Work History News

New York Labor History Association, Inc. A Bridge Between Past and Present Volume 34 No 2 Summer/Fall 2017 I’ve got something to say Lifelong activists honored at Clara Lemlich Awards Aisha al-Adawiya has been a force in interfaith-based activism in and around the world for nearly four decades. She founded Women In Islam in 1992 in response to atrocities perpetrated against Muslim women in refugee camps in Bosnia. In her introduction, Sarah Sayeed, from the mayor’s office, noted al-Adawiya’s commitment to conflict resolution, cross- cultural understanding, and peace building, as well as her efforts on the Schomburg Library project documenting black religious heritage. Lidia Correa, originally from Puerto Rico, dedicated herself to helping fellow New York City garment workers when she was a sample maker, and that dedication has never waned. Long since officially Peter Odabashian Peter retired, Correa still works essentially full- The 2017 Clara Lemlich honorees (from left): Lidia Correa, Vinie Burrows, Ingrid Frank, Mary Albritton Douglas, Lubow Wolynetz, and Aisha al-Adawiya time helping retirees. You’ll also find her on picket lines and protests, while she By Rachel Bernstein the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire over one remains active in community groups in her “everything here hundred years ago. Bronx neighborhood. When garment union seems to need us” The 2017 Lemlich Honorees leader Edgar Romney introduced Correa, –Rilke Vinie Burrows – actor, author and he remembered her tireless effort and hese words from poet Rainer fighter against violence and racism – uses enthusiasm. Maria Rilke capture the essence her artistry to advocate for social change. Mary Albritton Douglas, originally of the historical moment and With few roles open to a woman of color, from rural North Carolina, has been a the spirit of the six amazing she developed her own one-woman shows, volunteer nurse’s assistant and mentor to Twomen honored at the Seventh Annual which she has performed more than 6,000 other volunteers at St. Barnabas Hospital Clara Lemlich Awards on May Day at the times worldwide. A stunningly energetic for more than 30 years. Her dedication, as Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). 92-year-old, Burrows fit the Lemlich event Arlene Allende from St. Barnabas noted in The award celebrates unsung heroines into her one night off from the SohoRep her introduction, is extraordinary. When for their lifelong commitment to social production of Samara. Queens-based rapper Douglas was in her 80s, she trained as a activism, in the tradition of those who Kalie Kamara introduced Burrows with a hospice worker, and she continues to sparked so many reforms in the aftermath of rap written just for her. Continued on page 4 Upcoming events We hope you’ll join us in the coming months. These are strange days, indeed. They’re better spent together.

Friday, September 22, 2017 Thursday, October 12, 2017 Women in Non-Traditional Skilled Trades Today 3rd Annual Bernhardt Labor Journalism Award and Roundtable discussion on programs that have helped women Forum on Labor Journalism enter historically male-dominated skilled trades and the uniformed Join us for a forum on labor journalism and history – and the forces, in commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the hiring of announcement and celebration of the winner of the third annual the first women firefighters in New York City. Participants include Debra E. Bernhardt Labor Journalism Prize. women from IATSE, Local 3 IBEW, United Women Firefighters, NYU Tamiment Library, 70 Washington Square South and the nonprofit, Tools & Tiaras. Jane LaTour, author of Sisters in New York, NY 10012 the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New 6 – 8 p.m. York City, will moderate the discussion about mentoring, training, and what it took, and still takes, for women to work in the skilled RSVP to [email protected] or call 212-998-2635. trades. The Bernhardt prize is sponsored by York Labor History Association NYU Tamiment Library, • LaborArts • Metro New York Labor Communications Council • 70 Washington Square South NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO • Robert F. Wagner Labor New York, NY 10012 Archives at NYU’s Tamiment Library 6:30 – 8 p.m. Also in the works : Stay tuned for details RSVP to [email protected] or call 212-998-2635. • The 31st Annual John Commerford Labor Education Awards This event is sponsored by the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at • Labor Relations in Baseball: Today and Tomorrow NYU’s Tamiment Library • New York Labor History Association • • Labor and electoral politics: Where do we go from here? LaborArts

