So Long, It's Been Good to Know You , legendary troubadour for was "America's tuning fork. labor, died on January 27 at the age of 94, of natural causes. Seeger His songs capture the essence leaves behind a long history of social activism. Singer, songwriter, and beauty of this country." Work History News environmental activist, anti-war opponent, Seeger was blacklisted Seeger sang "So long," with from appearing on network TV for 17 years. He returned to the folk music group, The L H A appear on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS in Weavers, which he organized 1967, whereupon his anti-war anthem, "Knee Deep in the Big after World War II. For more Muddy," was censored. When it aired the following year, the song than five decades, Seeger's was credited with solidifying public opinion in opposition to the singing lifted spirits on picket Labor History Association, Inc. Vietnam War. lines, in migrant labor camps, Seeger was a member of the New York Labor History and all across the land. The A Bridge Between Past and Present Volume 31 No 1 Winter | Spring 2014 Association. In 2009, he played his five-string banjo and other words of the song that became his anthem, "The Hammer Song," instruments at the 90th birthday celebration of his friend and summed up his life and its commitments. He did indeed hammer comrade, . Oral historian Studs Terkel said that Seeger out a warning and he will be missed, but his legacy is strong. Historian and PSC President Working Group Profile: Courtney B. Francis Barbara Bowen Honorees ourtney Francis was born in working people throughout history have fought against oppression. By Joe Doyle Crown Heights, . Her The class looks at organizations like the Industrial Workers of the he Commerford Awards this past C only connection to labor unions World, the Knights of Labor, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the December 2nd was notable for comes about through her brother, a Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, and others, looking at their goals T the eloquence of its awardees, member of Sheet Metal Workers Local and how they organized,” she said. Professional Staff Congress/CUNY 28. But her interest in history runs deep. For Courtney, “labor history, like all history, is a guide for action president Barbara Bowen and Pulitzer Prize- At age 12, she read the Autobiography today. Working people just can’t afford to lose anymore. While winning historian Eric Foner. Bowen and of Malcolm X. “I understood from this Forbes adds 200 more billionaires to their list in the last year, so now Foner delivered acceptance speeches that book that there was more going on in there are 1,426 in the world, with 44 in the U.S., the number of won cheers from a standing-room only the world, than just me and my own households living on $2 or less in income per person, per day in a audience at the Local 1199 penthouse on little world, to say the least. It made me given month increased to 1.46 million in 2011, a 130 percent growth 42nd Street in . Brian Greenberg, of Monmouth

think,” she said. “Malcolm X educated himself in many different from 1996. A better world for working people starts with leadership Kimberly Schiller Photos: things while in prison, which I thought was interesting. I never liked and organization of the people, to truly represent their interests. That College, NJ, presented N.Y.U. Barbara Bowen Eric Foner schooling or formal education, at least not the way it’s currently leadership and organization has to work toward a goal of a better student Sarah “Sadye” Stern NYLHA’s set up. I wanted to be like him, so I started reading and educating world for the majority of the people on the planet, not just for a Barbara Wertheimer Prize for the best won some time ago]. Leberstein reminded adjunct professors fit that description now myself in history, philosophy, economics and politics.” handful of the wealthy.” undergraduate essay on a labor history the audience that the same tidal wave of more than ever before. Bowen laments Now Courtney shares her knowledge with others through a Courtney Francis is a member of the NYLHA Working topic. Stern dug deep into the Wayne State union activism that swept in John Sweeney that we’re grappling in America with a labor history class she teaches at the Women’s Press Collective in Group and is a full-time volunteer organizer for the Women’s UFW archives to write a fascinating essay, to the helm of the AFL-CIO in 1995, swept “reform industrial complex” and a “testing Brooklyn. “It’s a three-part class, starting from colonial times up to Press Collective. To read her complete interview, visit the NYLHA “We Cast Our Lot with the Farmworkers: Barbara Bowen into the presidency of PSC/ industrial complex”—“colonized by money” 2005. …The purpose of the class is to look at the approach of how website or the Facebook page of the Working Group. Organization, Mobilization, and Meaning CUNY five years later. and demanding a hefty slice of the $81 in the United Farm Workers’ Grape Boycott This year’s Commerford audience felt billion currently spent on public education. in New York City, 1967-70.” a surge of energy as Barbara Bowen took Education corporations add to the menace. Fighting for professorial ranks the microphone: “The only way we can They are currently seeking to cash in on Introducing the NYLHA Working Group higher education. NYLHA executive board member advance the labor movement is when we The NYLHA Working Group is an Together they continue to work to create Bowen says: “Public educational Steve Leberstein, retired executive advance all workers.” Bowen is thrilled by energetic group of and young people who have programs and opportunities to learn about the institutions are under assault… We are in director of CUNY’s Center for Worker the fledgling efforts of low-wage workers, been holding monthly meetings since January hidden history of labor. the fight of our lives at CUNY”—where Education, introduced Barbara Bowen. fast-food workers, and “carwash-heroes” 2013. They organized a night of short films on Currently, they are working on organizing Bowen’s Commerford Award is “for to win a living wage and job security. She 74% of students are people of color. contemporary organizing drives for the very walking tours, setting up a book club, and outstanding commitment to the trade praised