The California Labor School (CLS), formerly the Tom Mooney Labor School (renamed in 1945), was an educational house in San Francisco from 1942 to the 1950s. David Jenkins was the initial director and Holland Roberts was the first education director for this "people's school." The school was founded in August 1942, in premises above a car saleroom at 678 Turk Street, and named for labor leader Tom Mooney who had died on 6 March that year. It later moved to a 5-storey building at 216 Market Street, and in 1947 bought premises at 240 Golden Gate Avenue.
The school was supported by 72 trade unions, members of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Its initial program "promised to analyze social, economic and political questions in light of the present world struggle against fascism". It also taught the arts: the teenage Maya Angelou had a scholarship to study dance and drama. The school taught students on many subjects such as labor organization, journalism, music, drama, history, women's studies, economics and industrial arts. Union officials and professors from Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley taught the courses at CLS. The most popular course at the CLS called "Mental Hygiene Today" was taught by Erik Erikson. The most important history course was called "History and Problems of the Negro in America.". The school offered different kinds of services such as preparing union pamphlets and newspapers, conducting dance concerts and theatrical shows at local meetings.
From 1945 to 1947 the school was accredited for veterans' education under the G.I. Bill of Rights, and by 1947 there were 220 full-time students, among the 1800 students attending 135 classes. In 1948 the school was placed on the Subversive List and attendances declined. The school closed in the 1950s.
Archives of the school's material are held in the Labor Archives & Research Center of California State University and the University of Michigan.