Book reviews online

Check out our growing list of reviews of books related to labor and labor history on the Work History News New York Labor History Association website: newyorklaborhistory.org. New York Labor History Association, Inc. Books reviewed in recent months include in Work History News is published the American Labor Movement: Past, Present & Future; twice per year to keep NYLHA We Are One: Stories of Work, Life and Love; Joelito’s Big members informed about our Decision/La Gran Decisión de Joelito; City of Dreams: organization’s work and labor his- tory events in New York. For more Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern ; information, visit us at White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in newyorklaborhistory.org. America President Irwin Yellowitz If you’d like to write a review, please contact Keith Vice-President George Altomare Danish, our book review editor, at keithdanish@ Secretary Abbe Nosoff; Regina Olff yahoo.com with your suggestion. Treasurer Peter Filardo Editor Leyla Vural

2 New York Labor History Association Report on Blanche Wiesen Cook’s book talk Eleanor Roosevelt’s essential American life gets its due Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After, 1939-1962 By Blanche Wiesen Cook, Viking, 2016

By Miriam Frank abor History month at Tamiment Library featured a book talk on May 9 with CUNY’s Distinguished Professor of History, Blanche WiesenL Cook. The third and final volume of her massive biography of Eleanor Roosevelt came out in November last year and will be launched as a paperback this fall. Cook’s Volume I, The Early Years (1992), follows ER’s childhood, youth, and marriage to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1905, and concludes in 1933 when she was 49 years old and just entering the White House as First Lady. Volume II (2000) observes for her radicalism, but persisted, whether ER during The Defining Years (1933-38) Blanche Wiesen Cook or not her husband agreed. – the transformative crisis of the Great Following FDR’s death in 1945, ER Depression, the New Deal, and the rise of FDR into doing more,” said Cook. was honored and admired for having come fascism prior to US entry into World War As First Lady, ER cast an independent into her own through much adversity. She II. Cook now concludes the acclaimed series and activist role that would involve continued to campaign for her causes and with Volume III (2016), The War Years and her deeply in the vital movements of lived to see many of her projects come to After (1939-1962). her time. From research in the public fruition. Hers was an essential American Cook arrived for her talk at Tamiment record and in ER’s extensive and life, sweetened along the way with secret in great spirits. She may have other projects intimate correspondences, Cook details loves and nurturing friendships during war in mind, but for now, she is thrilled to share ER’s maturing political skills and the and peace, and made purposeful with the the exhilaration of completing this thorough evolution of her powerful public identity. good fight for a better world. and necessary biography. Her years of ER flourished as a campaigner and as a Miriam Frank is active in UAW Local shaping deep research into elegant narration popular newspaper columnist. Her daring 7902, the NYU adjuncts’ union. Her book, have yielded fresh, powerful insights into ideals involved her in many projects Out in the Union: A Labor History of ER’s ideals and travails during the worst of and controversies; and her progressive Queer America, was cited by the American times, and then her life after FDR’s death positions often challenged government Library Association as an “Outstanding Title” during the post-war period. policies. She received plenty of criticism of 2015. Cook’s presentation prompted lively dialogue with the audience about the famously difficult presidential marriage and its discontents. The troubles that the Cook's years of shaping deep research into two had with each other were sometimes elegant narration have yielded fresh, emotional, sometimes political. On occasion they did agree, but nuances of strategy and powerful insights into Eleanor Roosevelt's ideals balances of power were often tricky and the and travails. issues – racial justice, rescue of refugees – were urgent. “She never stopped pushing

