American Union of Associationists

American Union of Associationists
Founded1846; 178 years ago (1846)
Dissolved1851; 173 years ago (1851)
IdeologyFourierism
Utopian socialism
Political positionLeft-wing
Albert Brisbane, leading figure of American Fourierism in the 1840s, as he appeared at the time of publication of his seminal book, Social Destiny of Man (1840).

The American Union of Associationists (AUA) was a national organization of supporters of the economic ideas of Charles Fourier (1772–1837) in the United States of America. Organized in 1846 in New York City as a federation of independent local Fourierist groups, the AUA published a weekly magazine called The Harbinger and published more than 70 books and pamphlets, which helped it to enjoy a brief moment of influence spreading the ideas of communitarianism to a circle of leading intellectuals.

The failure of the Fourierist model in its various practical incarnations led to the rapid dissolution of the Fourierist movement and with it the AUA,[citation needed] however, and the organization rapidly atrophied as the decade of the 1840s drew to a close. The final issue of the official AUA organ, The Harbinger, was published in February 1849 and the final national meeting of the organization took place in 1851.