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When the Western Labor Union (WLU), a labor federation formed by the Western Federation of Miners, decided to overtly challenge the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1902, it changed its name to the 'American Labor Union' (ALU). The ALU was created because the WFM wanted a class-wide labor body with which to affiliate. However, it did not flourish,The IWW: Its First Seventy Years, Fred W. Thompson and Patrick Murfin, 1976, page 9 ppbk. and three years after its founding the ALU took part in the creation of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).All That Glitters: Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek, Elizabeth Jameson, 1998, pp. 77.
When the AFL excluded unskilled workers, the ALU accused that federation of exercising policies that divided the working class. However, the ALU favored Asian Exclusion. (A Chinese exclusion act had been passed in 1882, and wasn't repealed until 1943.) In the Cripple Creek district of Colorado where the ALU had a presence, many non-white nationalities were excluded or discriminated against.All That Glitters: Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek, Elizabeth Jameson, 1998, pp. 190. The Industrial Workers of the World, on the other hand, professed from its first conference in 1905 that there should be no discrimination against any worker.Solidarity Forever—An oral history of the IWW, Stewart Bird, Dan Georgakas, Deborah Shaffer, 1985, page 140.
The American Labor Union endorsed the Socialist Party in 1902, as did "all the major Colorado labor organizations."All That Glitters: Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek, Elizabeth Jameson, 1998, pp. 178.
The American Labor Union produced a journal called the ''American Labor Union Journal'',All That Glitters: Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek, Elizabeth Jameson, 1998, index. and a newspaper called Voice of Labor, which was edited by the Reverend Fr. Thomas J. Hagerty.

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See also

★ Western Labor Union

★ Western Federation of Miners

★ Labor federation competition in the U.S.