Kids on strike! he cover photo pulls (in , New York City and other working children to Work History News you in – earnest and Philadelphia); the 1899 strike. It includes a timeline faces of boys in caps strike portrayed in film and of federal child labor laws, a T with picket signs on Broadway of messengers, bibliography, more than one L H A bearing their message: “We bootblacks and “newsies” in hundred photographs, and only ask for justice;” and, New York City; and coal strikes copious illustrations from “We want to go to School.” at the end of the 19th century, newspapers and journalists. Susan Campbell Bartoletti, among others. Harriet Hanson Highly recommended! New York Labor History Association, Inc. the author of another award- was only 11 years old when winning book for children, she played a major role in the A Bridge Between Past and Present Volume 32 No 2 Summer | Fall 2015 Growing Up in Coal Country, Lawrence, Massachusetts textile set out to answer a question: strike of 1912. Economic were children the silent victims exploitation led Harriet to make of harsh working conditions, includes a chapter on Mother common cause with the other A ringing voice for social justice or did they ever fight back? Jones and her “Industrial mill girls in what was to be an By Bette Craig Kids on Strike is her inspiring Army” – the children’s march historic “turn-out.” The book answer to that question. Based to Oyster Bay in 1903; another documents the conditions and ew York Labor History Association on years of research, the author on garment workers’ strikes treatment that drove Harriet played host to Eugene Victor NDebs on May 13th at New York City’s beautiful Lithographers Hall. The occasion was NYLHA’s spring history event. Summertime labor picture books for Sixty people attended the screening of the documentary film, Eugene V. Debs and the the small set American Movement with speakers Noel n the June 2015 issue of of thousands of newsboys who Beasley, President of Workers United, SEIU, the Public Employee Press, went on strike when the World and also of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, I Librarian Ken Nash, at the Newspaper lowered their pay. and Lisa Phillips, Associate Professor of History at Indiana State University. District Council 37 Education And in “Bobbin Girl,” Arnold Gail Malmgreen, former NYLHA Fund Library, writes about McCully tells the story of the secretary and current board member, set the picture books to start working 1830 Lowell Mill Strike by stage for the evening in celebration of the class children off on the right thousands of young girls and famed labor leader and five-time candidate foot. His recommendations the conditions they revolted follow: for President of the , with a against. “Joe Van der Katt and the tale of her four years of working on the A book to bring the struggle Great Picket Fence” by Peter Debs papers at Indiana State University in Eugene Debs (front right), Martin J. Elliott (center rear) and other A.R.U. board members in up to date is “Sí Se Puede, Yes Terre Haute while being the live-in curator Welling is set in the town of prison together after Pullman strike. We Can,” a real life bilingual of the Debs home there. Litterbox in New York’s Catskill him about my work with Debs’ papers and published by University of Press in story of the janitors on strike Malmgreen said that during those four Mountains. The fat cats have he said, ‘Oh, Debs. Yes. He was the one 2013. Now that she’s based in Debs’ home in Los Angeles. The strike lifted years, “Debs became my hero. He was a all the money until the poor who said pick up the gun.’” town of Terre Haute at ISU, she is devoting thousands of workers out of great labor leader and a ringing voice for cats get organized and demand “Well, what Debs actually said in 1906 scholarly attention to him. She told us that poverty. Finally, there is Frances social justice. He had a great magnetism fair pay and better working when he and the Socialist Party were leading Debs quit school at age 14 to work in the Ruffin’s “Martin Luther King Jr. and universal appeal, literally offering conditions. the defense of Big Bill Haywood, Charles train yards. He was a charter member of the something for just about everyone.” Next, in “Click, Clack, and the March on Washington Moyer and George Pettibone against their Terre Haute chapter of the Brotherhood of Organizing across craft lines Moo,” the cows learn to type for Jobs and Freedom.” frame-up for the murder of Idaho Governor Locomotive Firemen, but after a few years and demand better working Picture books are great for “In the early 1980s someone from Frank Steunenberg was ‘Should the realized there was more bargaining strength trees but cannot enjoy the fruits readers of all ages and these the history department at Indiana State Capitalists try to hang the men, a million in an industrial union organizing across craft conditions by going on strike. of their labor. are some of my favorites. But University invited Amiri Baraka to speak, And in “The Last Stop on of town enjoy. Ali Bustamante Going back in time, Don revolutionists would meet them with guns.’ lines and helped to found the American there are many books more on and I was dispatched to pick up him up at Market Street,” by Mataat de explores property and labor Brown’s “Kid Blink Beats the So, as I said, something for everyone.” Railways Union (the ARU) in 1891. the airport. On our way to the campus, he la Peña, poor children wonder rights in “Manny and the World” retells the David vs. labor and other political issues, Lisa Phillips did research at Wagner Drawn into the Pullman Strike of 1894, asked me what I was doing in Terre Haute, why they don’t have the things Mango Tree,” a story about Goliath story. The real life story as well as books and films for Labor Archives/Tamiment Library for her Debs defied a court injunction against the being from Newark, like him, and I told that children on the other side children who water and care for featured in the film “Newsies,” older children. book about District 65, Renegade Union, Continued on page 9 Workers Unite! Film Festival Baseball history and civil rights history By Andrew Tilson The importance of Dodgertown he 4th annual Workers Unite! Film Festival included 35 shows within “Haven of Tolerance”: leased an abandoned World T the span of three weeks, May 3-27, Dodgertown and the Integration War II Naval Air Station from with over 2,400 attendees. Topics included of Major League Baseball Spring the east coast Florida town of new global portraits of mine workers, textile Training. By Jerald Podair Vero Beach, and rechristened workers, steelworkers and job loss, home it “Dodgertown.” Beginning health workers, all locked in struggle with f you were an African in 1948, and for six decades their employers. From food workers to “girls American and lived in most thereafter, Dodgertown would in the band,” the film festival served up a I parts of the American South serve as a “college of baseball” smorgasbord of films and discussions in in 1948, you could not do the for the entire organization, venues across the five boroughs. The finale at following things with whites: imparting what became known the Anthology Film Archives was a smashing Go to school with them. Eat as the “Dodger Way” to success. Co-sponsored by the Sierra Club in restaurants with them. Stay generations of young prospects, and co-hosted by the AFL-CIO, it featured in hotels with them. Sit next to some of whom would go on the world premier of Blood on the Mountain, them in theatres and on buses. to populate All-Star teams, about economic and environmental injustices Still from Blood on the Mountain. Drink out of water fountains capture pennants and World 1960s, one of the most virulent the first crack in the wall of with them. Go to the bathroom Championships, and in a few phases of the Jim Crow era, it prejudice that continued to that have resulted from industrial control in presentation on New York City’s Chinese- against apartheid, and matched them with with them. Play golf with them. instances enter the Baseball Hall stood, in the words of historian plague baseball for the next 15 West Virginia. American laundry workers. This year’s festival leaders from the Fight for $15 movement Live in the same neighborhood of Fame. Jules Tygiel, as a “haven of years.” Like the story of Jackie Activists connect to audiences branched out into an Activist Filmmakers here in New York City, for a great evening with them. The reason, of But Dodgertown was more tolerance,” one of the very few Robinson to which it connects, Boot Camp, with twenty-two new and of film and discussion at the Murphy Other programs that attracted full houses course, was the entrenched than just an incubator of talent. racially integrated institutions of Dodgertown represents a emerging documentary filmmakers learning Institute of Labor Studies. The program included A Day’s Work, documenting the system of racial separation Its significance extends beyond any kind in the state and region. milestone in American civil from five pros in the field about how to go for 2016 is shaping up with a global labor abuses experienced by the ever-growing ranks known as “Jim Crow,” which the playing field into the social [1] At a time when African rights history. out and make political and issue-oriented film festival scheduled for the fall and a of temp workers; Poverty Inc., a documentary had defined social and political and racial history of Florida, the Americans could put their lives As has often been the films. The festival organizers brought global symposium on activist film festivals in about global inequality; She’s Beautiful When life in the South for three- South, and America as a whole. in danger by attempting to eat, case in our national history, activists from Ireland who helped to kick partnership with the United Kingdom- She’s Angry, a feature film about the founding quarters of a century. But things By offering an integrated and drink, play, travel, or live with Dodgertown’s advances toward “blood fruit” from South Africa out of their based Radical Film Network, scheduled for of the women’s movement, from 1966 to were about to change in one part egalitarian workplace, one in or among whites, Dodgertown racial justice were the products country in what became a world-wide fight next May. Stay tuned! 1971; and Every Fold Matters, a multi-media of the region, thanks to a Major which players were judged not stood as an example of of both pragmatism and League Baseball team that had by who they were but what they interracialism that rebuked principle. Dodger management already made civil rights history did, Dodgertown was unique those who counseled caution, wished to build a team- by bringing Jackie Robinson to not just among Southern spring patience, and delay. Legendary controlled complex in which Work History News the big leagues: the Brooklyn training facilities, but among sports columnist Sam Lacy wrote player development would be Bibliography of material on New L H A Dodgers. Seeking a permanent Southern institutions generally. in the Baltimore Afro-American (Continue reading this blog New York Labor History Association, Inc. spring training home, the team Between 1948 and the early in 1974, “It was, without doubt, at http://historicdodgertown.) York Labor History Work History News is published two times per year to keep NYLHA’s members informed of labor The New York Labor History Association is compiling a history events, activities and tours. Marvin Miller bibliography of works in any medium on New York Labor History For more information and brochures contact: NYLHA Continued from page 18 written a book worthy of Miller the man, of the book is the story of Miller’s role in that can be posted on our website. To do so we are appealing c/o Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives life in its historical context, and in explaining the communicator, the strategist, the labor transforming Major League Baseball, and to our members to suggest titles that you would recommend. 70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor New York, NY 10012 how this frail man from Brooklyn with a bum leader, and the baseball visionary. Every big that Burk tells with confidence and focus.” Please include a complete title, author(s)’ name, publisher, date http://newyorklaborhistory.org arm was able to reshape the landscape of our league player and baseball fan should read –Randy Roberts, author of Joe Louis: Hard of publication, and any comment you would like to make in President Irwin Yellowitz national pastime.” –Andrew Zimbalist, author it.” –Brad Snyder, author of A Well-Paid Times Man. Vice-President George Altomare recommending the title(s). For film or video, please identify the of In the Best Interests of Baseball? Governing Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Robert F. Burk is an emeritus professor Secretary Abbe Nosoff; Regina Olff title, the producer, date of release, and distributor (if available). Treasurer Philoine Fried Our National Pastime. Professional Sports. of history at Muskingum University and the Editor Jane LaTour “The Baseball Hall of Fame is not a hall “Burk knows the business of baseball author of Never Just a Game: Players, Owners, Please send your suggestions to Steve Leberstein at Contributors of fame without Marvin Miller. As Robert F. inside and out, making him the ideal and American Baseball to 1920 and Much [email protected]. Cy A. Adler , Rachel Bernstein, Bette Craig, Miriam Burk and others have written, Miller belongs person to write about Miller. His More than a Game: Players, Owners, and Frank, J Kelsey Harrison, Staughton Lynd, Donn on baseball’s Mount Rushmore. In Marvin research is impeccable and his writing is American Baseball since 1921. Mitchell, Ken Nash, Robert Parmet, Andrew Tilson Miller: Baseball Revolutionary, Burk has straightforward. The compelling aspect

