Work History News

New York Labor History Association, Inc. A Bridge Between Past and Present Volume 38 No 2 Summer/Fall 2021 Clara Lemlich awards for social activism By Abbe Nosoff In Praise of Older Women: The Clara Lemlich Awards celebrates these incredible women who changed the world with their activism: Barbara Dane, Suelika Cabrera Drinane, Debby King, Wilhemina Perry, Muriel Tillinghast. The awards event presented via Zoom included inspiring Muriel Tillinghast Barbara Dane Suelika Cabrera Drinane music and speeches hosted by movement organizer. She discussed the struggles of Black people Labor Arts and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, denied their voting rights. What an inspiring and uplifting story supported by the Museum of the City of New York, the Puffin of doing the right thing. She questioned whether this is being Foundation and the 21st Century ILGWU Heritage Fund. echoed today in denying and voting rights. Begun by chanteuse Cara Noel of SEIU 1199 singing “Wind Barbara Dane, almost 94 years young, regaled us with Beneath My Wings” to call attention to our heroes, these 5 her history as a singer on the picket lines in . Music activists were honored on May 10. We were further entertained could move people as she played her guitar on the lines. Her by the NYC Labor Chorus singing “The Union Makes Us takeaway to young singers: Don’t stop, keep doing it. We’re Strong/ Solidarity Forever.” listening. Use your voice and music to propel your ideals. We were presented with a short history of the youthful Poetry and music enlightened us all. activist and labor organizer, Clara Lemlich, who famously said, “I have something to say!” and did she ever. Her words Suelika Cabrera Drinane believed that still reverberate today. integration of black and Hispanic seniors was essential to union activism. She confronted the New York State governor Muriel Tillinghast, began as an activist in continued on page 2 Mississippi volunteering in voter registration drives. She was a

inside

May Day program in Albany...... Page 2 A pandemic nurse’s diary...... Page 13

Reinventing solidarity...... Page 3 Crossword puzzle...... Page 14

More books to raise children’s awareness...... Page. 4 Call for entries Bernhardt journalism prize 2021...... Page 16

Crossword puzzle answers...... Page 5 Send a girl!...... Page 17

The long history of mob violence...... Page. 6 Radium girls...... Page 18

A labor history collaboration...... Page 7 Labor and the media...... Page 19

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 2021...... Page 8 Haymarket – a history of workers in America...... Page 20

Profiles in Activism...... Page 10-11 Working Class New York revisited ...... Page 22

In search of John Commerford...... Page 12-13 Clara Lemlich awards for social activism continued from page 1 by literally demanding “no more peanuts” for seniors. Now she rallies for home care workers and asks for our support for higher pay and rights in NYS legislation. Debbie King, an 1199 worker who became an activist in the 1970s, moved to Ireland with her husband and taught courses at a Jesuit school there. She’s now working for nannies, health care and domestic workers to be covered under labor law and anti-discrimination law. In our city, human rights laws must Debbie King Dr. Wilhemina Perry include these workers. downsized over the years, there remains a permanent shelter for Dr. Wilhemina Perry, LGBT Convener, who these youth, providing small but vital services. worked with homeless gay youth to make the connection This event was sponsored by National Writers Union, the between churches and these youth. By using her sources New York Labor History Association and Tamiment Library. at local churches, she provided shelter to these youth in underused spaces there. She motivated her friends to provide Abbe Nosoff is secretary of executive board of the New York food, linens and other services for these youth. Although Labor History Association, retired school teacher and union activist.

