the labor movement and to overthrow its existing leadership put him at odds with Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor. Historians Peter J. Albert and Grace Palladino have summarized the situation in this manner: "The forty-one year old [Foster] was everything Gompers was not. He embraced Communism and the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profintern (RILU), advocated independent working-class political action, and believed that the AFL would have to function as a strong, centralized organization if it hoped to survive and grow. Whereas Gompers presumed that the great mass of workers would learn the value of solidarity through direct experience, Foster and his supporters favored a more top-down approach.... With amalgamation as its slogan, industrial unionism as its goal, and 'boring from within' the established trade unions as its method, the TUEL promised to transform otherwise 'timid and muddled' AFL affiliates into 'scientifically constructed, class conscious weapons in the revolutionary struggle.'" In defending the existing system from what he perceived as a Moscow-directed attack, Gompers availed himself of every opportunity to question Foster's motives and emphasize his close personal connection with the American Communist movement. Structure The TUEL did not have formal membership rolls or paid dues. No membership cards were issued. The organization instead supported itself through sales of pamphlets and magazines and through an unpublicized subsidy by the Communist International by way of the Workers (Communist) Party. Consequently, the size of the de facto membership of the organization is difficult to gauge. Historian Ralph Darlington notes that while TUEL declared a circulation for its publications of from 10,000 to 15,000, in fact the group only had "about 500 hard-core activists" at the time of its greatest strength during the first years of the 1920s. Transformation of the organization In 1928, as a byproduct of the Third Period ultra-radicalism of the Communist International, the TUEL was transformed into the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL), a federation of industrial unions established in opposition to the American Federation of Labor craft labor unions. Even though this change of tactics met a refutation of William Z. Foster's long-held strategy of "boring from within" the existing trade unions, in favor of "dual unionism," Foster nevertheless continued to remain loyal to the new TUUL organization. Conferences Footnotes Publications William Z. Foster, The Railroaders' Next Step. Chicago: Trade Union Educational League, 1921. Labor Herald Library #1. Revised edition published as The