nail salon women, as well. “They are “They’re amazingly brave. Many of them successful Second Annual Workers Unite! Film organizing an evening of films for the upcoming union movement.” Leberstein praised Ms. starting to look up and organize in a very are the first members of their family ever to Festival in May 2013. Third Annual Workers Unite! Film Festival. Bowen’s tireless efforts to restore salaries gendered profession.” go to college.” Some leave a CUNY campus Their latest project is a poster now being Interested? E-mail them at and restore raises—and for her successful Bowen appealed to the Commerford where they are succeeding—to go home widely distributed among students, unions and [email protected], or join their campaigns to win 80% pay for sabbaticals, audience on behalf of 3,000 low-wage “to a parent who is furious with them for labor history groups. The aim of the poster is Facebook group: New York Labor History and a first-time ever “paternity leave,” for workers currently working for City getting an education.” to attract a new generation of labor activists. Association Working Group. fathers with newborns [maternity leave was University of New York. And part-time (Continued on page 10) The Celestials Wertheimer Essay Award Winner By Bette Craig Inspired by Missing History aren Shepard’s novel, The Celestials, is based on an incident in labor history. By Jane LaTour Set in the same formerly industrial K earching for a senior thesis topic in town of North Adams, Massachusetts, where the History Department at New Maynard Seider’s documentary film,Farewell York University, Sarah “Sadye” Stern to Factory Towns? takes place in the present, S consulted with her thesis advisor, Professor The Celestials looks back to 1870, when 75 Linda Gordon. A double major (History Chinese workers were brought to town by and Spanish), Stern wanted to investigate Calvin T. Sampson to break a strike being “overlaps between the labor movement and waged at his shoe factory by the Knights of the 1960s social movements…in particular, St. Crispin. a moment of overlap between the labor Recruited in San Francisco, the young movement and the women’s movement to get Chinese men (one as young as fourteen) a feeling for how individuals who potentially traveled by rail with their English-speaking belonged to both movements were organizing foreman, Charles Sing, to serve as interpreter. and expressing themselves at the time.” The photograph you see above was made Preliminary research led her to the work the day of their arrival at the Sampson Shoe

of the scholar Margaret Rose, which focused Georgia Wever Factory. on the important role Chicana organizers The union members set up a rival Sadye Stern and Professor Brian Greenberg. historian, Anthony Lee, which featured Cobblers in a Nineteenth-Century Factory Town played in the success of the United Farm cooperative shoe factory in North Adams, but photographs of the Chinese workers (see by Anthony W. Lee. 312 pp. 136 half tones Workers’ grape boycott. “Rose argued that it didn’t last very long. A few years later, the economic, and political factors—was what first course, was everyone else’s story. I became information about his book right). and 1 color illustration. Princeton University the Chicana UFW organizers appealed to the made history really exciting for me. It wasn’t incredibly interested in finding and telling the Knights of St. Crispin, which had lodges in Shepard said, “I started thinking what did Press. 2008. $52.50 (cloth) public using both feminist and maternalist just any story—it was the story of real social story that hadn’t been documented, and in several cities totaling about 50,000 members it mean in human terms for those 75 people Karen Shepard attended a book club language, and united women on the basis of actors, and it could be intensely relevant.” understanding how control over language and in 1870, no longer existed. to arrive here? I didn’t want categories of meeting devoted to The Celestials in being empowered wives and mothers devoted As Stern explained in an interview, “As history is linked to visibility and power. I also There was a great deal of interest nationally victims and perpetrators. I started thinking Williamstown where Bette Craig recorded to working men. I loved her discussion of soon as I learned what social history was, I learned that when people get involved in the in Calvin Sampson’s “Chinese experiment” about the parallels between the Chinese some of her comments. language, and was excited by the idea that knew it was for me. It made sense that most documentation of their own history, it could from other manufacturers looking for cheap workers and women of 1870 and how much the UFW movement united people of such official history written through time—prior be instructional and empowering.” labor as well as native-born Americans seeking their lives were circumscribed by other diverse backgrounds—across race, ethnicity, to the rise of social history—had been Sadye Stern is the most recent addition to to keep their jobs. It probably helped prompt people’s power over them. And then I saw religion, age, and socioeconomic level.” primarily a chronicle of the most powerful the Working Group of the NYLHA. To read the the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was signed a photograph of an interracial baby. Calvin Stern did the research for her prize- members of society. What was missing, of complete interview, visit the NYLHA website. into law in 1882. Sampson and his wife, Julia, were childless, winning thesis, “We Cast Our Lot with the Novel rooted in compelling history and I thought, ‘what if?’ I think of my Work History News Farmworkers: Organizing, Mobilization, and The Celestials builds upon these few facts characters in terms of what do they want and L H A Meaning in the United Farm Workers’ Grape to create a rich world of a New England what are they willing to do to get it.” New York Labor History Association, Inc. Boycott in New York City, 1967-’70” at the industrial community’s encountering 75 of The “story truth” that Shepard wove Work History News is published two times per year Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, at the “the other.” Author Karen Shepard, who had around these historical characters has Julia to keep NYLHA’s members informed of labor Walter Reuther Library in Detroit and at the history events, activities and tours. a Chinese mother and an American father, Sampson bearing a long-awaited child Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner says, “I wouldn’t want to write a novel around fathered by Charlie Sing, the Chinese For more information and brochures contact: Labor Archives at NYU. foreman. Calvin Sampson eventually accepts NYLHA Stern was inspired in her love of history an historic event that was well documented c/o Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives because there would be no room for “story the child and raises her as his own. Along 70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor by her U.S. history teacher in her senior year truth.” I imagine a specific person in a with the invention that keeps the story New York, NY 10012 of high school. “He would place students in a http://newyorklaborhistory.org specific place—grounded in the earth—but moving are many beautiful passages of writing particular moment in the past, burden them then I like to think associatively.” describing everything from the landscape of President Irwin Yellowitz with the knowledge of public opinion and Shepard, who teaches writing the Berkshires to its people and context. Vice-President George Altomare the pros and cons of various decisions, and Secretary Abbe Nosoff; Regina Olff and literature at Williams College in The Celestials, by Karen Shepard, 361 pp. Treasurer Philoine Fried then ask them to argue for or against a certain Williamstown, Massachusetts—the next town Tin House Books, 2013. $15.95. (paper) Editor Jane LaTour course of action. This intense proximity with over from North Adams—first encountered A Shoemaker’s Story: Being Chiefly about Contributors historical decision-makers—being forced to her subjects when she attended a North French Canadian Immigrants, Enterprising Bette Craig, Joe Doyle, Bruce Kayton, Robert consider how the agency of historical decision- Parmet, Jerald Podair and Kimberly Schiller Adams Historical Society lecture by art Photographers, Rascal Yankees, and Chinese makers was influenced by external social,

2 Winter/Spring 2014 New York Labor History Association 11 Historian Eric Foner and PSC President Barbara Bowen Honorees (Continued from page 1) Historian Eric Foner received Triangle Fire: Legacy and Lessons [Part II] “It took a public referendum two introductions, the first by to form CUNY in 1849—an his uncle Henry Foner. Henry By Jane LaTour movement. But there is still a experiment to create a college Foner proudly reeled off his ypically, little labor lot of injustice in the world. In education for sons of workers. Yet nephew Eric’s Pulitzer Prize, history gets incorporated countries like Bangladesh and we find ourselves today rationing Bancroft Prize, Lincoln Prize, his into the curriculum China, people still suffer and T die from low wages and unsafe education. CUNY administration presidencies of the Organization for middle school students. presses us to speed our students of American Historians, the But the students in Kimberly conditions and tragedies like the through. Who cares what kind American Historical Association, Schiller’s 8th grade English Triangle Fire are still happening of education they get? While and the Society of American classes actively engage with today.” they lavish money and laptops Historians. materials, projects and field “People that were my own Georgia Wever on a privileged few students Irwin Yellowitz added a trips that make labor history age died in the Triangle Fire,” NYLHA Pres. Irwin Yellowitz (l.-r.) with Board Member Stephen said Michael Carnesi, “and who you see in the subway second introduction, warmly Leberstein and Local 375 Pres. (Retired) Lou Albano. come alive. Novels, primary advertisements.” recalling Eric Foner as a documents and outings to the the significance for me is that innocent people were taken Bowen had very gracious colleague at CUNY for 10 years. Richard Hofstadter. A lowlight Bois’s wife] won’t let me. Triangle Fire Commemoration advantage of who did not deserve words for Henry Foner’s Songs Yellowitz singled out Foner’s was being unceremoniously Foner seemed to be and the Tenement Museum on to die.” and Poems for Better or Verse. (“If I 1988 Reconstruction: America’s chucked out after my first stint embracing the title of labor Manhattan’s Lower East Side “It makes you think about was better prepared I would have Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 at Columbia, but then “Herb historian near the end of his talk: make vivid the lessons and the perspective of a working sung one for you.”) She praised as a paradigm of the historian’s Gutman rescued me from the “It’s impossible to understand lives of immigrants who toiled are posted at https://sites.google. fire, but are still found in today’s American back then,” said Sean Wertheimer Award winner Sarah craft, a comprehensive work bread lines” inviting Foner to the history of the United States in city sweatshops and forge a com/site/teachingthetriangle/. workplaces.” Paton, “and how they risked Stern for reconceiving the UFW which “encapsulates voluminous teach at CUNY. without understanding labor connection to contemporary The students create projects Sarah James noted the their lives by working in horrific grape boycott as a grassroots sources, [Foner] had to interpret unions. Labor unions were key struggles of factory workers at based on the Triangle Fire, passion with which Ms. Schiller Unlikely fan for first book conditions in order to earn a struggle that engaged the entire what took place—and explain to something like the 1963 home and abroad. inspired by the history they’ve teaches the material: “Although Foner had the house living.” American working class. Bowen why—demolishing past March on Washington for Jobs Schiller’s curriculum includes absorbed. I don’t have any relatives that laughing, recalling that his first Gabriella Bartley noted that, praised the labor history outreach interpretations and setting up a and Freedom… Today the labor Uprising, by Margaret Peterson Michelle D’Alessandro was had firsthand experience in this book Free Soil, Free Labor, Free work of NYLHA, its president standard for other historians to Haddix, a novel told from three inspired to learn more about horrific event, I know that it was “there are