Sanbetsu, the Japan Congress of Industrial Organizations (Nippon Sangyo-betsu Rodo Kumiai Kaigi), was a national labor union federation founded at the end of 1945 that had links to the newly legal Japan Communist Party. Sanbetsu helped organize workers in both private companies and the public sector, and led a series of strikes in the fall of 1946. The Occupation stopped its efforts to lead a national general strike in January 1947. Sanbetsu was weakened when its leadership was purged during the Red Purge in 1950 and managers began to dismiss labor activists with Communist Party ties. Company managers encouraged workers to form moderate unions as an alternative to the militant Sanbetsu unions. Management then could choose to bargain only with the moderate second union. Over time, moderate unions became dominant in the majority of companies, but militant unions remained powerful in some companies and industries.