2 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 19 Manfred on deck The whole world is watching or Robert D. Manfred Jr. Cornell promoted to MLB's chief operating officer. class of 1980, the road to the top of “I have been an effective negotiator By Jane LaTour F America's pastime has been a lifetime because I was well trained in how to get ready isconsin came to in the making. to bargain – not only collectively bargain, but New York City on He stepped up to the plate, taking the negotiate generally. And I am very rigorous to W May 21st at Litho reins as commissioner of Major League this day about that kind of preparation.” Hall, as part of the Workers Baseball on January 26. After graduating from ILR, Manfred Unite! Film Festival. Two films It begins a new chapter in a life and career received his law degree from Harvard Law depicted the organizing energy shaped by labor relations. School and joined the Morgan, Lewis and present in the Badger State, and Manfred grew up in the small city of Bockius law firm. He became a partner in its two speakers, David Newby and Rome, N.Y., the ‘Copper City,’ once an Labor and Law division where Jackie DiSalvo, both with strong industrial hotspot that manufactured many of one of his roles was as an outside counsel ties to Wisconsin, delivered the country's copper products. to MLB – an organization affected by labor remarks, and engaged in a During his upbringing in the 1960s and disputes throughout its history. discussion with the audience. The 105-minute documentary, We the campaign she took part in to said. “He would try to take what’s early 1970s, he witnessed the erosion of Joining the commissioner's office full-time program, sponsored by the New Are Wisconsin: “What happened organize the Teachers Assistants happening in Wisconsin onto a regional and state manufacturing bases. both sides of sensitive issues, according to in 1998, Manfred's knack for diplomacy can York Labor History Association, in Wisconsin early in 2011 as Association, the first union of national level.” Newby provided At home, he was surrounded by a MLB.com. be seen throughout his 15-year tenure as MLB provided an opportunity depicted in the film signals the college teaching assistants in a synopsis of the march rightward blend of labor and employment relations. Transferring into ILR as a junior, he executive vice president of labor relations. to examine the anti-union strategy of right wing Republicans the country. “In order to win in the state from its roots in His mother was a union member as a studied a variety of labor and employment The New York Times reported that during campaign mounted successfully across the country to strip unions recognition, the organizers had the Progressive Movement; schoolteacher. His father was an executive for topics, while building skills crucial to his this time, “…he proceeded to maintain by Governor Scott Walker, of any ability to fight on behalf to shut down the University of the budget’s wage cuts and Revere Copper and Brass – a company that future success. relative harmony between the owners and labor’s response to it, and what of their members. Using a budget Wisconsin for three weeks – and cuts in government health care had a difficult relationship with its unionized He credits his Cornell ILR School players…” while he led negotiations resulting the next steps might look like issue as a subterfuge to attack they did. In Madison, in 1970, payments, and a look at what’s on workers. education with preparing him for MLB's in three new collective bargaining agreements. as Walker gets ready to launch a the very institution of collective there was a real break-through in the agenda for the Governor and It is understandable that, from a young management pinnacle. Manfred most recently served as the campaign to go national with his bargaining, Gov. Scott Walker and the level of solidarity. It was such his allies. “This is our moment,” age, Manfred became familiar with the “The single biggest skill I gained at ILR is league’s chief operating officer, a role in which destructive program. his allies hope to convince public a leap – to see that labor could be he said, and compared it to that complex relationship between labor and the ability to negotiate,” Manfred said during he continued to oversee labor relations and The first film, a six-minute workers that there is no benefit to the voice and to understand the moment in 1981, when President executive management, and was able to see a 2013 ILR interview shortly after being serve other executive functions. short, provides light – literally, joining and supporting unions, common interests. The TA strike Ronald Reagan fired the striking and rays of optimism, as union since only unions can bargain over changed things. There was a high members of the Professional Air members take to overpasses with narrowly proscribed issues. level of consciousness about the Traffic Controllers Organization. signs bearing messages: “Reject Mahadya Mary, a member Marvin Miller – Baseball revolutionary austerity; Stand up / Fight back” of District Council 37 Local he story of how one man shaped allies and adversaries alike praised Miller's “Raise the wage”…messages Like New Jersey’s Governor Chris 1407, provoked an exchange professional sports’ modern era, hardnosed attitude, work ethic, and honesty. about money doesn’t equal Christie, Walker also successfully with audience members after she T Marvin Miller changed major league Comprehensive and illuminating, Marvin free speech; income inequality; described how the labor history baseball and the business of sports. Drawing Miller, Baseball Revolutionary tells the inside and the anti-union agenda played a ‘divide and conquer’ game. course she is taking at Cornell on research and interviews with Miller and story of a time of change in sports and labor of Gov. Walker and his Koch with instructor Gene Carroll, has others, Marvin Miller, Baseball Revolutionary relations, and of the contentious process brothers/conservative backers. Like New Jersey’s Gov. Chris different issues,” she said. “The awakened her to the potential of An ironworker talks about offers the first biography covering the pivotal that gave athletes in baseball and across the Christie, Walker also successfully whole community organized trade unionism, while at the same the project, and experiencing labor leader's entire life and career. Baseball sporting world a powerful voice in their own played a ‘divide and conquer’ around it.” time, it seems late in the game solidarity, “You see the same historian Robert F. Burk follows the formative games. game, promising unions in the David Newby, also an early for the unions to be waking up to beliefs you have in another encounters with Depression-era hard times, “A must-read for anyone interested in private sector this would not affect TAA organizer, and former what is happening. person’s head.” Another activist how MLB salaries went from an average of them. In the aftermath of the President of Wisconsin AFL- “The documentary, got racial and religious bigotry, and bare-knuckle sharing a post on the bridge $11,000 in 1966 to $3,386,212 in 2013.”— attack on public sector unionism CIO, was a leader of labor’s fight the audience thinking and Washington and labor politics that prepared says, “the most powerful thing is Miller for his biggest professional challenge – Library Journal in Wisconsin, however, this year back against Gov. Walker’s anti- talking about the rise of the community of activists the Walker signed a bill that outlaws union Act 10, and mobilized social movements that might running the moribund Major League Baseball "Burk writes gracefully and insightfully, project has built.” union security clauses in contracts support for that struggle. “Given meaningfully challenge the Players Association. pension system, outside mediation of player chronicling the life of one of baseball's most This is our moment between unions and private sector the determination of Gov. Scott moloch of capital in the U.S. Educating and uniting the players as grievances and salary disputes, a system significant figures. He succeeds admirably in Long-time activist Bill employers (cynically called a ‘right Walker, you should be very It was well worth seeing and a workforce, Miller embarked on a long of profit sharing, and the long-sought illuminating the evolution of Marvin Miller's Henning summed up the to work’ law).” afraid if he should ever become discussing,” said NYLHA board campaign to win the concessions that defined dismantling of the reserve clause that opened intellect as well as his soul, in placing Miller’s substance of the second film, the Jackie DiSalvo spoke about President of this country,” he member Steve Leberstein. his legacy: decent workplace conditions, a the door to free agency. Through it all, Continued on page 19