still garment factories Men was referred to “by a figure movement is probably the most Irwin Yellowitz (“who invariably follow.” different points of view—two the topic. “Not only was it a a pivotal moment in American that are repeating what happened you all have heard of, Karl Rove, integrated movement in America. sees the world through workers’ Eric Foner was presented the immigrants and one upper momentous event in history, but history. Having the honor of long ago. Hopefully, the efforts as my favorite work of history.” It’s impossible to foresee an eyes”) and her former PSC/ Commerford Award “for his life- class woman—is an extended it still has effects today … Just being at the commemoration and to set new standards will be Foner’s second book, Tom Paine improvement in American life CUNY colleague Eric Foner, with long commitment to scholarship flashback that chronicles the successful.” and Revolutionary America, without a revitalization of the because we don’t wear shirtwaists standing in the very area where it whom she shares the Commerford Uprising of the 20,000, the strike Lauren Sage pointed out that in labor history.” Professor Foner described the world of artisans— labor movement. anymore, does not mean that occurred, the weight of the event Award this year: “The great honor that preceded the tragedy of the “so many conditions could easily said, “I have never thought of “the cutting edge of radicalism Foner ended with a these issues have died off along hit me. I know that it taught of the night is to be mentioned Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. be fixed, yet employers chose to myself as a labor historian—but in the Atlantic world.” Foner’s prediction: “Every few years I with the fashion,” she said. Americans a lesson. For example, in the same breath as Eric Foner. A second novel is Ashes of Roses, ignore them, and people got hurt the labor movement and working third book, Reconstruction, dealt give a class on the history of For his project, William now buildings have fire codes, Our PSC retirees’ reading group is by Mary Jane Auch, which places or worse, killed.” Cloe Stevens people [have deeply influenced with African Americans and American radicalism. Something Banilla created a model of fire escapes, and human life is just finishingThe Fiery Trial.” two of the main characters inside concurred with that assessment: my life]. My uncle, Henry was their labor history—examining interesting happens every the building located in the more secure in many workplaces Before she finished, Barbara the factory on March 25, 1911, “The Triangle Fire connects to president of New York’s Fur a period Foner called, “perhaps time I do. [Two years ago] my heart of Greenwich Village as a direct result of the reform Bowen asked all PSC members the day of the fire. the world we live in today. Still, Worker’s Council. My uncle, Moe the most misunderstood period students were involved in the at Washington Place and movement that followed in the in some places, there are awful present to stand “so we can was education director at District in American history. The key shanties set up on our campus Going to the sources Greene Street, the site of the wake of the fire.” admire them.” [They got a big factory conditions and people are 65 and Hospital Worker’s Local question of Reconstruction quadrangle, and campuses across Schiller employs creative fire that killed 146 workers, Jacob LaBarge does have a round of applause.] dying because of it.” 1199. My father, Jack was also was—what sort of labor system the country—in opposition exercises, along with primary mostly immigrant women and family connection to the tragedy: Billy Garfinkel summed up Clarion call to organize a historian, although not of labor.” will replace slavery.” to campus investments in documents, including “Life in the girls. “The Triangle Fire was “I felt compelled to work on for his classmates: “By reading She ended her address with a Foner recalled that in his Professor Foner recalled companies doing business with Shop,” by Clara Lemlich, “My a devastating experience, yet the issue because someone on about this and going to the rallying cry: “When workers are undergraduate and graduate meeting W.E.B. Du Bois in South Africa. In the mid-1990s, First Job,” by Rose Cohen, “Days similar things still go on today,” my mom’s side of the family commemoration, people become exploited by the same corporations work, the History Department at 1960. (In 1935 Du Bois wrote when the campus secretaries went and Dreams,” by Sadie Frowne, Banilla said. and many other people were so aware of the struggles that have around the world—we have to Columbia of the time confined Black Reconstruction in America.) on strike, some of my students “Among the Working Girls,” by For Danny Collins, “the fact exploited but could barely survive been and are being fought.” unite globally. How we do so will itself almost exclusively to “My brother and I told [Du Bois] started a hunger strike to support Wirt Silkes, all from the Cornell that so many young women died with the money given to them for require new forms of organizing political and intellectual history. we were taking part in picketing them.” [Two years ago Foner’s website, as well as the chapter on needlessly, because of reasons that their labor.” Kimberly Schiller is a recent workers… we [must] rethink “Dan Leab offered a course on and sit-ins to protest racially- students got involved with the “Working Girls of New York,” were avoidable, is appalling. It After reading Ashes of Roses, addition to the NYLHA board, an organizing to remake the labor labor history. No one else did.” A segregated lunch counters. Du Occupy Wall Street movement.] from Jacob Riis’s classic tale, How inspired me to learn more about Katy Dara wanted to know more: active participant in the NYLHA movement—as a movement—and highlight of his studies was being Bois told us: “I’d like to go out “I’m giving the class again two the Other Half Lives. Some of the the terrible conditions in factories “The Triangle Fire was terrible, Working Group, and a member of not a set of institutions.” able to work with faculty member and picket, too, but Shirley [Du years from now, get prepared.” activities Schiller uses in her class that were abolished after the but it sparked an amazing reform New York State United Teachers.

