• Wendy Wahl
    PURE AND SIMPLE UNIONISM. The expression "pure and simple unionism" was coined by Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), in a speech at the 1890 AFL convention in Detroit in which he opposed the inclusion of political parties in trade union organizations. Gompers argued that "the trade unions pure and simple are the natural organizations of the wage workers to secure their present and practical improvement and to achieve their final emancipation." The phrase came to...  more