Congress of Industrial Organizations: 1935-36. Includes correspondence re AFL, CIO controversy; CIO organizing activities.

The Charles Zimmerman papers consist primarily of correspondence, reports, minutes, newspaper clippings, and broadsides dealing with his activities as a leader in Local 22 (in Series I), as well as his other union and political activities (in Series II).

The remainder of the materials covers union affairs, both within and outside of the ILGWU, from the 1920s to the 1950s, as well as labor issues in general. There is a good deal of information on civil rights and African-American employees from the 1930s to the 1950s. Other subjects include anti-fascism and anti-Nazism; strikes and other labor disputes in the U.S. and Canada; union elections; and worker education.

Significant organizations represented in the Zimmerman collection include the AFL and CIO (before and after the merger); the Fur and Leather Workers' Union; the Jewish Labor Committee; joint boards and locals of the ILGWU, especially Local 22 in New York; the League for Industrial Democracy; the NAACP; the National Urban League; the Workmen's Circle; and the Works Progress Administration.

Notable individuals represented include: Luigi Antonini; Irving Brown; David Dubinsky, Julius Hochman; Fiorello LaGuardia; Tom Mooney; Rose Pesotta; Adam Clayton Powell; Jackie Robinson; Norman Thomas; and Roy Wilkins.

Among the most significant material in the collection is correspondence documenting Zimmerman's activities with the Communist Party in the U.S. and its various factions and splinter groups, as well as other political organizations and figures. Correspondents include Jay Lovestone and William Z. Foster; there is also considerable material dealing with the Communist Party of the U.S.A. and the "Majority Group," or Lovestone faction. Other political parties represented include the American Labor Party, the Liberal Party (New York State), and the Socialist Party.