10 Winter/Spring 2014 New York Labor History Association 3 Stella! Art Installation Comes to New York City Detroit: An American Autopsy to Rave Reviews usan Eisenberg, journeywoman spoke about fair access to all careers. electrician, poet and author (We’ll NYLHA Board Member Rachel Bernstein S Call You If We Need You: Experiences attended the ceremony. “It was extremely well of Women Working Construction…The New attended by a huge number of women in the York Times 10 Best Books, 1998), brought trades and by male civic and labor leaders Detroit: An American her mixed media art installation to New who pledged their support for the women. Autopsy York City this past fall. “On Equal Terms,” It was really impressive,” she said. Bernstein’s By Charlie LeDuff featuring “Stella,” an artistic representation LaborArts.org website features an on-line ISBN: 162231204X of a generic pioneering tradeswoman, was exhibit of “On Equal Terms”…visit it to on display from Sept. 29 to Nov. 1 at the experience Stella, learn about the experiences Reviewed by Bruce Kayton Clemente Soto Velez Center on the Lower of women working in the trades, and read his is a great book that had the good East Side. The installation combines realistic and welcoming reception. That evening’s some of Eisenberg’s poetry. fortune to be published just before and fanciful works of art with personal program featured three generations of The exhibit at the Center was made T Detroit declared bankruptcy and testimonies to bring viewers into the tradeswomen—pioneering Local 3 IBEW possible due to the financial support of the dominated the news cycle. Well-written experience of the first tradeswomen who electrician Melinda Hernandez, Sheet Metal New York Labor History Association and four and well-researched, it expertly weaves both worked on construction sites. Local 28 training director Leah Rambo, other sponsors, including the ILGWU 21st the personal and political in the downfall Detroit Industry Murals, frescos by Diego Rivera, Detroit Institute of Art. The installation arrived in New York and apprentice carpenter Rudy Mulligan Century Heritage Fund and the Berger-Marks of Detroit, which has lost over half of its City in a truck and a crew of New York (who got a loud cheer when she said she was Foundation. population since 1950. Mr. LeDuff is a industry is at the center of the story as Mr. both directly and indirectly by drugs and City tradeswomen and friends helped to ‘the apprentice.’). Local 3 IBEW Business The month-long stay in New York City character in this story as well (and be sure to LeDuff notes that Henry Ford’s magnanimous alcohol in a crime-filled city. His brother unload and set up the exhibit—hanging Manager Chris Erikson argued that a labor wrapped up on Nov. 1 with a poetry reading check his YouTube clips on the web if you $5 a day wage in 1914 is three cents more, Frankie’s house drops in value from $70,000 banners, building stud walls, and installing movement that’s under attack cannot afford by Eisenberg, with selections from her several don’t believe me) as he grew up in Detroit, when accounting for inflation, than a newly to $15,000 in ten years, and yet he still panels. The opening launch on Oct. 3 was to harbor discrimination. Diallo Shabazz of books of poetry. What follows is one timely left for twenty years, quit a job with the hired autoworker at $14 per hour makes cannot find a buyer at the cheaper price. After attended by 150 people who gave it a warm the New York City Department of Education offering suitable to the temperatures outside! N.Y. Times’ L.A. Bureau, and returned in today. But Mr. LeDuff shows how Detroit’s all, who wants to live in Detroit? Overall 2008 right in the middle of Mayor Kwame collapse started in the 1950’s when a Packard this book reads like a good mystery, only Kilpatrick’s corruption scandal (Mayor Plant closed and the unemployment rate the mystery has been exposed and Detroit’s Working Outdoors Kilpatrick was a gift from God to any in Detroit hit 20%, due to the early days decline continues. journalist arriving at the Detroit News as he of foreign competition and increasing For more information about Detroit’s January: would be in and out of jail several times). automation of the factory floor. labor history and the Rivera Murals visit the working early morning hours Mr. LeDuff personalizes the tragedy of The personal comes into play for Mr. Michigan Labor Society website at against frosted moonlight/ Detroit as he chronicles an anonymous body LeDuff as he sees two family members killed http://mlhs.wayne.edu/. frozen to death in an elevator shaft of an artic wind abandoned building (one of over 70,000 stabs through clothing/ in the city) owned by a billionaire. The fingers numb ears police don’t respond for over 24 hours and so cold they this becomes an even bigger scandal when burn/ July: Mr. LeDuff reveals that the dead man no The NYLHA's Website Revised! working midday hours one cares about was famed soul singer Otis isit http://newyorklaborhistory.org/ to find out about upcoming under dizzying sunlight/ Redding’s second cousin and might have activities, read about the 2013 Commerford Awards honoring the muggy air been laying there for weeks in a cold and V historian Eric Foner and Professional Staff Congress President Barbara languishes in the lungs/ indifferent city. Bowen, the latest Wertheimer Prize Winner, Sarah "Sadye" Stern, the fingers swell Detroit is now a city in which the police NYLHA Working Group and their plans to connect a new generation to initiative don’t have enough patrol cars (officers labor history, resources and more. And now you can join the Association, wilts/ sometimes respond, if at all, in their own winter/the body cars), the fire department lacks basic or renew your membership, on-line through PayPal! not warm summer/the mind equipment while tens of millions of dollars Also, look for announcements about upcoming activities, including not clear. of appropriated money “disappears” and the a discussion at Tamiment Library, NYU, on the life and times of Morris government is continually run by corrupt Schappes. Thanks to Susan Eisenberg’s blog: http://susaneisenberg.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/nyc-on-equal-terms-on-the-lower-east-side/ Democratic Party politicians and bureaucrats and Brandeis University, Women’s Studies Research Center, [email protected]. who line their own pockets. The auto

