VII. RESEARCH FILES OF PRESIDENTIAL ASSISTANT LES FINNEGAN CONCERNING UE AND THE UE/IUE SPLIT, 1934-1959

Grouped by eight distinct subseries and arranged accordingly: UE General Reference Files, 1936-1949 (alphabetical); UE Historical Files, 1934-1940, (chronological); UE Subject Files, 1935-1950, (alphabetical); UE National Office Files, 1936-1949 (chronological); American Communications Association, 1937-1950 (chronological); Communism, 1933-1957 (chronological); 1949 UE Split, 1938-1950 (chronological); UE Research Files, 1950-1959 (chronological)

In his capacity as Carey's chief research assistant Finnegan compiled and maintained voluminous historical files relating to the UE, communism, and the pro-CIO faction--UE Members for Democratic Action--for use within the IUE. This series spans the early years of the UE (from its origins as a confederation of AFL federal labor unions during the early 1930s), chronicles its contentious affiliation with the CIO during the 1940s, and culminates with the subsequent expulsion of the UE from the CIO and final split with the IUE in 1949. The critical year of 1949 is extensively documented, focusing on UEMDA activities in the months preceding the September convention of the UE and the galvanization of the UE right wing faction prior to the CIO convention in November. These records also cover the formative period of the Committee for Industrial Organization (1935-1938) and contain correspondence that Carey generated as CIO Secretary-Treasurer. Carey utilized the extensive resources of his office to build a anticommunist coalition among the UE rank and file and to pressure the UE's left-wing leadership.

File contents include: correspondence and memoranda, newsclippings, articles, reports, reprints of government hearings, transcripts of testimony, affidavits and statements, UE convention material, minutes and resolutions of UEDMA meetings, and financial and membership data. Though Carey generated and collected the bulk of these UE historical records, Finnegan organized and maintained the files under functional subject headings for reference and speech writing. Besides documenting events revolving around the IUE/UE schism the series contains primary source material relating to the following: the election of 1948 and the Progressive Party campaign of Henry A. Wallace; the impact of internal security legislation and government loyalty programs; labor's reaction to the anticommunist provisions (loyalty oath) of the Taft-Hartley Act; and the Eugene Dennis Case involving the trial of eleven CPUSA leaders for violation of the Smith Act. A small quantity of records included within the subseries touches upon the affairs of the fledgling IUE following the split (1950-1951).