Summer/Fall 2017 3 Let’s put on a show! (Union-style) By Keith Danish ith the passing last February, at age 102, of the actor/ comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey, we may have lost the Wlast human connection to the 1930s hit Pins and Needles, the ILGWU-sponsored satirical musical revue that gave us songs of “social significance”, warned that “it’s not cricket Corey, at nearly 100, panhandling for to picket”, and advised that “if a radical causes idea gives you nervous diarrhea, call it Un- maintaining its popularity. The Daughters American!”. The play started with a cast of the American Revolution attacked it made up almost entirely of union members as “profane” and “Communistic”, the from the shop floor, who rehearsed for over American Communist Party condemned its a year to become stage-worthy performers. anti-Stalinist bent, and columnist Heywood The play’s “command” performance at Broun wished “it had less entertainment The White House in March 1938 resulted in value and more bite as propaganda.” the headline “…the Garment Workers Get However, the show was aimed at a mass the President in Stitches, or Sew It Seams”. audience, and was never intended to be As for Corey, he was one of the left-wing “agit prop”, so it was an historic professional “ringers” who, he later success for the ILGWU and (may we say?) confessed, joined the show by borrowing the Irwin Corey in The Unvailing of the General first-rate propaganda for a union edging into from Pins and Needles, 1938 union card of a friend’s father. Gene Barry the mainstream. (born Eugene Klass), later to become TV’s The show ran from 1937 to 1940, with Keith Danish’s father, Max, created the “Bat Masterson”, was another professional a variety of casts and touring companies, Pins and Needles revue title while serving actor who made an appearance in Pins, as losing its all-amateur status, becoming as editor of Justice, the newspaper of the did Hy Gardner (born Hyman Goldstein). less “ethnic” and more mainstream, and International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Clara Lemlich Awards Continued from page 1 appreciation of those traditions by teaching at the Museum of the City of New York volunteer at the elementary school in embroidery and other arts-and- hosts the Lemlich Awards. LaborArts and the Bronx where she used to teach, she crafts to New Yorkers of all ages the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition sings in her church choir, and serves as and cultural backgrounds. created the award with support from the an Eucharistic minister at St. Anthony of “For Ukrainians,” Lubow Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, Padua R.C. Church. says, folk art “is the creativity of MCNY, the New York Labor History Ingrid Frank arrived in the U.S. self-taught people…It is important Association, and Jewish Currents. at age 12, a Jewish refugee from Nazi because folk art, traditions, and Go to LaborArts.org/ Germany, and she soon awoke to America’s language are what kept our LemlichAwards2017 for video racial injustice. Marching on a “Free the identity and helped people of the ceremony and interviews Scottsboro Boys” picket line at 14 was the preserve themselves as a distinct with present and past honorees. start of a lifetime of civil rights activism. ethnic group.” From Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign to The standing-room-only Clara Lemlich, everyday superhero. By the “Hip Hop Heals” campaign supporting award ceremony included Sasha Matthews Barack Obama, Frank has been a steadfast the New York City Labor Rachel Bernstein, co-founder of activist for racial justice. Twelve-year-old Chorus at its finest, a song by 17-year- LaborArts.org, is a public historian who taught Sasha Matthews, cartoonist and budding old singer-songwriter Anni DiRusso, a in the graduate program in public history at activist, introduced Frank. proclamation from Mayor De Blasio, and NYU for decades, and author, with the late Lubow Wolynetz preserves cultural personal congratulations from Gale Brewer Debra E. Bernhardt, of Ordinary People, traditions of her native at the (Manhattan Borough President). Extraordinary Lives: A Pictorial History of Ukrainian Museum in Manhattan, fostering The Puffin Gallery for Social Activism Working People in New York City.

4 New York Labor History Association :: Chalk By Ruth Sergel In these dark times – an offering. n each March 25, someone steps out into the streets of New York. JugglingO chalk, fliers, tape, she seeks out an address. In 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took the lives of 146 young workers, most of them immigrant women and girls. Each year on the anniversary of the infamous blaze, we radiate out across the city to their former homes to bend to the pavement and inscribe a name: Ida Pearl 20 years old Lived here at 355 East 4th Street Died March 25, 1911 It is an explicit rebuke to Triangle Shirtwaist those who treated the Triangle There is a profound joy as we find Factory Fire workers as if their lives were of so little value they could ourselves strong, clear, and able to A flier is posted nearby, turn to ash and their loss not describing the fire and the be noted. Each year we return, act swiftly in the moments when movement for social and not necessarily the same exact it matters most. economic justice it galvanized. people, but the community we Across the street, around are perpetually re-creating. We the corner, more names are come as we are – as workers, as inner world to public action. can muster as we face the hard appearing. As we touch the women, as neighbors, as Jews, There can be a mesmerizing choices that are upon us. But pavement, we protest the as Italian-Americans. Each one fear when we stand on the with a little practice, perhaps injustice by locating the story not has agency to design their own brink of visibility. But as we we will find – at the factory, the place of their memorial – simply or with practice transgression, the – we were made for these death, but where they lived. The decoration, perhaps the same spell is quickly broken. There times. door they walked through each name each year or a thread is a profound joy as we find Looking forward to seeing day, a window they might have through a physical address. ourselves strong, clear, and able you in the streets. looked out, perhaps a friend or Although we have never met, to act swiftly in the moments Ruth Sergel is an artist + a co-worker across the street. the people who chalk are when it matters most. agitator. Her book, See You Tracing other forms of knowing, community. Together we ensure We are not the resistance. in the Streets: Art, Action + Remembering the Triangle the sense memory we hold in that each of the 146 Triangle We are the future. Shirtwaist Factory Fire, is bone and asphalt. dead are laid before the public. There is great violence ahead available from the University Chalk is an ephemeral Each name scrawled is a of us. We will be called to risk of Iowa Press. To participate in memorial, predicated on a rehearsal, training us in the more than we ever wanted. Chalk 2018, please see: disruption of the public space. translation of our heartfelt We will need every tool we www.streetpictures.org