4 Winter/Spring 2014 New York Labor History Association 9 Made in the USA: Farewell to Factory Towns? (Continued from page 6) surviving in general. During the taught a course titled “Social understand “what their parents Farewell to Factory Towns? change the state of North Adams. discussion, Rob Linné inquired History of North Adams” where and grandparents had done.” Recently, a grassroots campaign about the state of North Adams oral histories were conducted Maynard Seider and his film n October 10, Soon, Sprague employed has begun with the North since the filming ended and by his students. His students left the audience with one final the New York physicists, chemists, electrical Berkshire Community Coalition, Dr. Seider explained that there also performed a play based on thought that anyone can make a Labor History engineers, and skilled other political activism, and have been “all kinds of cutbacks, labor history and they bussed in difference with help, desire, and Association technicians to help create local neighborhood organizing. even though Massachusetts is a elementary students to watch and motivation. organizedO a viewing of Maynard and build high-tech weapon Community members understand wealthy state.” Philoine Fried Seider’s filmFarewell to Factory systems during World War that they can’t wait for national pointed out that this story has Towns? as part of the fall program. II for the U.S. government. policy, so they know they must unfortunately taken place in Save the Dates The film viewing brought together This boom was what the town amend their local policy. many towns including Flint, a diverse group of people at the needed, and by 1966, Sprague After the viewing, the Michigan and North Camden, Wednesday, April 2, 6 pm, The Fourth Annual Clara Lemlich OSA in midtown Manhattan employed 4,137 workers in an audience was curious about all New Jersey, to name a couple. Social Activist Awards, Museum of the City of New York, spon- to discuss the film as well as 18,000-member community. aspects of Farewell to Factory While Andrew Tilson added, sored by LaborArts.org. manufacturing in the United Sprague Electric was the Towns?. Attendees inquired about “This is every story… It starts Wednesday, April 9, 6 pm, Tamiment Library, NYU, Presenta- States today. The program began cornerstone of the community the “unrealistic” expectation of with education.” Dr. Seider, a tion on : His Life and Legacy, featuring Paul with Jane LaTour who welcomed because it seemed that every MassMoCA on North Adams, sociology professor for 32 years Washington, Medger Evers College, CUNY, with Timothy Naftali, and thanked Maynard Seider for family had a tie to it. The the use of MassMoCA as an and president of his faculty union Tamiment Director, Moderator; and Professor Stephen allowing us to show his film. work was steady, the paychecks organizing tool for grassroot for seven years at MCLA, agreed. Leberstein, Commentator. Farewell to Factory consistent, and the camaraderie campaigns, and how the town is For several years, Dr. Seider Towns? is a documentary that among the employees was Watch for the NYLHA’s Annual Conference in May – follows the development of unwavering. This consistency This year’s topic: Public Sector Unions: Under Attack! the Massachusetts Museum gave way to a dependable life for of Contemporary Art or many. Later, in 1970, there was a From Forge to Fast Food: A History MassMoCA. The museum is ten-week strike, where over two- of Child Labor in New York State. located within the same building thousand union members struck. that once housed Sprague Rather than fighting on their Volume II: Civil War to the Present Ludlow Clock Tower Electric, a sprawling American own, the comradeship swelled. Tree Logic, 6 upside-down blaze maples installed in MASS MoCA’s Bernstein, Richard B.; And Others company that helped to give life Strikers received help from other Scaturro Courtyard by Austrailian artist Natalie Jeremijenko. Photo: Doug Bartow workers in the form of food and to North Adams, Massachusetts. This volume of essays and activities is written moral support. After ten weeks, Seider asks, “What does it take Sheppard said, “No American can Prior to Sprague Electric, for use in the eighth grade course "United States the strikers won, returning to to save a town?” Its success has walk past their [own] car,” when Arnold Print Works was a vital and New York State History." The volume follows component of North Adams, work, and returning North not transformed the community he explained why MassMoCA the chronology from the Civil War to the present, employing 3,200 people at its Adams to the consistent life they of North Adams, but created was not bringing life and business emphasizing child labor during those years. peak in 1905. Then, after over had come to know. However, a “parallel universe” according to the rest of the beleaguered The essays are intended for teachers but can be LaTour Jane eighty years of success, Arnold competition from abroad caused to Reverend Jill Graham in the community, posing the notion mastered by many students. The activities focus Print Works closed its doors, Sprague to gradually reduce the film. Since the installation of that “any economy that includes “The Ludlow Clock Tower is the most and the town of North Adams size of plants and “a new word, MassMoCA, unemployment has poverty is doomed to fail.” on child labor and social history and are suited to prominent architectural feature of the town of Ludlow, hoped for a similar opportunity. ‘deindustrialization’ entered not dwindled, only increased, As Seider’s poignant the peer orientation of middle school students. The Massachusetts. The tower is part of the Ludlow Mills Shortly after, the quiet valley [the town’s] vocabulary.” The while poverty has skyrocketed document wraps, the audience book is divided into four sections: (1) "Child Labor complex, and is depicted as part of the town seal. The town’s hopes became a reality. eventual cessation in 1986 above 20% and homelessness understands that its purpose is in the Gilded Age: 1865-1900"; (2) "The Struggle tower was constructed as part of the complex in 1886, The thirteen acres was bought caused employment to soar over continues to grow in the North less about MassMoCA and more for Child Labor Reform: 1900-1933"; (3) "The 'High- by the Ludlow Manufacturing