18 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 3 Labor Crossword Puzzle Foot soldiers of democracy By Kelsey Harrison By Jane LaTour Herman said. LaborArts organizer complex issues down into clear editorial content and the risks isten to the BBC, NPR, Rachel Bernstein added that these visuals with limited text. His from the wrath of editors and pick up The New York CUNY-CWE students “resonated comments about Charlie Hebdo the public. He noted that “you Times, or tap into any to the scenes of cartoonists were especially timely.” only have five seconds of a L actually drawing and explaining While Henning found the reader’s attention…fewer words other news source, and you are instantly immersed in the Using irony and humor, a good cartoonist can is better…Images jump the woes of the world. On March language barrier.” As the French 4th, LaborArts and the New make political truths accessible to everyone. cartoonist, Plantu, said in the York Labor History Association film: “They know where they combined to offer an alternative the way they use simple lines to film very well done cinematically, should plant the grenade.” Nadia take on the news through the evoke emotion and character.” he also thought “it could have Khiari, the Tunisian cartoonist, eyes of political cartoonists, via a “It was an important focused more laser-like on who writes under the nom de film, “Cartoonists – Foot Soldiers program,” said Professor Steve cartooning rather than delving plume Willis, put it another way: of Democracy,” and a speaker Leberstein. “The Tunisian into other issues. Likewise, it “A pencil can be a wonderful – Jeff Danziger. Danziger has woman cartoonist, Nadia Khiari, posed some interesting questions weapon.” earned his place in the long line summed up the value of political in my mind about the relative The French film is timely and of illustrious political cartoonists cartoons best when she said, ‘les value systems of cartoonists (e.g. provides a provocative entré into who provide their take on current caricatures dérange le pouvoir’ the ‘opposition’ cartoonists in important issues that deserve events via a pen and an ever- to challenge power.” Trade Venezuela, Russia, and Tunisia).” debate. The 2014 documentary, present sense of pointed humor. unionist and climate change Questions posed to Danziger directed by Stephanie Valloatto, activist Gary Goff thought that ranged from technique to is available on DVD and Blu-ray. A democratic medium the film succeeded in portraying The documentary jumps about “cartoons as a great, democratic from country to country among medium. A point of view can be 12 cartoonists, Danziger included, conveyed with a simple drawing and nationality and disparate and a few words. Using irony and sensibilities unite to provide a humor, a good cartoonist can global perspective. The audience make political truths accessible to at Brooklyn College’s Center everyone.” for Worker Education included Bill Henning, noted that Events at Botto House, American Labor Museum Professor Joanna Herman’s class he “thoroughly enjoyed hearing   83 Norwood Street, Haledon, NJ 07508 ◆ 973-595-7953 ◆ labormuseum.net on political cartooning and the from Jeff Danziger, one of the graphic novel. “My students were world’s foremost cartoonists,  May 1, 2015 - August 29, 2015 very receptive to the message of about his processes and the risk-taking in the artistic life,” mechanics of boiling some rather Got Work? The New Deal/WPA in New Jersey – presents a portrait of the experience of New Jersey residents and the Works Progress Administration during The Great Depression.

 September 6, 2015 23rd Annual Parade – co-sponsored by the American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark, the Borough of Haledon and the City of Paterson, took place on Sunday, September 6th, 2015. Step-off happens at 1:30 PM at the Botto House in Haledon. The parade finishes at the Great Falls Historic District.

 September 6 - December 31, 2015 Workers and Their Parade by Gary Schoichet. An exhibit presenting over fifty contemporary black-and-white and color photographs of workers on the job and workers with their families and friends at the annual Labor Day Parade.

