The Left-led Labor Vanguard and Anticommunism in New Orleans, 1936–57

My paper will introduce the branches of the CIO that appeared in New Orleans between 1936-1939.  Led by the NMU and the ILWU, they forged a mainstream campaign for Double Victory in the city during the war.  This left-led labor movement reached its peak during the mid-1940s, but a rival group of CIO unions also came forth in the local defense industry during the war.  Representing a membership of white southern voters, the new right-wing would achieve a bare majority in the city-wide CIO Council by 1944 compared to its rivals in the old CIO left-wing unions.