Strikes and Strikeouts: Building an Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Working Class Sports Culture from Below in the United States, 1918-1950
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STRIKES AND STRIKEOUTS: BUILDING AN ANTI-RACIST, ANTI-FASCIST WORKING CLASS SPORTS CULTURE FROM BELOW IN THE UNITED STATES, 1918-1950 A dissertation presented By James WJ Robinson To The Department of History In Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the field of History Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts March 2020 Table of Contents 1 Appendix 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 9 Chapter 1: Playing for Power: the European Worker Sport movement and the seeds of the American Labor Sports movement 1919-1940 31 Chapter 2: Shooting Hoops with Your Neighborhood Socialists: The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), the Socialist Party, and Social Unionism Sports Programs 1918-50 80 Chapter 3: The Autoworkers Slide Into Home: UAW Recreation Department’s Athletic Programs 1935-50 and beyond 115 Chapter 4: A Complete Game: The Mass Labor Sports Movement in the CIO and Beyond 173 Chapter 5: The Big Red Machine: NYC Popular Front Communist Sports 1936-1948 225 Conclusion: The Potential of Labor Sports and Radicals in Grassroots Sports Culture 260 Bibliography 268 1 Appendix ACWA= Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America AFL= American Federation of Labor CIO= Committee/Congress of Industrial Organizations Comintern= Communist International CP or CPUSA= Communist Party of the United States of America ILA= International Longshoremen Association ILWU= International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union ILGWU= International Ladies Garment Workers Union IWO= International Workers’ Order IWW= Industrial Workers of the World LSF= Labor Sports Federation LSU= Labor Sports Union RSI= Red Sport International or Sportintern SASI= Sozialistische Arbeitersport Internationale or Socialist Workers' Sport International SP= Socialist Party of America SWOC/USA/USW= Steel Workers Organizing Committee/United Steelworkers of America TUAA= Trade Union Athletic Association TUUL= Trade Union Unity League UAW= United Auto Workers UE= United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America YCL= Young Communist League YPSL= Young Peoples’ Socialist League 2 Acknowledgements This dissertation, like just about anything, is not solely by me. I was supported along the way by many people who gave me encouragement, engaged with my work, gave me helpful feedback, or just listened to me vent. I’d like to thank my dissertation committee: Dr. Nicholas Brown, Dr. Timothy Brown, and Dr. Heather Streets-Salter of Northeastern University, as well as Dr. Rob Ruck of the University of Pittsburgh. None of this work would ever have materialized without your guidance and mentorship. Dr. Streets-Salter, as my advisor, has immensely helped in my development as a teacher, a researcher, and a writer. Thank you especially for your work in editing my dissertation. There is a good reason you are considered a hero by all the PhD students in the History Department and beyond. I would like to thank the American Studies and History Departments, and the Liberal Art program of Temple University for helping craft my academic thinking. In particular, I thank Dr. Lisa Rhodes and Dr. David Watt for putting up with my undergraduate annoying questions and encouraging me to understand my interests through deep historical dives. Michael Brody, an ex- labor lawyer who became an instructor at Temple, taught me all about the past radical movements, connected deeply with labor, from the 1870s-1930s. In my master’s work, I would like to thank Dr. Michael Szekely and Dr. Rebecca Alpert for guiding me in my initial project on the New York Communist Sports scene. Also in Philadelphia, the independent historian Bob Helms in Philadelphia made me realize that historical research into the past lives of radicals was not only possible, but came alive 3 in his walking tours. Additionally, Philadelphia social justice movements, for better or for worse, sparked my activism of my 20s. For that, I became who I am today. I would also like to thank the Northeastern University History Department for providing my academic historical training as both a World Historian and an American Historian, as well as funding my travels and development, in addition to giving me my cherished teaching and TAing professional work. I thought I knew a lot about history before I entered the PhD program, but how wrong I was. Now I understand the craft of the discipline. In addition to those mentioned on my Dissertation Committee, I would like thank members of my cohort: Matt Bowser, Jamie Parker, and Thanasis Kinias, as well as other History PhD students who have reviewed my work and provided friendship, such as Allison Chapin, Bridget Keown, Colleen Nuget, Simon Purdue, Luke Scallone, Will Whitworth and others. Matt White, a fellow historian of labor, the left, and PhD candidate at Ohio State, and long time friend, provided