May Day program in Albany By Art Fleischner, Solidarity Committee of the standards during the pandemic. Some Capital District staff nurses spoke along with labor leaders, The Solidarity Committee of politicians and clergy. NYSNA provided the Capital District along with several other a small band that led marchers a few labor, political, environmental, educational, blocks to Washington Park where people anti-war, social justice and gender equality congregated around tables that provided groups held a May Day teach-in on Friday, information on several different groups April 30, and a rally, march and celebration and a stage where singers, poets and on Saturday, May 1. speakers held forth. At a review session The teach-in was on Zoom with two weeks later, committee members four speakers from around the USA. vowed to make the two decade May Day Attorney Heather Benno of the Party celebration in the capital district another for Social Liberation was the moderator. exciting event. The theme of the discussion was “Which for housing, education and anti-racism. Way Forward For The Working Class?” The last speaker was Fareed Michelen, Jarribu Hill, Education Director of the Director of Organizing for NYSNA, the Work History News Worker Center in Jackson, Mississippi, nurses union in New York State and the stated there needs to be a Labor Party and leader of the fight in Albany, New York New York Labor History Association, Inc. a more aggressive AFL-CIO for working for a contract for 2000 nurses who won a people to move forward. Author Michael Work History News is published twice per year 2-1 election three years ago. He spoke to to keep NYLHA members informed about our Zweig posited the view that the American the necessity of the working class to assert organization’s work and labor history events in working class needed to hook-up with their rights against a ruling class that has New York. For more information, visit us at newyorklaborhistory.org. workers from around the world as they pushed them further behind a decent did in the 1930’s. Journalist Monica Cruz standard of living. President Irwin Yellowitz talked about the recent Amazon election On a beautiful May Day, hundreds Vice-President George Altomare in Alabama where RWDSU was defeated, gathered in front of Albany Medical Secretary Abbe Nosoff; Regina Olff the need to pass the PRO ACT, and that Center demanding a contract for the Treasurer Peter Filardo labor unions must expand their fight nurses, better staffing and more safe Editor Jane LaTour

2 New York Labor History Association Reinventing solidarity: Black-led antiracist unionism-the legacy of the IWW’s Ben Fletcher

By Jane LaTour n February 4, the New York Labor History Association O co-sponsored a fascinating discussion between CUNY Professor Kafui Attoh and the historian Peter Cole about the subject of his book, Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Fletcher has been “totally forgotten,” said Cole. He is making the case to correct this omission. “If you’ve heard of , or A. Phillip Randolph, or , Ben Fletcher should be in that list,” he said. Cole compares Fletcher to Hampton. Both were “young organizers, who eventually served time in Leavenworth Ben Fletcher worked across racial boundaries,” he said. Prison.” While the AFL had “huge blind The difficulty of tracing Fletcher’s Hampton is having a moment now, with spots,” and concentrated on organizing contributions is a familiar story. the popular movie, Judas and the Black skilled white workers, the IWW was “Working-class leaders like Fletcher don’t Messiah. Like Fletcher, Hampton was a “institutionally anti-AFL. It was anti- often leave a paper trail. The historian has gifted orator, a revolutionary, capitalist; anti-nationalist and welcomed to try to interpolate their history, with all and the head of the Illinois Black Panther all workers. It did what the AFL chose not of the inherent limitations. Fletcher was Party. Born in 1948, he was assassinated to do,” said Cole. an intellectual, a charismatic speaker, who in December 1969. Cole, through his The author described the city had a good sense of humor,” said Cole. He research, book and related work, is that Fletcher was organizing in as “an has spent decades trying to piece this story making the case for Fletcher’s legacy. industrial city that exported everything together. “I learned about Ben Fletcher in Who was Ben Fletcher from battle ships to button hooks. graduate school,” said Cole. One source “Let’s begin with the basics. Who was Thousands of men worked on the of information was derived from the Ben Fletcher, asked Professor Attoh. “He waterfront under abusive conditions. government investigations of Fletcher. “They invested all of these resources and was an Afro-American, born in 1890 in Workers were played off each other. They we get the benefit,” he said. of working-class parents who had to pay bribes to get hired. Wages were low and labor was weak,” Cole said. Into In a fascinating look at how the book had fled the South,” said Cole. In 1920, was put together, Cole notes that part of he joined the Industrial Workers of the this cauldron came Fletcher. As Cole described, “The IWW ended the fun of reading it comes about because World (IWW) and made common cause ethnic-based groups through integration “the reader can be an historian. It’s a very with the dock workers along the city’s from below. 51 years before 1964, and different organization for a biography.” waterfront. “This was arguably the most the passage of the Civil Rights Act legally Professor Attoh agreed: “It’s very unique racially diverse and integrated institution ended segregation by race, the radical and provides a further incentive to check of its time, and for the next decade, the union put an end to the racial divisions out the primary sources. It has a Brechtian most powerful, militant union. For this, it amongst this casual labor system – quality,” he said, “to see the labor that was praised by both A. Phillip Randolph precarious and weak.” Famously, the IWW goes into a narrative – it has a very cool and W.E.B. DuBois,” said Cole. never signed contracts and used direct dialectical quality.” “Give us a sense of that organization action tactics. “Ben Fletcher was central to Kudos to the sponsor, the CUNY that Fletcher was part of and how they the movement that gave rise to the strikes School of Labor and Urban Studies. Link fit into the landscape – what did it that won better conditions and to Local 8, here, to listen to the program and hear mean to be a Wobbly, asked Professor which abolished the dreaded “shape-up”. the rest of the content-rich discussion: Attoh. “It meant that you put a target Without Ben Fletcher, it’s hard to imagine https://slu.cuny.edu/public-engagement/ on your back,” said Cole. “Fletcher Local 8 being born,” said Cole. public-programming/past-events/

