Labor’s Own William Z. Foster

On February 25, 1881, Bill Foster, as he was known to thousands of railroad workers, miners, sailors, lumberjacks, and longshoremen, was born. This is his story. William Z. Foster was a great man who led not only the Communist Party in the US; he was a strong union activist organizer. This work was originally put out at a time he was under arrest with eleven other members of the National Committee of the Communist Party, accused by the U.S. Government of the advocacy of political ideas. They are ideas of human freedom which began for Bill Foster with the sad Irish lullabies his mother sang and the glowing tales his Fenian father told of the age-long struggle for Irish freedom. This work is a great asset not only for history but for fully understanding how our industrial unions were started over a hundred years ago.