valuable insights along the way. Dr. Brian Dolber, whom I knew in another time and place and through the weirdness of the world, we both became scholars of the history of the old left, also is the originator in conversation of the phrase “an anti-fascist, anti- racist working class counter-culture”. Elizabeth Pingree, as a PhD candidate Boston College doing her dissertation on labor, gave me good feedback and I hope I was able to do the same for her work. Sparky Taylor, a fellow traveler of the left, as it were, gave me the title of this work, “Strikes and Strikeouts”. Heather Squire, a sometimes academic and fellow traveler and now a rising MMA star, encouraged me to see this through and suffer through the homesickness of my beloved Philadelphia. Nicola Errico Tenaglia helped me track down what happened to individuals I researched, which proved to be a rich source of information, since it led me to speak with individuals who knew John Gallo, the organizer of Local 600’s sports programs in the 4 1930s-40s before he was blacklisted during the Red Scare. John Gallo’s daughter, Theresa Martin, and grandnephew Gary Dymski, were a fabulous source of information. Gabriel Kuhn, a historian of social movements, was an invaluable consultant as he has written extensively on Worker Sport. Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer has encouraged me as a writer and researcher and encouraged me to develop ideas of leisure, recreation, and lifestyle choices as a plane of conflict. Sharon McConnell-Sidorick offered me great insight into working class culture and life of labor militants in Philadelphia, which influenced how I conceived of the development of Labor Sports. Harjit Singh Gill originally gave me the idea for research in a brainstorming session and has given me good feedback over the years, despite his mediocracy as a fantasy baseball player. Additionally, I would like to thank members of my union, the Graduate Employees of Northeastern University (GENU). You provided sanity and comradery in a sea of chaos in ways the high administration never would, and made a real difference. In particular, but not limited to, Liz Polcha, Sam Moran, Alex Ahmed, Lauren Contorno, Ashakan Ghanbarzadeh, Tim LaRock, Erin Cole (especially for formatting advice), and many more. Together, we will win. On that note, I would like to thank the upper management and their union busting lawyers hired by Northeastern University for producing some of the most hilariously bad propagandistic misinformation I’ve ever read. The anti-union stance of the upper administration is short-sighted, and while their coziness with the Trump administration might do well by their pocketbooks, when history is written, they will not look good. As a historian, I get to write some of that history. I will remember those email blasts and police harassment you ordered on our activists as we tried to conduct research and teach classes. Our solidarity scared you. We all will remember that, in the years beyond these walls. 5 In order to research this work, I traveled to ten different archives, spread throughout the United States, and indeed, the world. The staff at each archive were incredibly helpful and displayed genuine interest in helping this work come alive. I would like to thank each one of them to making my visit to their archive worth it, for I came away with more information and outlooks at each stop. In no particular order, I thank Danielle Nista, research associate at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, Daniel Necas, archivist at the Immigration History and Research Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Gavin Strassell the UAW archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit, Julie Herrada, Curator of Joseph A. Labadie Collection at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Steven Calco, archivist of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University, Zach Brodt archivist of the UE Collection at University of Pittsburgh, Rachel Dreyer, head of Research Services of the Special Collections at Penn State for their Steelworker and Mineworker records, Nina van den Berg and Andrea Galova and the rest of the staff at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, Catherine Powell, the director of the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University, and last but not least Robin Walker, the archivist and director of education services of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Speaking of the ILWU, as much as the staff and members at other unions were helpful, I found in that particular union a very lively set of activists committed to the tradition of militant anti-fascist anti-racist working class militancy who were both excited about my work and incredibly helpful without me really even asking them to be. In particular, I would like to thank ILWU members Samantha Levens, Brian Skiffington, and Zack Pattin. 6 In my travels, I mostly lived on the helpfulness of my far-flung friends across the United States, who gave me shelter and guided me in navigating the local cities.