Summer/Fall 2017 5 Our annual labor history event When government was the solution The New Deal’s forgotten legacy, then and now By Abbe Nosoff history, NYU, spoke about ith the role of the reaction against the New government taking Deal. Prior to the 1930s, on new meaning, the assumption was that the W national government had no our annual labor history event, “Celebrating New Deal New right, nor power, to regulate York City: We Did Great the economy. Conservative Things and Can Do them business groups attacked the Again!” gave teachers, trade New Deal, beginning in the unionists, and academics the 1930s and continuing into the chance to come together to 1970s, and even beyond. They examine the past and imagine a saw “freedom” as coming from brighter future. the individual, while the New The New York Labor Deal notion of freedom comes History Association and the from solidarity. Association of Teachers After lunch, we took a of Social Studies/UFT co- short walk to the New York sponsored the event, with Custom House to view support from PSC/CUNY, By Lily Furedi, 1934 Reginald Marsh’s WPA murals AFT, and the National Jobs of shipping in the New York historical context. Irwin of life. Landscape architect harbor. for All Coalition. Steve Yellowitz examined the role and co-founder of Designing Leberstein organized the Afternoon workshops on of labor and the New Deal the WE, Braden Crooks, what a new New Deal could do event with assistance from Joe policies that changed the discussed structural racism Doyle and teachers from the for New York and the country picture for union participation, in cities. The New Deal, for looked at the environment, the ATSS/UFT. particularly the government’s instance, encouraged home NYLHA President Irwin social safety net, an economic shift from oppressing ownership through home bill of rights, and more. Steve Yellowitz and Barbara Bowen, unions to neutrality. Philip loans and restrictive deeds, president of PSC/CUNY, Leberstein led a workshop on Harvey, professor of law and which led to the redlining of social disruption and social welcomed us, and Franklin economics, Rutgers School neighborhoods, and zoning of D. Roosevelt III, grandson of movements as catalysts for of Law, discussed how to areas for racial segregation, change. FDR and professor emeritus of promote an economic bill which cut off investment in economics at Sarah Lawrence We had lively Q&As after of rights, particularly the communities of color. Joseph the sessions. With a long view College, gave the opening fundamental right to decent Wilson, former director of remarks. of New Deal history, many work, which had its origins Brooklyn College’s Graduate participants voiced their views Learning from the past in the New Deal. Sheila Center for Worker Education, on current social and economic Panel I focused on the Collins, professor emeritus discussed the “raw deal”, issues. Our thanks to Steve New Deal as the solution to of political science, William which extended racism in Leberstein, Trudy Goldberg, economic and social crises, Paterson University, discussed America. Failures of the New and Sheila Collins of the then and now. With the New environmental issues and Deal, he said, were rooted in Living New Deal Project, the Deal, the government brought the essential role the New the failures of Reconstruction Association of Teachers of hope and relief to a besieged Deal played in promoting and housing policies were Social Studies/UFT, and others nation in the throes of the public health and tackling designed to institutionalize who made this outstanding Great Depression. Gertrude environmental problems. segregation. Sheila Collins event happen. Schaffner Goldberg, professor Panel 2 centered on the discussed the New Deal’s role Abbe Nosoff is a retired emeritus of social work New Deal’s complex and in theatre, the arts, and music schoolteacher, member of the and social policy, Adelphi sometimes contradictory projects. Kimberly Phillips- United Federation of Teachers, and University, discussed the role in enhancing quality Fein, associate professor of member of the NYLHA board.