Summer/Fall 2021 3 More books to raise children’s awareness

By Marcia Newfield the point of view of strength to adapt to simple that even a six- till on the quest George, but the heroine a not-so-friendly new year-old can understand for picture books is Dorothy, an expert environment. As she its evil. “Minty Sabout important dancer who inspires advances in school, Flor (Harriet’s nickname), issues for our youngest George to dance in gets more courage (and her parents and her audiences, I find that, public and then gather influence) by using eight siblings were once again, Hardball the young people from her green pen to share owned by the Brodess Press obliges with two the neighborhood to the stories and needs family. Minty and her new books. defy the police and of other immigrants. parents were considered continue the dance at The line drawings by property, in the same Dorothy’s house. In the Katherine Loh are way people had objects era of segregation, it is a stunning for their like a tea kettle or a the story of the drum. brave act which readers economical use of color hammer that belonged He describes the can’t help but admire and gesture. to them. That’s what vibrations of the drum and reflect on, thanks Parents and slavery was – white as the earth’s heartbeat to the accompanying teachers may disagree people owning black which infuses the discussion questions. as to whether or how people. …and just hearts and hands of the The illustrations capture much children should like objects, enslaved people even after the drums were taken away Down on James the lively momentum of be exposed to harsh people could be bought, from them by slavery Street by Nicole dance and the era’s style. realities; however, since sold, or traded.” At and oppression: “men McCandless, illustrated we can’t stop children the age of six or seven, from another continent by Byron Gramby from picking up Minty was forced to came, shackled us, tore (2021), builds on whatever is out there, we wade into icy water to us apart, didn’t allow an actual event in might as well advocate catch muskrats snagged for truth, compassion in riverbank traps. us to speak our own Pittsburg, and benevolence Incidents like this were language, and took our in the 1930s when whenever we can. excerpted from stories drums away… The racial segregation was that Harriet orally earth’s spirit pushed still the law. George, recounted in 1869 itself through us who is white, and and 1886 (she couldn’t anyway and we became Dorothy who is black, For All, Para read or write because the drums. When we come from different Todos by Alejandra blacks were not allowed worked in the fields, we neighborhoods to meet Domenzain, illustrated to go to school). The made our feet drums… at a dance hosted by the by Katherine Loh vividness of these when we stitched Young Workers League. (2021), counters today’s stories make it easier our quilts, we made They are having fun temptations to cruelty to feel her as a real our hands drums…” with the Lindy Hop, and judgment towards person and appreciate The story ends with but because it is an immigrants. Bilingual her monumental “You, too, can be free interracial gathering, and in rhyme, it tells accomplishments. – become a drum.” I police break it up and the story of Flor, who Harriet Tubman by To Be A Drum consider this book a hurt the black dancers. is forced by poverty Andrea Davis Pinkney, by Evelyn Coleman, poem and a prayer. It The author based and the death of her illustrated by Gilian illustrated by Aminah should be reprinted. the story on a plaque mother from chemicals Flint (Philomel Books, Brenda Lynn Robison An added treat is that on the still-existing she inhaled at a factory 2021) is a spinoff from (Albert Whitman & there is a free YouTube building which states “in a country right She Persisted, a series of Company,1998) is reading of the book by “police closed up a next to this one” to biographies of inspiring a visual and verbal the mellifluous actor dance sponsored by the take a difficult journey women by Chelsea depiction of the spirit James Earl Jones. The Young Workers League with her father to a Clinton and Alexandra ground for the courage illustrations, by the because of mixed land called “For All.” Boiger. It includes of the African-American distinguished McArthur people, colored and The book recounts a depiction of what people told by a father Award winner African white.” It’s told from the struggles and slavery was in terms so to his children through continued on next page