4 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 17 RX for a new kind of labor movement Alinsky tradition falls short as model Only One Thing Can Save Us: check on the workplace” before People Power: The Community Organizing director of the Steelworkers who would run Why America Needs a New Kind robots replace all of them. Tradition of Saul Alinsky, ed. Aaron Schutz for national union president later in the of Labor Movement, Thomas Geoghegan’s call is for a and Mike Miller (Nashville: Vanderbilt 1970s (Ed Sadlowski) played prominent roles. Geoghegan, New York: The New society that is democratic as University Press, 2015) After the founding event, however, the Press, 2014. well as productive. Among his Review by Staughton Lynd organization fell apart. One of my colleagues Review by Robert D. Parmet heroes are Dr. Martin Luther was persuaded by a Catholic dignitary on the King, Jr., John Dewey, and John t was an evening late in August, 1968. York College, CUNY East Coast to use the convention as a personal Maynard Keynes. In discussing I was in the bathtub. Believing that the “Union rolls declining,” a jumping-off credential and leave town. His them, he proposes what might critical issue at the national Democratic Long Island newspaper recently replacement as lead organizer was my second serve as model for a society Party convention would be whether colleague. reported, in bold letters across the IFirst Amendment activity could be carried on respectful of human decency and top of a page. The accompanying I had developed the issue of the minimal equality. For example, ordinary outside the building where the delegates were story told of a statistical decline taxes paid by United States Steel on its Gary, people should be taught skills meeting, I had organized a march from the in union membership in New Indiana steel mill property. I had talked with to enhance their position in lakefront to the convention site in southwest York State, which was “part of a Ralph Nader and he had publicly supported the workplace. Such could be Chicago. Several of the demonstrators, long-term trend.” In smaller print, that concern. The Gary newspaper had accomplished by following the and want to make $15,000 less that it had recognized another including myself, had been arrested. All across the bottom of the page, the run an issue with a headline about the tax German model of management a year” Geoghegan sarcastically group of employees, who were tension past, I was luxuriating in the hot newspaper announced, “New data: controversy all the way across the front page. that includes “a massive amount observes, adding that “then we both blue-collar and salaried, the water of the bath. Average LI weekly wages inched Colleague No. 2 decided not to pursue of job training that the companies will start lifting children out of American Council of Employees. The phone rang. It was Saul Alinsky. up,” referring to a 1.6 percent the tax issue. Instead he guided the new themselves provide,” and worker poverty!” Such an achievement The ACE’s membership claim He wanted to talk with me about becoming increase during the second quarter organization to take on a local pornographic membership on company boards would occur without taxing the was only 15 percent, much less a member of the faculty, along with Ed of 2014. At a glance readers might bookstore. Within a matter of months the of directors.” With reference wealthy to benefit the poor. than that of the UAW. Though Chambers and Dick Harmon, at the new that if you were incensed about an issue, you readily infer that labor unions are Congress slowly sank from sight, never to to Keynes’s General Theory of A loss for the union the UAW appears to have been Industrial Areas Foundation Training tried to do something about it. Mr. Alinsky not needed when wages can rise reappear. Employment, he argues that a defeated, it will continue to talk Institute. advised newcomers to the Institute to spend without them. As noted above, Geoghegan At the same time that I lost out on how highly trained workforce with with VW, and accepted the works Two things made me want to accept. some time in a target neighborhood in order In his latest book, veteran suggests the German to build an organization for those who “cared decision-making responsibilities council concept. What remains First, I needed a job. I had been blacklisted to discover what issues were already “there” in Chicago labor lawyer Thomas management model as an about democracy and social and economic is a key to staying out of public, to be seen is how well the UAW by academia. At five institutions of higher the minds of residents. Also, in my experience Geoghegan contends that a labor alternative to traditional trade justice” (p. xiv), I was asked by Colleague No. private, and external (trade) and the VW employees will fare education in the Chicago area (Chicago Alinsky did not emphasize coalition building movement is indeed necessary, to unionism. Accordingly, he 2 to withdraw from all activity on behalf of debt. in Chattanooga, and whether State College, Northern Illinois University, with the principal figures in existing restore the disappearing middle describes a continuing dispute the new community organization because I As a lawyer who had the German model will spread Roosevelt University, the University of organizations. He challenged us to discover class as well as raise wages. It is in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was too radical. represented the Chicago to other American workers and Illinois Circle Campus, Loyola University) the informal leadership of a community: the “the only way” to end the public where, in February 2014, the Cardinal sins Teachers Union before it went benefit them. the chairman of the history department persons to whom neighbors went for help and private debt that threatens United Auto Workers lost a on strike in September 2012, With the ranks of organized offered me a full-time, tenure-track job, and I if they had problems. The next step was to Because I was so intimately involved, and national unity, “and stop the representation election at the Geoghegan remains a staunch labor shrinking, Geoghegan’s accepted, only to have the contract overridden bring these informal leaders together and inevitably approach the subject with a strong growing inequality that in thirty Volkswagen plant. Several months supporter of public school plea for an alternative approach by the trustees or Board of Governors. The to stress to those gathered that all structural personal bias, I prefer to let the editors of the years could bring the whole later, the company adopted a teachers. Accordingly, he is to labor organization cannot Lynds were surviving on the “sweat of my arrangements (who would be chairperson, for book and the organizers quoted in it express Republic crashing down.” appalled at the current attacks on new rule by which it would meet be ignored. Something must Frau” and a regular paycheck was inviting. example) would be preliminary and tentative. their own critique of the Alinsky organizing How can this be done? teacher tenure. In addition, he regularly with an organization be done to avert disaster. The Secondly, I was curious. The central This gave the organizer an opportunity tradition. I have no reason to believe that the Shake up the Democratic opposes the closing of allegedly backed by 45 percent of its idea of a decimated middle class organizations of the New Left, the Student to observe who seemed to take a natural shortcomings described have been corrected. Party. Even possibly split it and “failing” public schools, which employees. should disturb anyone interested Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leadership role, and who followed through To begin with, we might consider Cesar create a new labor movement he claims has a disruptive effect The UAW then organized in economic, political and social (SNCC) and Students for a Democratic on what he said he would do. These were Chavez. Chavez was the one human being “to give people more rights to on minority neighborhoods. a new local that allegedly had stability. Current efforts to raise Society (SDS), were in the process of important insights. whom I can recall Alinsky speaking of with determine the way we work.” It Allegedly superior charter schools support in excess of that figure, minimum wages and organize destroying themselves. Although I shared Three of us were assigned to organize love. It is likely, the editors write, “that by the can be accomplished through he regards as “a form of busting and therefore met the stated low-wage employees likewise criticisms of Alinsky’s work common to an Alinsky-type community organization mid-1970’s more people knew his name than “more explicitly political strikes” teacher unions.” In a world where condition. Significantly, the reflect efforts to rescue the members of these two organizations, I in Lake County, Indiana, which includes Alinsky’s.” Yet, according to this account, and a “1968-style” conflict within schools are run according to a UAW also expressed interest in labor movement by means that wondered what I might be able to learn the city of Gary and is dominated by U.S. within the farmworkers’ organization that the Democratic Party, which business model, he says the aim joining the company’s Global are untraditional. The road to from Alinsky organizers. I conjectured that Steel. We did so, baptizing our creation the Chavez created and led, [i]nternal purges would be compelled to revise is to staff schools with teachers Works Council. However, in recovery is decidedly uphill, but becoming a so-called teacher might be a good Calumet Community Congress. There was an eliminated from the staff many talented and corporate law so that workers who are low-paid rather than February 2015 (following the as a matter of national as well as way to be a student. So I said yes. impressive founding convention, in which the dedicated organizers, while others quietly could be elected to corporate highly qualified. “All we need are publication of Only One Thing worker self-interest it must be And I did learn some very valuable things. picket line captain at the 1937 Memorial Day resigned in . The became the boards or somehow “provide a teachers who will work at will Can Save US) VW announced followed. The modus operandi of the New Left was Massacre (George Patterson) and a district Continued on page 8

