First important national labour organization in the U.S. Founded in 1869 by Uriah Smith Stephens as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, it included both skilled and unskilled workers, and it proposed a system of workers' cooperatives to replace capitalism .
To protect its members from employers' reprisals, it originally maintained secrecy. Under Terence V. Powderly (187993) it favoured open arbitration with management and discouraged strikes. National membership reached 700,000 in 1886. Strikes by militant groups and the Haymarket Riot caused an antiunion reaction that rapidly reduced the organization's influence. A splinter group left to form the AFL (later AFL-CIO ).