Adolph Strasser

Adolph Strasser (1843-1939), born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, was an American trade union organizer. Strasser is best remembered as a founder of the United Cigarmakers Union and the American Federation of Labor (AF of L). Strasser was additionally the president of the Cigar Makers' International Union for a period of 14 years, heading the union during the period in which it introduced its successful union label and gained substantial organizational strength.

Adolph Strasser was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire in part of today's Hungary in 1843. He was a native speaker of German.

Strasser emigrated to the United States in 1871 or perhaps 1872. After his arrival in America Strasser worked at the craft of cigar making, taking up residence and employment in New York City.

In his posthumous memoirs fellow cigarmaker Samuel Gompers recalled his impressions of Strasser from the time he met him in 1872:

"Strasser was a man of extraordinary mentality. He came to America some months before, traveling considerably through the South before settling in New York City. He had been identified with the IWA ([International Workingmen's Association) and became a leader of American Section 5. Then for a while he was exceedingly active in the work of the Social Democratic Party. He shifted all his energy to the trade union movement when he came to understand the unsoundness and impracticability of Socialist Party policy and philosophy or, as Strasser called it, 'sophistry.' * * *

While Gompers is unclear about the date of Strasser's break with the socialist movement, it is known that in 1874 Strasser helped to organize the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party of the United States, one of the first International Socialist political parties in North America. Moreover, continued his activity in its successor organizations, which culminated as the Socialist Labor Party at the end of 1877.

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