14 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 7 Class in the USA Blue-Collar take on books By Jane LaTour the Midwest and the amazement Daddy, What’s the Middle Class Lives: Stories From Across Our im Sheard, author, of Midwesterners that “New York Class? Pat LaMarche, Economic Divide. Chuck Collins, Jennifer publisher, and National City is like a small town. People (Charles Bruce Foundation, Ladd, Maynard Seider & Felice Yeskel, Writers Union organizer, have a lot of the same experiences $14.95) eds. (Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR-Cornell University T led a fascinating conversation on – a tiny backwater town and Press, 2014, $19.95) Review by Kelsey Harrison May 26th with three working- Manhattan.” Maron described Review By Steve Leberstein This book gets an class men – all first-time authors the difference between his current “A” for effort but only a Class Lives: Stories From Across Our of books that provided an outlet home in New England and “B” for implementation. Economic Divide raises some important for their passion for writing and Manhattan. “Perhaps there’s a bit Former Teamster truck questions about the nature of class in insights into New York, back more alienation here. People know a mechanic / union member, he has something to say, he feels driver Rick Smith decided American society. There are about 40 when it was a blue-collar town. each other in my town. Everyone described the positive responses inspired. He remarked on his to take his family on the personal stories of individuals who The book party / discussion took you meet in Manhattan will be he’s received from various days of driving a cab on Hudson road for one month in experienced what the editors describe as place at the offices of the New different.” Balcerak spoke about teachers. Bill Hohlfeld, with Street, alongside the noted 2013 to cross the country back and forth in a recreational vehicle. He “class awareness.” Few of them shed much York Chapter of the National the levels of social stratification 32 years as a metal lather and investigative journalist Tom also broadcast his labor radio show (www.ricksmithshow.com) from light on issues of the economic and political roots of class, or on the Writers Union, which served as represented in his book. reinforcing ironworker, and 11 the vehicle and stopped at labor history sites. One of the goals of this possibility of social rather than personal transformation. host and co-sponsor, along with Robbins, now at the CUNY Grad Each of the authors read from years at Local 46 Ironworkers 9,800-mile trip was to teach his children who really built this country This small volume is the product of a non-profit organization the New York Labor History School, who stopped by to pick their books, and then a lively Labor Management Cooperative and overcome their labor-less education in the school system. He called, not surprisingly, Class Lives. A clue to how the personal stories Association and the Metro New up an autographed copy of the dialogue took place between Trust, said that writing groups also cites poor cable TV coverage of labor, especially on the History included in this volume were elicited comes from two of the group’s York Labor Communications book and congratulate the author. were crucial to his career as the audience and the writers. Channel, and their focus on the robber barons and fat cats as the founders, Felice Yeskel and Jenny Ladd. Yeskel, who grew up in NYC Council. Family and friends Balcerak noted that it is his job a writer, as well as teaching Questions focused on sources people who built this country. came from a working class family, experienced class difference when joined in as the authors reflected as a writer to compel the reader English as an adjunct instructor. of inspiration, the process of Unfortunately the book reads like a lighthearted travelogue by she went to Hunter College Elementary School, one of NYC’s elite on a series of questions posed by to keep reading. In response to a Hohlfeld’s novel, Ascent to writing, and finding your voice. author and co-traveler Pat LaMarche, who ran for vice-president as public schools, and then onto an unnamed private school. She tells us Sheard. question about New York being Avalon, was published under a Hohlfeld said his “voice” was the Green Party candidate in 2004. The excellent title of this book that “…Jenny Ladd, who comes from an owning-class background, Voices from the ranks pseudonym, “Dennis Patrick,” a a city where people come to find inescapable. “It’s an intersection promises to focus on the goal of the book, to educate his children, and I decided to start a cross-class dialogue group.” Of the 8 founders Walter Balcerak, former decision he regrets. “It would be themselves and “re-do” themselves, of the working-class voices I but there isn’t much about the children’s interactions. Ms. LaMarche of the group, “…four came from owning-class backgrounds, each with 30-year editor of the Public nice to look at it in the library Hohlfeld said, “You don’t have know from my own life. These are focuses on too many mundane details of the trip and then gives a million dollars of assets or more.” The eight engaged in what she Employee Press, spoke about his and see my name on it,” he said. to be an out-of-towner to re-do the wittiest people I’ve ever met, very lightly-researched information about the specific sites. Though describes as a “laboratory for understanding the dynamics of class” for book, the novella, The View from Stan Maron, whose memoir, yourself.” His protagonist is re- with the quickest retorts, and the coverage of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the fight in Blair 5 hours monthly over a period of 6 ½ years. Brooklyn, which includes stories, New York Hustle: Pool Rooms, inventing himself after the system deepest belly laughs. We’re all Mountain, West Virgina in 1920 were more detailed, the book mainly The stories in the volume are grouped by such categories as “Poor poems, memoir and essays. Born School Rooms & Street Corners, has failed him. He described talking about the same thing: the meanders from site to site with no compelling narrative. While those and Low Income,” “Working Class,” ”Middle Class,” “Owning Class,” into a blue-collar family, son of noted that when he really going to annual conferences in ranks of working people.” with more than a rudimentary knowledge of labor history will already and “Mixed Class.” came from the laboratory process she describes know much of what is written here, those who don’t know much class awakening through “feeling,” “breaking down barriers” through a labor history will not feel inspired to learn more. This is unfortunate, “cross-class dialogue group.” The aim of the project, the editors say, is A voice for justice especially since Mr. Smith’s radio show is so full of information to end “classism” while avoiding any hint of collective action to change Continued from page 1 labor movement and be creative in seeking expressed in a very energetic manner. the power relations that define American society. It is telling that they strike and served six months in prison. His alliances. He pointed out that the Occupy However, the book does a good job of covering race with its acknowledge that “No one from the corporate or political elite felt prison reading set him on a path to Wall Street movement had made its deposits description of the 1968 Memphis, Tennessee sanitation strike where comfortable sharing his story, or her story.” and he ran for president for the first time at Amalgamated Bank, labor’s bank, near Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed and the integration battle in Little Many of the personal stories recount the rough edges and hurt in 1900 as a candidate of the precursor Zuccotti Park, and that many labor union Rock, Arkansas in the 1950’s. Native American history is covered feelings that accompany social mobility, especially the insecurity or of the Socialist Party of America. And, he members were active supporters of it. well and good analogies are generally made between past battles and shame of the young women here who become the first in their families kept running - the last time in 1920 from Thanks to the Workers Unite Film Festival terrible conditions today in the same industry. to go to college. Yet they seldom reveal much about power relations or the federal prison in Atlanta (where he was and the Eugene V. Debs Foundation for co- One of the things that would have brightened up the book show a sense of class as a collective identity. Those who do talk about serving time for opposing the American entry sponsoring the program. As Eugene Victor would have been photographs. Mr. Smith’s wife is a professional class relations, especially at work, are a small minority – Timothy into World War I). He polled just short of a Debs said, “Years ago I recognized my kinship photographer who took thousands of pictures but there are none Harris, Jim Bonilla and Michaelann Bewsee – are worth a look at in million votes. with all living things, and I made up my mind in the book. This is very unusual for a travel/history-site book. To this regard. Noel Beasley, who started out in the by Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich that I was not one bit better than the meanest somewhat remedy this there are almost 200 references cited in the At least this volume does remind us that the United States is still Midwest in the Textile Workers Union of Cambridge Documentary Films. He tied on the earth. I said then and I say now, that back of the book, most of which are internet sites. The problem with a class-bound society, one becoming more so in our own time, but before it became part of what is now Debs into the current global movement for while there is a lower class, I am in it; while this is that some of the sites have already expired and in a couple of leaves the reader to ponder why and what the prospects are for social Workers United, SEIU, introduced the a living wage, making the point that activists there is a criminal element, I am of it; while years most will probably be gone as well. transformation. documentary film about Debs, made in 1977 need to work inside and outside the current there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

