Trade Union Educational League

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The Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) was established by William Z. Foster in 1920 (through 1928) as a means of uniting radicals within various trade unions for a common plan of action. The group was subsidized by the Communist International via the Workers (Communist) Party of America from 1922. The organization did not collect membership dues but instead ostensibly sought to both fund itself and to spread its ideas through the sale of pamphlets and circulation of a monthly magazine.

After several years of initial success, the group was marginalized by the unions of the American Federation of Labor, which objected to its strategy of "boring from within" existing unions in order to depose sitting union leaderships. In 1929 the organization was transformed into the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL), which sought to establish radical dual unions in competition with existing labor organizations.