and Sales Company. The 14%, which was double the by Sprague Electric and the new Adams community. Graham about the devastating effects Water Mark' of Child Labor Reform: 1933-1960"; company produced jute yarns, twine, and webbing. national average. company transformed the old witnesses the dichotomy between of deindustrialization and the and (4) "The Resurgence of Child Labor: 1960 to It helped to shape the town by providing housing, a textile mill into an electronics Parallel universe of poverty the MassMoCA artists and the attacks on labor. Seider compels the Present." Guiding questions for the volume are library, schools, playgrounds, and even a clubhouse for plant. After the internal In his film, Seider explores growing need of meals from the audience to look at the bigger the inter-related questions of: (1) "Which children the increasingly diverse community. Ludlow Mills ceased local churches and food pantries picture, instead of one project as renovation, the state-of-the-art the promise MassMoCA should work?"; (2) "What work should children do?"; operation in the 1960s and moved to India, where it is first-hand in North Adams a type of “magic potion.” With equipment allowed for more made to salvage the hard- and (3) "Under what conditions should children now known as Ludlow Jute and Specialties of Mumbai.” each day. During the viewing, a this in mind, Seider explores employment opportunities and working community, but their work?" (EH) consistency that would last promise has fallen short. While cynical round of laughter broke what the community is doing to Thanks to Wikipedia. generations. MassMoCA has seen success, out when economist Stephen (Continued on page 7)

6 Winter/Spring 2014 New York Labor History Association 7 Reds at the Blackboard White Collar Workers and the Communist Party evening she took her own life. In May 1956 DANIEL J. OPLER. For All White-Collar giants Macy’s, Gimbel’s, and Bloomingdale’s. Even a rightward political shift—many of the the Board of Education named 273 teachers Workers: The Possibilities of Radicalism in New An ideological rift soon developed between locals embraced anticommunism and were Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights, and the New York who it claimed “had been ‘suspended, York City’s Department Store Unions, 1934- the leaders of the locals, many of whom readmitted to the CIO in the early 1950s— City , Clarence Taylor, Paper, 384 pages, 10 illus. dismissed, resigned or retired’ as a result of its 1953. Columbus: Ohio State University had communist ties (although relatively few could not save them. Their defeat in the ISBN: 978-0-231-15269-3 investigation into subversion.” Press. 2007. Pp. ix, 270. $49.95, CD $9.95. of their rank-and-file did), and the liberal disastrous Hearn’s strike of 1953, in Opler’s Though Taylor is indignant when he he historians’ debate over the anticommunist national union hierarchy. words, “ended… any possibility of a powerful describes the affront to civil liberties at role played by communists in the Between the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939 and retail worker’s union in America” (p. 176). this time, he carefully weighs the issues he American labor movement during the 1941 Nazi invasion of the USSR, the Opler resists the temptation to attribute discusses. For example, there is the question T By Robert Parmet United States soon afterward went to war the 1930s and 1940s has been viciously locals’ officers unsuccessfully pressed “peace” the decline of the New York department of anti-Semitism. Considering the fact that resolutions at URWEA conventions, and once store locals solely to the excesses of postwar America’s teachers have long struggled with Hitler, who had by then invaded Russia, contested. Few arguments of this kind are most of the removed teachers on the 1956 the United States entered the war on the side anticommunism or, conversely, to the to gain respect and satisfactory working the TU supported the fight against Nazism. so heavily freighted with ideological bile. list were Jewish, a hasty conclusion might of the Soviets, adhered to labor’s “no-strike” ideological rigidity of their leaders. He conditions. Toward that goal, in 1916 the New Through the 1930s and into the post-war Communists are customarily portrayed years it also attacked anti-Semitism and attribute that situation to anti-Semitism. either as selfless idealists victimized by anti- policy so zealously that they even opposed instead cites a number of factors having little York City Teachers Union was formed. Modest While not denying that some of the figures defended the rights of African Americans. Red hysteria or cynical opportunists whose URWEA job actions sanctioned by the War or nothing to do with communism. After in its objectives, the organization essentially leading the purge held such sentiments, The coming of the Cold War spelled devotion to the working class tacked in Labor Board. the war, department stores began to move sought decent salaries and recognition for Taylor nevertheless examines the question disaster for the Teachers Union. With the lockstep to shifts in the Soviet party line. Little doubt exists that the leaders of New to suburban areas, where they could hire teachers as professionals. However, during thoroughly, finally deciding that it was a world divided into two hostile camps, led The question of the degree of political and York City’s department store locals were in parttime workers less likely to join unions. the 1920s Communist critics promoted a weapon used by both sides. more militant agenda. In 1935 the leftists by the United States and the Soviet Union, intellectual autonomy enjoyed by union thrall to Moscow. Opler shows, however, Bosses regain control Fascinating found history that this did not significantly affect the daily gained control of the union and pointed it in a a strong fear arose of internal subversion to leaders with communist affiliations in the The shift to “selfservice”stores also activities of the UWREA. National president direction influenced by the Soviet Union and overthrow the government. Though the TU Within this generally distressing account nascent Congress of Industrial Organizations reduced the demand for employees. Both of of leftists under siege there are some surprises. Samuel Wolchok and the communists the American Communist Party. had been investigated several