12 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 9 Telling history – reading fiction Mary Harris (Mother) Jones invades New York By Cy A. Adler Pennsylvania passed laws limiting Mary Harris Jones, called child labor. Vera’s Will, by Shelley Ettinger, “Mother” by the coal miners In 1913, Mary was thrown Maplewood NJ: Hamilton Stone, she lived with, organized and into a federal jail in West Virginia 2014 fought for, was born in Ireland for fomenting a strike. She was Review, by Miriam Frank in 1837. Her family immigrated given a 20-year sentence. She was n Vera’s Will, novelist to Canada where she attended over 80 years old. She smuggled Shelley Ettinger sets private public school. She moved to the a letter to U.S. Senator John W. stories into landmark United States and taught school Kern, who read it in Congress. events of American working for a time in Monroe, , When released from jail, she Iclass life. The narrative spans came to New York City. She filled but didn’t like bossing little the twentieth century and the children around for low pay. Carnegie Hall with her admirers. very different lives of two Jewish She moved south and married Mary: I am told that if I women, both of them lesbians: George Jones, an iron worker and return to West Virginia, I will again be arrested by Governor Vera Steiner, whose family escapes labor leader, in Memphis, Tenn. her children to Coney Island, Hatfield. He doesn’t understand the pogroms of Czarist Russia The couple had four children. In where she harangued the press. and compassion, sometimes permanence of her “inversion.” well to the labor movement and the forces underlying the great to settle in Passaic, New Jersey; 1867, her husband and children (Excerpt from Wholly Mother sorrowful to tears, other times Later, his restrictions on her visits to all peoples’ movements for a economic conflict in West and Vera’s granddaughter, Randy were wiped out by the yellow Jones, Scene 9) blazing with righteous fury or tighten. The boys grow older better world. Virginia, and he is owned Steiner, a college dropout and a fever epidemic. She moved to William Sweeney: Where in bawdy giggles. Ettinger’s scope and Steiner moves the family to Readers who enjoy rich body and soul by the mining radical refugee from suburban Chicago and opened a dress- hell are we marching to, Mary? is great, vivid, discontinuous, . and layered narrations will find companies and other capitalist Detroit. making shop. But her home and Mary: You and I are going and skillfully constructed Vera follows – at a distance. them in the topics of this novel: interests of the state. But he does Historic sweep all her possessions were burned to lead a band of these skinny, with dramatic revelations, Her wartime Detroit is an attic turn-of-the-20th-century Jewish understand that public opinion out in the Great Chicago Fire maimed factory children, from The biographies of Vera disappointments and discoveries. room on the Jewish west-side. immigration; the jazz age and of 1871. Then, nearing 50, she Philadelphia, up through the Women’s Voice: Mr. has been aroused. I am in favor and Randy develop within Everyone is working; socialism. They will see how gay got involved with the Knights state of New Jersey, all the President, what shall we tell Mrs. of using the ballot, and in all my historical milieus familiar to but she is no Rosie people created ways to find one of Labor. It turned out she way to President Theodore Jones? career I have never advocated labor and social historians: with a riveting gun. another long before Stonewall; I loved Ettinger’s had an extraordinary talent for Roosevelt’s swank Oyster Bay President Roosevelt: Tell violence. What I want to do is The Paterson Silk Strike of Vera keeps the books before World War II in Detroit; organizing and raising hell. She mansion on Long Island. Then that crazy old woman that I have give the nation a more highly 1913, gay Greenwich Village at a record shop, and before the growth of political felt she had right on her side. the president will talk to us and no power to help those children. developed citizenship. Not like in the 1920s, boom times in sense of history as an dresses smartly, lives hippy cultures in college towns In May 1886, she the newspapers will listen to us. Labor laws are the states’ province, in West Virginia, where they Detroit at the start of WW II, with her loneliness. of the 1970s. Ettinger knows participated in the first Sweeney: You are seventy- not mine. Tell her I am too busy spent $500,000 on the militia to the rise of anti-war in elastic force. By war’s end she has the growing pains of new demonstration for the eight-hour three. Can you do it, old girl? to see her and those kids. break strikes, and closed down the 1960s and 1970s, and the re-united, with one of movements of liberation and also workday and saw firsthand the Mary: Okay, children, let’s a number of schools Many of her sons, only to be Mary: Follow me! Get the unionization of office workers acknowledges, always and with terror of the go to Coney Island and have the children who were robbed of rejected – again – by the next water wagons ready. I’ll handle in the 1980s. Throughout the Vera comes to her erotic dignity, the old ashes of shame. on May 4, 1886. In 1890, she some fun in Luna Park and their education will never again generation. the reporters. 20th century these movements life in her teens, simply, with Ettinger’s rich chapters are became a paid organizer for the Steeplechase. A Brooklyn Eagle be back in school. It’s a sad trajectory, but Narrator B: Mother Jones, were dynamic locations of pleasure and discretion, and carefully researched and laced newly-organized United Mine reporter wants to talk to us West Virginia is on trial Ettinger has bolstered the like an elderly Pied Piper, led struggle that nurtured political eventual loss. Trouble arises only with witty reflections. She shows Workers of America. there. The boardwalk will be a before the nation. The military grimness of these betrayals with the children through New and social change as well as after she marries Peter Steiner us communities we thought we Mary Harris Jones invaded great spot to blast child labor. arrests that I and others were early bits in the life of Randy Jersey. Then they invaded sexual liberation. Ettinger and becomes the mother of knew, first transforming them New York City several times. the metropolis of New York. Yes, Mr. Reporter, President forced to undergo were the first Steiner, Vera’s rebellious tomboy depicts these radical tendencies two sons. She takes a lover, a with tender compassion, then On Oct. 18, 1902, she spoke to National newspaper reporters Roosevelt, that great lion hunter moves ever made by the ruling grandchild. This new creation as powerful forces that shape girlfriend from her single days, populating them with families in a “great socialist crowd” of men flocked to her hotel room. and philanthropist, was afraid class to have the working class is culled from the author’s own Vera’s life and times and later and her husband finds out. trouble and with lovers in danger. and women at Cooper Union Newsman: Why do you to talk with me. He is too busy tried by military courts. It is up life as a political activist. Randy Randy’s. Within those worlds Ettinger connects this disaster I loved Ettinger’s sense of Hall. In 1903, she led a crusade condemn child labor, Mrs. Jones? chasing wild elephants to care to the American worker to make Steiner satisfies her lesbian her narrative explores forbidden to early twentieth century history as an elastic force. Vera’s of children, many maimed by Mary: Child labor is a for the children of America. sure that it is the last. longings in the heyday of Ann love, traumatic loss and both sexological theories about Will challenges us with the great the machines they worked on for disgrace to our nation. These kids Print that in your newspaper. Wholly Mother Jones is a musical Arbor radical culture and directly protagonists’ enduring quests for queer lives. Her depiction of social themes of the past century’s the greedy mill owners. She led should be in school. The greed of Narrator B: Millions of play by Peter Agnos, with 26 scenes finds her way into a wider dignity and authenticity. Peter Steiner’s angry ignorance generations: the horrors of war, them from Philadelphia to appeal the mill owners deprives able men Americans heard about Mother and 13 songs. To get a copy of the community and an array of Reading Vera’s Will was is masterful. At first she finds the throb of class struggles, the to President Teddy Roosevelt at and women of jobs. Child labor Jones’ Children’s Crusade, script or the CD of the musical version, an adventure. Its well-paced compassion for his position, as he causes: gay liberation is primary pains of betrayal and the saving his mansion on Long Island. He is a slavery of the weak and the and many more were moved. send $10 to Green Eagle Press, Box narration moves with elegance lectures Vera about the impossible here but Randy is committed as joys of sexual healing. refused to see her. She then took innocent! Several years later, the state of 20329, New York, NY 10025.

6 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 15 Alinsky tradition... Continued from page 7 the best of my recollection there principal strategic weapon of the was also no staff response to the union; on-the-ground organizing massacre at Kent State University of farmworkers at workplaces was on May 4, 1970. I do remember shunted to the sidelines. Power intense telephone calls with a increasingly was concentrated in student at the Institute. (Zeke, the hands of Cesar Chavez, who where are you now?) And when brooked no internal opposition the largest student strike in “from below” – i.e., from among United States history followed farmworkers – and vigorously the events at Kent State I believe worked to defeat leaders whose the Institute played no role, views were different from his own initiating or supporting. (pp. 106-107). I also remember that as the The editors add a criticism Calumet Community Congress that has also been expressed was being planned I questioned by Marshall Ganz and others, whether there should be a “color namely, that Chavez insisted on guard” drawn from the different that were not radical but were was asking about alternatives to appointing the members of local branches of the military and militant, and often were made to all the companies moving to the ranch committees rather than a presentation of the flag. My appear more militant than they South, Latin America, Asia. We permitting them to be elected, concern was brushed aside with really were by a focus on a single didn’t have any alternative except, a comment to the effect that “we and opposed the creation of local personal antagonist. Exactly as just keep building organizations always do that.” unions of farmworkers with the in the case of union organizing, (pp. 208-209). result that “[e]verything was a successful Alinsky campaign Local institutions, Dick A hope run from union headquarters” might end in a congenial sitdown Harmon also commented, “no Like the editors, I mourn the (pp. 108-109). Chavez was also with the principals on the other longer ask questions about fact that there was no melding “vigorously anti-Communist, no side. Alinsky never confronted fundamentals such as where of New Left and Alinskyan matter what kind of Communist or denounced capitalism as a corporate capital is taking us.” worldviews in the 1960s. The you happened to be” (p. 111). system. There is no consideration within editors have the candor and The farmworkers’ The most comprehensive the Alinskyian community that humility to recognize the barriers organization that Chavez created critique of the failings of the “Corporate capitalism is One Alinsky traditionalists have put under Alinsky’s guidance hardly Alinsky model that I found in system, a Whole, assaulting both in the way of working with appears to offer a desirable People Power was expressed by human beings and the rest of our young idealists from the New template for the future. Dick Harmon, my erstwhile natural world” (pp. 212-213). Left or Occupy. They explicitly Similar caution recommends colleague at the Training The years in which I was recognize [t]he IAF’s macho style, itself when considering Alinsky’s Institute. Dick is quoted as closest to the Alinsky operation organizational arrogance, dismissal admiration for John L. Lewis, saying that during the mid-to-late were the years in which American of “movements,” avoidance of any ”one of Alinsky’s major teachers” 1970s “[s]ome of us, including service men and women in coalition that it didn’t control, (p. 19). Lewis crushed internal myself, lost our moorings.” Dick effect ended the Vietnam war by unwillingness to look at mutual opposition, a practice from which voices the following devastating refusing to fight. They fragged aid as a strategic organizing tool devoted organizers like A.J. assessment: our operating their officers, and refused to that could lead to the development Muste and Roger Baldwin of the assumptions were that you didn’t go on nighttime patrols or to of substantial worker – and American Civil Liberties Union ask basic questions about the provide targets for American community-owned cooperatives recoiled. From the beginning, economy because that would planes by drawing fire from and credit unions … . (p. 317). the CIO entered into collective label you a ‘pinko,’ an ideologue, Vietnamese ambushes. I cannot Participants in Occupy needed bargaining agreements that and worse. If you raised these remember even a comment by the help of experienced organizers forbade for the duration of the kinds of questions, the climate of Alinsky or his staff that might in making the transition from contract the very strikes, plant the time would shut you down, have led to an organizing sitting-in at the downtown public occupations, and other direct so you had to be pragmatic… We campaign directed against the square to beginning to construct action tactics that had won had no ongoing, fundamental war and the worldview that what the Zapatistas call “un otro union recognition. The CIO analysis of the economy, no underlay the war. mundo,” another world. We still undertook organizing campaigns long-term diagnosis. No one I may be mistaken but to need that help.

