].
- An Outline of Socialist Economics. Chicago: Young People's Socialist League, Educational Dept., n.d. [1930s].
- The Elements of Revolutionary Socialism. Chicago: Educational Dept., Young People's Socialist League of America, n.d. [c. 1936].
- Youth Fights War! Chicago: Young Peoples Socialist League, n.d. [c. 1936].
- A New Philosophy for Labor. New York, Fund for the Republic, 1959.
- A Legislative Campaign for a Federal Minimum Wage, 1935. New York: Henry Holt, 1959.
- Organized Crime in America: A Book of Readings. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1962.
- Combating Organized Crime. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1963.
- The Labor Revolution: Trade Unions in a New America. New York: Viking Press, 1967.
- The Political Imperative: The Corporate Character of Unions. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
- The Jewish Labor Movement: A Living Legacy. New York: Nathan Chanin Cultural Foundation, n.d. [1960s].
- Labor in the Metropolis. Columbus, OH: C.E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1972.
- Mexican-Americans Tomorrow: Educational and Economic Perspectives. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975.
- Scarcity: A Critique of the American Economy. New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 1976.
- George Meany: The Making of a Freedom Fighter. New York: 85th Birthday Tribute to George Meany Committee, 1979.
- The Threat of Conservatism. With Peter Steinfels and Irving HoweIrving HoweIrving Howe was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Life and career:...
. New York: Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, 1980. - The Power of Money in American Politics. With Fred Wertheimer and David Cohen. New York: Aspen Institute for Humanisitc Studies, 1982.
- The Work Ethic: A Critical Analysis. With Jack Barbash, Robert J. Lampman, and Sar A. Levitan. Madison, WI: Industrial Relations Research Association, 1983.
- Look for the Union Label: A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1995.
- A Vital Voice: 100 Years of the Jewish Forward. New York: Forward Association, 1997.
External links
- Douglas Martin, "Gus Tyler, Firebrand of Labor Movement, Dies at 99," New York Times, June 12, 2011, pg. A32.
- Robert E. Lazar, "Guide to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Gus Tyler. Assistant President's records, 1952-1980, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, 1981.