6 New York Labor History Association Remembering Henry Foner

By Steve Leberstein later, in 1988. With his enry Foner was a leadership, Henry’s union was much respected among the first to support and loved activist the civil rights movement in the labor and the movement to end leftH and other progressive the war in Vietnam. He was circles, as well as a satirical also active in local politics – song-writer, playwright, and with the Liberal Party when erstwhile saxophonist. On it was truly liberal, and as April 4, more than 100 people campaign manager when came together to celebrate former longshoreman, State his life and contributions in Assembly member and Chair a memorial co-sponsored by of the Assembly’s Labor Jewish Currents, LaborArts, Committee, Frank Barbaro, SEIU 1199, the New York ran for a Congressional seat Labor History Association, in 2004. Henry enlisted me, and others. my wife, and many friends Henry was one of four in Frank’s campaign; who could ever forget his frantic

Foner brothers – along with LaborArts.org Jack, Moe, and Phil – and race around the city streets, Known as the Rapp-Coudert the then acting president of grew up in Williamsburg, hoping that we would get Committee, its investigation City College, Alice Chandler, Brooklyn. He graduated to the next event in one piece! started with City College. vowed to do what she could from City College and, along Fortunately we survived but, All four Foner brothers were to make amends to those who with all of his brothers, was unfortunately, Frank lost. hauled before the committee’s were purged in 1941. She asked active in bringing a union A man about town investigators. Jack, Moe, and me to research the purge and to the college, joining the Phil were dismissed, but Henry, seek a resolution of the college’s Henry was also a board Instructional Staff Association, the youngest, had just graduated Faculty Council, pledging to member and writer for the which later became the New and didn’t have a job yet. His safeguard the college from progressive monthly, Jewish York College Teachers Union interrogation by the committee possible future purges, not so Currents. He actively sought to AFT Local 537. Henry, cast a long shadow. unimaginable in the first year keep knowledge of the labor who graduated in 1939, was Before he was called up for of Reagan’s presidency. That movement alive. He wrote songs a student activist, elected active duty in 1942, Henry quickly led me to Henry, who and, in 1947, the play, Thursdays president of the student was a substitute stenography helped organize the campaign ‘Till Nine, for the department council and organizing for the teacher and took the test for a that persuaded the City store workers’ union. He American Student Union and permanent teacher’s license. He University Board of Trustees taught at City College’s Center the Young Communist League. was discharged from the Army to apologize to those unjustly for Worker Education and An early activist in 1946 with honors. But when fired or let go, and to safeguard elsewhere. He was an active In 1940, the New he applied for a permanent the Constitutional rights of NYLHA board member and York Legislature formed a teachers license, he was assembly and speech to current editor of this newsletter. He co- committee, headed by upstate turned down for not having a and future generations, which it founded LaborArts. Assembly member Herbert sufficiently “meritorious record.” did in October 1981. Young and old alike miss Rapp, to look into the When Phil Foner Shortly after losing his Henry. He touched many lives, administration and financing of spoke at an event in 1981 substitute teachers position, and made a difference. the state’s public schools. Soon commemorating City College Henry went to work for the Steve Leberstein, a social after, a sub-committee, headed faculty who fought in the Joint Board of the Fur Dressers historian, member of the PSC’s by State Senator Frederick Spanish Civil War and noted and Dryers Union, later the Executive Council and chair of its Coudert, Jr., was added to that the survivors would have Joint Board Fur, Leather, and Academic Freedom Committee, investigate “subversion” in New been fired by the Rapp-Coudert Machine Workers, from which was friends with Henry Foner for York City’s public schools. committee when they returned, he retired as president 40 years more than 35 years.

Summer/Fall 2017 7 New York Labor History Association Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives 70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor New York, NY 10012

Inside  Meet the Clara Lemlich Award honorees  Eleanor Roosevelt: The full story  See you in the streets: Art, activism + the Triangle Fire  The New Deal’s forgotten legacy  A personal remembrance of Henry Foner  Upcoming events Work History News

New York Labor History Association, Inc.

The New York Labor History Association classroom education. We organize discussion was founded in 1976 to bring together New panels and conferences, book talks and movie Yorkers interested in the history of working nights. We celebrate long-time activists and people, their organizations, and their struggles new labor journalists. Learn more about us for a better life and a more just society. Too at newyorklaborhistory.org — and if you’re often this history is left out of textbooks and not a member yet, please join us!

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