8 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 13 PAcross 31. The 1967 ______Law banned pDown 24. ____ Green, President of 2. Michael _____ went Bowling public employees from going on 1. Before becoming a leader of the AFL from 1924 to 1952. To right the wrongs: biography recovers in Columbine and looking for strike in New York City. the I.W.W., “Big” Bill Haywood 26. ______, long-running Roger Smith at GM in 2 of his 33. ____ dollars a day was the was a leader of the Western working-class TV sitcom (1988- reformer’s story 1997), named for its frequently many movies. innovative wage established by Federation of ______. Relentless Reformer: Josephine who would eventually put her in Progressive Service, the party’s the act, but she was to have two 2. sarcastic starring waitress. 6. Philip _____ was one of the Henry Ford in 1914. A.J. ______was the head of Roche and Progressivism in charge of the union’s health and educational wing, she interviewed major outlets for her frustration. most prolific labor authors in 34. The ______Detective the Brookwood Labor College 27. Woody ______, radical Twentieth-Century America welfare fund. principals on both sides of the As Morgenthau’s assistant, she American history. Agency was an infamous strike- in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. folksinger who wrote This Land Robyn Muncy, Princeton As president, Roche not only developing conflict on the coal oversaw a massive expansion of is Your Land. 7. Daniel ______was the long- breaking company of the late 3. Meyer ______was NY’s University Press, © 2015. 295 raised wages. She also opened fields. The horrors of the Ludlow the U.S. Public Health Service. time head of the Socialist Labor 19th century. Socialist Party Congressman from 29. This 1970’s song sung by pages. ISBN: 978-0-691-12273-1 the company’s books to the Massacre confirmed her initial Then, after World War II, she Party. 36. Cleveland ______was the Lower East Side for 6 years. Johnny Paycheck says it all: Take union. The result was increased sympathies for the strikers. relinquished her shares in Rocky This Job and _____ It productivity, respectable Some 13 years later, Roche Mountain Fuel to become the 10. Diego _____ , radical President of District 65 and a 4. The 1968 Ocean Hill- . profitability, a fierce loyalty from inherited her father’s stock director of the United Mine Mexican painter who lost the Civil Rights Leader. ______strike was led by 30. ______, Arizona was the the rank and file, and a concerted in the Rocky Mountain Fuel Workers Health and Welfare battle of Rockefeller Center. 38. ___ Davis, Jr. was a 2-term the U.F.T. place from which over 1,100 effort by her competitors to put Company, and within a year, she Fund, where she developed a Communist Councilman 5. C. Wright ______, famed I.W.W. members were deported 12. The original name of the her out of business. had acquired enough additional string of hospitals in Appalachia in NYC who later went to sociologist and author of the to New Mexico during a copper Chicago-area cemetery where the Not to worry. Josephine shares to take control of the and pioneered the concept of pre- jail under the Smith Act very influential “The Power mining strike in 1917. Haymarket Martyrs are buried. Roche was already a seasoned company, immediately ousting its paid managed care. prosecutions. Elite” in 1956. 32. 14. Bruce ______was Born Over 1,100 police officers fighter. An activist on anti-labor management. The rest In Relentless Reformer, in the U.S.A. and wrote about 39. Upton ______wrote The 6. Ralph ______, working- went on strike for the right to progressive issues while a of her life would be devoted to Muncy provides a thorough- working-class Badlands and Jungle and ran for governor of class artist well known for form a union in this city in 1919. graduate student at Columbia, trying, in her words, “to right the going portrait of an astounding dead-end Factory life. California in 1934 on a radical his series of paintings of the 34. The _____ Commune of she plunged into public life in wrongs of Ludlow.” woman whose role in labor and working-class platform. Lawrence, Mass. Bread and Public health pioneer 16. Albert ______was the head 1871 has inspired millions of 1912, when progressives swept women’s history has receded Roses Strike. of the (U.F.T.) from 1964 to 41. ______Actors Guild. workers around the globe. the Denver municipal elections. Despite this commitment, from memory. Along the way, she 8. Roche returned to her western Roche made an impressive explains progressivism’s evolution 1986. 42. Margaret ______was the James T. ______, author 35. _____ Lewis led this of Studs Lonigan. roots to become the city’s first mark on the general welfare into Cold War liberalism. She 17. union-busting Prime Minister of teacher’s strike against Mayor ____ Joel sang about “... Review by Donn Mitchell woman police officer. In Robyn of society, too, running for does not paper over the errors England from 1979 to 1990. 9. Morris ______, union Rahm Emanuel in Chicago in living here in Allentown, and Muncy’s words, she quickly governor of Colorado and and arrogance of progressivism, activist and long-time Socialist 2012. hat would you do if you they’re closing all the factories 44. Irving ____ was a transformed the job “into a accepting appointment as Henry nor does she shy away from Party candidate for N.Y.C. 36. Walter ______was the Winherited a coal company? down.” Democratic Socialist and editor command post in the campaign Morgenthau’s Assistant Secretary describing Roche’s acceptance of Mayor and Congress. President of the U.A.W. from What, especially, would you do 18. Clifford _____ was the of Dissent magazine. if it was one of the villains in against Denver’s notorious of the Treasury. In this capacity, secret loans from the union as 11. ____ Goldman, famous 1946 until his death in 1970. social-realist playwright of the 46. The ____ School of Social the ? Josephine political machine.” Her impact she was an active member of “shady.” Nonetheless, her account 37. Scott ______is the union- the Economic Security Council, 1930’s. Science was founded in NYC anarchist, speaker, factory Roche knew, and when she was so great that she was is upbeat and colorful, peppered worker and founder of the busting governor of Wisconsin. which hammered out the details 20. John L. _____ was in 1906 by Socialist Party became president of the Rocky essentially forced out of office with vivid detail of the many publication Mother Earth. of the Social Security Act at President of the United Mine members. 43. The name of this company Mountain Fuel Company, she little more than a year later. issues Roche addressed in the Frances Perkins’ and Mary Workers from 1920 to 1960. 13. David ______was lives on in infamy for beating immediately invited the United Although she lost a vigorous course of her energetic 90 years. 47. Ray ______started his Rumsey’s kitchen table. the P-9 union local of the Mine Workers to return to the fight for reinstatement, her These stories, along with 79 pages 23. The historic company town the head of the I.L.G.W.U. Corporate Campaign strategy U.F.C.W. in Austin, Minnesota Colorado coal fields to organize reforming zeal survived Like Perkins, she was of notes, offer a treasure trove of south of Chicago named for the from 1932 to 1966. in the late 1970’s against the J.P. in 1985/1986. her mines. Thus began a lifelong unscathed. Accepting an disappointed that health labor and progressive movement famous rail-car company of the 15. Pete ______, one of the Stevens & Company. alliance with John L. Lewis, assignment to head Colorado’s insurance could not be built into resources.

late 19th and early 20th C. greatest folksingers in American 45. Kate Richards _____ was a

48. Norman _____ was the Socialist Party activist who was Mills 5. 23. Pullman 23. 42. Thatcher 42.

24. Harry ______led the history, might object to seeing Crossword Answers Guthrie 27.

presidential candidate of the jailed under the Espionage Act Brownsville 4. 20. Lewis 20. 41. Screen 41. 26. Roseanne 26.

famous 3-day general strike in his name inside Little Boxes in a Carnegie 50.

Socialist Party in the 1930’s and for her anti-war activism during London 3. 18. Odets 18. 39. Sinclair 39. 24. Bill 24.

San Francisco in 1934 as head crossword puzzle. Hill 49.

1940’s. WWI. Muste 2.

