Америкалық еврей еңбек ұйымы

American Jewish labor organization

The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) is an American secular Jewish labor organization dedicated to promoting labor union interests in Jewish communities, and Jewish interests within unions. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with local/regional offices in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, and volunteer led affiliated groups in other U. S. communities. It was founded in 1934 in response to the rise of Nazism in Europe. Today, it works to maintain and strengthen the historically strong relationship between the American Jewish community and the trade union movement, and to promote what they see as the shared social justice agenda of both communities. The JLC was also active in Canada from 1936 until the 1970s.

Unlike other community relations agencies, the JLC has its sphere of action clearly delineated: it strives to represent Jewish communal interests in the labor movement, and labor interests in the organized Jewish community. Working with the AFL–CIO since its formation in 1956, and the Change to Win federation since the CtW's formation in 2005, and their affiliated trade unions, the JLC works with and has the support of a wide range of unions and their associated organizations, locally, nationally and internationally. With diverse organizations as affiliates representing a variety of ideological groups, the Committee has been guided in its work by pragmatic policies rather than by a specific philosophy. While Bundist influence was significant in the organization, particularly in the early period, JLC been critically supportive of the State of Israel since 1948. Both Ameinu (formerly known as the Labor Zionist Alliance and Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly known as Meretz USA) are affiliates of the JLC, as is The Workmen's Circle. The JLC can broadly speaking be considered part of what is sometimes called the Jewish left in America. In 2000, the JLC began an annual tradition of holding local "Labor Seders" in communities throughout the U. S. These "Labor Seders" are often held in conjunction with local Central Labor Councils and local Jewish Community Relations Councils, and serve as a way for local Jewish and labor leaders to come together and share an engaging experience, and relate the traditional Passover exodus from Egypt story to more recent examples of the struggle for basic worker's rights. Emulating these "Labor Seders," a similar "Union Seder" was organized in Sydney, Australia in 2006. In addition to the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the JLC is a founding member of a number of other U. S. and international Jewish communal agencies, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The New England Region of the JLC is a partner organization of the Boston based JOIN for Justice (formerly known as the Jewish Organizing Initiative), which was formed in 1994 as a mechanism for young adults to enter the field of community organizing through an explicitly Jewish channel. Through it, the JLC's field office in Boston secured a number of regional directors and interns. The JLC's funding comes from independent campaigns, contributions from trade unions, allocations from Jewish community federations, grants from foundations, individual members and organizational affiliates. (Originally a body of organizations and unions, the Committee has also had individual members since the mid 1960s.)

The JLC founded an Anti Discrimination Division immediately after World War II, which agitated and lobbied in favor of Fair Employment Practices legislation, equal opportunities in education and integrated housing. In Canada, in the 1940s and 1950s, the Jewish Labour Committee played a leading role in opposing racial discrimination legislation and supporting human rights. Executive Director Kalmen Kaplansky believed that it was necessary to extend the JLC's mandate beyond fighting antisemitism to combat discrimination against all minorities and involve non Jews, and the broader labor movement, in the JLC's civil rights work. Under his leadership, the JLC spearheaded the formation of Joint Labour Committees to Combat Racial Discrimination in Toronto, Windsor, Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg, which advocated the adoption of human rights codes by provincial governments and which launched challenges against segregation and discriminatory employment and business practices. The JLC also publicly recognized labor leaders and pro labor politicians who advanced the cause of Civil Rights with testimonial dinners held in their honor. Recipients include AFL President William Green (1951), Illinois AFL–CIO President Reuben Soderstrom (1953), Minnesota Senator (and future Vice President Hubert Humphrey (1954), and AFL–CIO President George Meany (1967). The JLC also formed approximately two dozen local committees in the United States to combat racial intolerance. These committees were the genesis of the American Federation of Labor's Civil Rights Department as well as the civil rights departments of several unions in the 1940s and 1950s. The JLC distributed literature and educational material combatting racism and played a role in state and national campaigns for civil rights legislation. The JLC played a role in the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights and participated in and helped organize civil rights marches and protests in the 1950s and 1960s co ordinating many local campaigns. The JLC helped found the United Farm Workers, campaigned for the passage of the Fair Employment Practices Act in California and provided staffing and support for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by Martin Luther King Jr.

NAACP labor director Herbert Hill said that, during the 1940s through the 1960s, the JLC had defended anti Black and anti Hispanic discriminatory practices of unions in the garment industry and building industry. Hill claimed that the JLC changed "a black white conflict into a Black Jewish conflict". Jewish Communists in the 1950s compared the JLC and other anti communist Jewish groups to the Judenrat. Writing for Commentary, the anti communist historian Lucy Dawidowicz said this characterization was part of a "smear campaign".