times since 1919 (CIO) has exercised a generation of labor these developments enabled store managers One is a fascinating account of the Teachers historians. Daniel J. Opler’s balanced and worked to keep their political differences In his study, Clarence Taylor explores for un-American activities, in 1948, with to reestablish control of their workplaces. In Union’s campaign to promote black history. perceptive study of the struggle to organize from disrupting the union’s core mission of the nature and extent of the Communist 5,600 members, it presented an irresistible addition, the working-class consciousness that Despite the union’s decline under the anti- New York City’s department store workers organizing and bargaining for retail workers. influence. Relying on thorough research target for people seeking to combat global had been prevalent among white-collar store Communist assault in the 1950s, it persisted suggests that this question may at last be As a result, the national union was the and presenting much detail, he finds that Communism. “In the resulting purges,” personnel during the 1930s had dissipated by in championing racial equality, contending beside the point. CIO’s seventh largest by 1942, and had won the Teachers Union indeed adopted policies Taylor writes, “close to four hundred TU the postwar years; Opler shows how moves of the Communist Party, but without that, along with democracy, it was basic to a 40-hour week for its members, a signal members were fired, forced to resign, or Bargaining for the shop girls to middle-class housing enclaves such as abandoning the interests of the teachers education. This view motivated campaigns achievement in an industry notorious for its compelled to retire.” Following the lead Only communists, operating under the New York’s Stuyvesant Town and Parkchester they led. Though the TU was handicapped to eliminate racist textbooks from the public arbitrary work schedules. It was not until of Superintendent of Schools William auspices of the Trade Union Unity League, blunted expressions of labor solidarity. The by its blind support for the Soviets and the schools and increase the teaching of black 1947 and the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act Jansen, who sought to uproot Communist considered New York’s predominantly-female impermanence of a transformative retail American Communists, it advanced the history and the number of black teachers in that the issue of communism threatened the teachers from the New York City public cohort of department store employees ripe worker unionism, then, had less to do with cause of social unionism, and looked beyond the schools. Another surprise is a chapter on existence of the union. The Act’s requirement schools, congressional hearings assaulted the organizational soil, and in a series of dramatic the behavior of communists as communists teachers’ working conditions to eradicate the role of women in the Teachers Union. By that labor officials swear they were not union, determined to demonstrate that it strikes against discount retailers Klein’s and than with the growth of a hostile labor such evils as racism and poverty and create a discussing , Rose Russell and other Communist Party members led to the forced was a Communist front. Minnie Gutridge female activists Taylor adds a women’s history Ohrbach’s in 1934 and 1935, they gained a environment in the years following World more just society. As the TU “blurred the line disaffiliation of the New York locals from the between its work on behalf of teachers and was unable to bear this climate. A veteran dimension to his study. foothold for their local unions. Affiliation War II. Opler’s work helps move us beyond national union and the CIO in 1948. The promoted Communist policies,” it drew sharp elementary school teacher who was suffering Taylor ends his book with the creation of with the CIO soon followed, and by 1938 the the issues, now all too well ventilated, of now-independent locals were easy pickings criticism, which in 1941 led to the revocation from cancer, she was interrogated by an the United Federation of Teachers in 1960. 40,000-strong United Retail and Wholesale whether an “independent” radicalism was for department store owners intent on of the American Federation of Teachers Assistant Superintendent of Schools during a An outgrowth of the rival New York Teachers Employees Association (URWEA) had possible in the United States during the New regaining the upper hand on the shop floors. charter it had held since 1916. Remaining school day on her attendance at Communist Guild, the UFT was a militant organization negotiated contracts with “uptown” retail Deal years, and whether communists in the committed to social unionism, it joined the Party meetings in 1940 and 1941. That without the Communist baggage of the American labor movement were martyrs Congress of Industrial Organizations, from Teachers Union. In November 1960 New or dupes. He shows that the fate of the which it would be ousted in 1950. York City’s teachers went on strike for the Check out the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition’s department store unions hinged on what Irresistable target May Labor first time, led by the UFT, which a year later occurred in stores, homes, and the streets, not website to see the winning entry for the memorial. Ignoring criticism, the TU self- History Conference. became their collective bargaining agent. In on the Hitler-Stalin Pact or the Moscow show destructively followed the Communist 1964 the Teachers Union disbanded itself. http://rememberthetrianglefire.org trials. By keeping his ear to the ground, Opler Associated with the Communist Party, it Party line. As Taylor notes, the union even May 8, 6-8 pm has steered the debate over twentieth-century could not survive the Cold War. In Clarence supported the Soviets when they signed a The 2014 commemoration of the Triangle Fire will be American labor radicalism in a welcome at the UFT Taylor it has a worthy chronicler. nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany and Tuesday March 25, at noon, Greene Street. direction. moved away from the concept of a “popular 52 Broadway Robert D. Parmet is a Professor of History and front” against fascism. However, when the Philosophy at York College. Jerald Podair, Lawrence University

8 Winter/Spring 2014 New York Labor History Association 5