17. Billy 17. 38. Ben 38. 22. Reagan 22.

of the I.L.W.U. 19. _____ Feldman, President of O’Hare 45.

1. Miners 1.

16. Shanker 16. Robinson 21. Karl 21. 51. John ______directed the Hormel 43.

25. Billy _____ is a British the U.F.T. from 1986 to 1997. 49. Joe ____ , I.W.W. activist Down

14. Springsteen 14. Cleveland 36. 19. Sandra 19. films Eight Men Out, Matewan, Walker 37.

singer and political activist 21. The very first Marxist (first executed by firing squad in

12. Waldheim 12. 34. Pinkerton 34. 52. George 52. 15. Seeger 15. Sunshine State and Silver City. Reuther 36.

known for the albums Talking name). Utah in 1936.

10. Rivera 10. 33. Five 33. 51. Sayles 51. 13. Dubinsky 13.

52. Henry _____ was a Karen 35.

with the Taxman About Poetry 22. 50. Andrew ______busted 7. DeLeon 7. 31. Taylor 31. 48. Thomas 48. 11. Emma 11. This President of the U.S. Paris 34.

and Mermaid Avenue. progressive advocate of the union at his steel works 6. Foner 6. 28. NLRB 28. 47. Rogers 47. 9. Hillquit 9. busted the Professional Air Traffic Boston 32.

28. This federal agency rules the single tax and mayoral company in 1892, resulting in 2. Moore 2. 25. Bragg 25. 46. Rand 46. 8. Farrell 8. Controllers Organization in Bisbee 30.

on workers’ and union’s rights candidate in 1886 in NYC for the deaths of seven workers. 24. Bridges 24. 44. Howe 44. 6. Fasanella 6. 1981, which had endorsed him Shove 29. ss ro c

(Initials). the United Labor Party. for president the year before. Answers on page 5 A

16 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 5 elementary school. The girls had for tenants with the Chelsea been studying the Triangle Fire, Coalition on Housing. and were fascinated when Gloria Mimi Stern-Wolfe Seven amazing women told them her story about the was the only honoree to be fire at the Happy Land Social introduced with a song, by her By Rachel Bernstein Action, working against the war acronyms, including the NYC Club, one of her memorable daughter, singer/songwriter in Vietnam and also addressing DEP, US EPA, NYS PD and moments as an activist. They lara Lemlich’s Laura Wolfe. Stern-Wolfe is issues such as fair and affordable others, all groups she brought were astounded to discover that daughter, founder and artistic director of housing and community control to the table in an effort to the fire took place on March granddaughter and Downtown Music Productions, of the schools. She was active in moderate the effects on Harlem 25th – the same exact day as great grandson joined presenting socially relevant the fight to end the United States’ neighborhoods of the North the Triangle Shirt Waist fire 79 theC rousing NYC Labor Chorus, music in community concerts. occupation of Vieques, Puerto River Water Pollution Control years earlier. They told about Manhattan Borough President Somehow she has combined Rico, camping out on the beach Plant. Rocker continues her Gloria being infuriated to learn Gale Brewer and a museum a life of serious devotion to three decades of advocating for that the building owner of the full of energized admirers for at Vieques and later being arrested classical music – she has given cleaner air and water in the area, Happy Land Social Club was the Fifth Annual Clara Lemlich in front of the United Nations. piano recitals at Carnegie Recital for better parks and recreation in violation of fire codes and Awards on May 4, 2015. The Never slowing her commitment Hall and Alice Tully Hall – with and expanded opportunities for intentionally locked doors that Awards honor unsung activists, to protesting for peace and justice, a life committed to activism. youth, particularly at the park trapped and killed 89 people. women who have been working in her early eighties she also Her concerts served to protest atop the facility. “She and fellow activists for the larger good all their embarked on an acting career, the Vietnam War, to support the She continues as well to be created an effigy of the club lives, in the tradition of those becoming a member of the Screen Civil Rights movement, and to deeply involved in expanding owner and hung it publicly in who sparked so many reforms Actors Guild. celebrate Martin Luther King, recycling borough-wide, and in order to draw attention to his in the aftermath of the Triangle L. Ann Rocker Jr., Langston Hughes, Harriet is an the efforts to contain hydraulic terrible greed.” Sukenick was Shirtwaist Factory Fire. In the environmentalist and the Tubman and others. 2015 Lemlich honorees L. Ann Rocker and Winifred Armstrong, flanked by members of the NYC Labor fracturing (fracking) in New York an active voice in the women’s words of Marge Piercy, these are founder and president of the Her annual Benson AIDS Chorus (left is 2014 Lemlich honoree Barbara Bailey) who provided music to inspire the crowd. State and beyond. movement, working with women who: North River Community Concerts present music of Photo: Ravi Ragbir Redstockings and NY Radical jump into work head first Gloria Sukenick (90) was composers lost to HIV/AIDS , creation of the Peace Corps, the movement to provide redress workers into the union. Her Environmental Review Board. Feminists and organizing early without dallying in the shadows… introduced with verve by Lena and her series “Composers of the worked in the mining industry for Japanese interned during extraordinary organizing abilities Introducing her, Robert consciousness-raising groups for who do what has to be done, again Habtu (10) and Marlena Vega Holocaust” is devoted to music on labor and environmental WWII, and soon being involved led to more responsibilities Jackson used a string of NOW, and an energetic advocate and again. (9), of the Central Park East of composers lost to the world in issues in Africa (long before the in organizations advocating for within the union, including the camps of Europe. Hosted by the Puffin environmental movement), and Asian Americans. becoming vice president for MC Esther Cohen told the Gallery for Social Activism at played innovative roles in the When her daughter was new organizing in 1989. the Museum of the City of crowd this is always her favorite Interracial Council for Business diagnosed with autism she began Under Grant’s leadership, 1199 New York (yes – the museum night of the year. Her poem Opportunity, the International to focus on resources to help organized tens of thousands of has a permanent gallery about explains why: Society of Ecological Economics autistic children, and began what new members, including hospital activism!), organized by and the Environmental Science became a substantial business – workers, nursing home workers We look for hope LaborArts and the Remember Committee of the New York Different Roads to Learning. Lisa and home health care workers. though we sometimes forget the Triangle Fire Coalition and what hope looks like sponsored by the Museum, Academy of Sciences, among Dietlin’s book Transformational Minerva Solla introduced her as and every year the Puffin Foundation and the others. Philanthropy highlights Azuma’s “Our ‘si, se pueda hermana,’ sister Shelley and Donald Rubin Her advocacy for tenants’ advocacy work in the autism Sylvia Gutierrez Grant!” at the Clara Lemlich awards Foundation, the evening rights, particularly with the Park community and on behalf of Lillian Lifflander was every year when we honor celebrated seven amazing women. West Village Tenants’ Association Asian Americans. born on the Lower East Side in women who continue stretches over three decades. to fight for what Win Armstrong, Sylvia Gutierrez Grant 1919, and Toby Emmer described Armstrong believes we are “the introduced by Evelyn Jones Rich moved to New York City from a bit of her life long activism. A it is they want to change inheritors, interpreters, and as someone who “really knows Mexico as a youth; by the late graduate of Washington Irving women who won’t creators of our history.” her stuff,” is an economist, a 1970s she worked in the business High School and Vassar College, give up who call us scholar of Africa, an advocate Julie Azuma came to New office at Flushing Hospital – soon she went to work for the United at ll o’clock on Sunday night for African self-rule and a strong York City from Chicago to she was serving as a delegate Electrical, Radio and Machine even though they’re presence in the tenants’ rights work in the apparel industry. for the hospital workers’ union Workers (UE) in 1940, and from 97 and should probably movement in NYC. She worked Introduced by Susan Onuma SEIU/1199. One of her early there she served in the Women’s be in bed women who want for Senator John F. Kennedy and as someone at the heart of successful campaigns was at Our Army Corps (WAC). She was a to leave this earth the Foreign Relations Committee multiple communities, Azuma Lady of Mercy Hospital in the founding member of the Lower knowing they did all they could describes being politicized by Bronx, where she brought 500 East Side Mobilization for Peace on African issues and on the Henry Foner and Lemlich family, Michael Miller, Jane Margulies, Rita Margulies and I mean all they could.

10 Summer/Fall 2015 New York Labor History Association 11