The 1934-35 Red Threat and the Passage of the National Labor Relations Act

Abstract

Contending theories of the state have focused on the New Deal as a fertile historical era for demonstrating their respective positions. This paper reexamines the passage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 and the reasons for the strong business opposition to it in the context of three major perspectives: business dominance, state autonomy, and social protest theory. It is shown that labor unrest during the summer of 1934 produced a strong, reactionary, anti-communist panic within elements of the U.S. corporate elite. This intensified business opposition to the New Deal but also put pressure on Congress to pass the NLRA, which was seen at the time as an anti-communist measure aimed at strengthening the more moderate AFL unions.