>Didn't the Wobblies do some of that?
>Their line was "one big union", the whole working class. They thought
>having separate unions for, say, steel workers and farm labourers was
>just playing into the hands of the bosses, allowing divide & conquer.
Yes, the Wobblies did some and are still doing some in Canada
http://www.iww.org/en/node/3918 . But the history shows a much bigger push
by the CP starting in the 1920s. The Comintern was directing parties and
activists to focus on unemployment throughout the 1920s in a campaign (based
on its claim of capitalism was entering a 'third period' in which a profound
political crisis could be precipitated by the working class's recognition
that mass unemployment had become 'normal, inevitable and permanent') that
was only mildly successful until the depression hit, when it took off.
From there the history is of a bunch of successful rallies and victories under the banner of the Council of the Unemployed, which led to the attraction of non-communists and the eventual splitting off of more reformist branches.
Brad