4 New York Labor History Association Books to raise children’s awareness continued from previous (Calkins Creek, 2020) film and audio mud house. At that Couched in an abstract page relates the story of how references. What time, the birth of a story about two race American artist, now Reverend F.D. Reese an engaging way to girl was considered a cars, a white car and deceased, incorporate who taught science learn history; Palmer’s burden while the village a black car, the plot painting, hogmawg at a local high school powerful paintings celebrated sons as is pointed and the (a mixture of mud, persuaded a group of deepen the experience. blessings from the gods. context is relevant in clay, twigs, leaves, teachers to risk arrest Girls were not allowed that the sport has been lime, animal grease to exercise their right to attend school at that totally dominated by and glue), and found to vote. He invited time and the land was whites. Louis Hamilton objects, collages of cloth Martin Luther King abused by the owners and Darrell “Bubba” scraps, and homemade to speak at his Chapel; of a marble factory. Wallace are the first dyes and paper, is the Reverend said Sundar changed all that and only winners in extraordinary. Every people shouldn’t be with the connections he various competitions in page is a treasure. afraid of being arrested, made between daughter, fifty years. Discussion The books that they should go to jail water, and trees. questions for every few follow are testimonies by the thousands to 111 Trees, written Resonant and spacious pages are proposed by to the human spirit that defend the right to by Rina Singh illustrations complete the authors. Would embodies the courage to vote. Inspired, one and illustrated by this magical world. it be appropriate go against the grain, to hundred and four Marianne Ferrer (Kids to begin to initiate challenge the status quo, teachers signed up and Can Press, 2020) these discussions with to make change.They showed up, “clutching conveys a message of kindergarten or pre- are cast as stories but are paper bags filled with transformation in two school children before based on actual events. sandwiches for jail.” areas: gender equality they have ever heard of Dr. King said that this and environmental discrimination or white march inspired other justice. Based on a true privilege? The authors black professionals to story of the changes maintain that by ages join in the movement in Piplantri, a small two to four children can that resulted in the village in India, it internalize racial bias. passage of the Voting celebrates the reforms It will be interesting to Rights Act. The initiated by Sundar Race Cars by Jenny hear parent, teacher and authors based this Paliwal when he became Devenny, LCSW, children’s reactions to book on interviews sarpanch, the head of edited by Charnie these conversations. with Reverend Reese the village. When he Gordon (Quarto Marcia Newfield is a and other leaders, was a child, Sundar’s Publishing, 2021), is member of the NYLHA The Teacher’s March all of whom were favorite time was when the most challenging Board, a retired BMCC- to Selma by Sandra awarded Congressional he accompanied his and probably the most CUNY adjunct lecturer Neil Wallace and Rich Gold Medals. The mother to fetch water controversial, tackling and PSC activist. She is Wallace, illustrated accompanying for their family of the subject of white the author of several books

by Charly Palmer bibliography includes eleven who lived in a supremacy head on. for children.

5. Salinger. 5. Sea. 19.

21. Lucy. Lucy. 21.

Crossword Answers Reed. 38.

4. Italian. Italian. 4. Wright. 18.

41. Tan. Tan. 41. New. 17. Pankhurst. 37.

3. Pesotta. Pesotta. 3. Contractors. 16.

36. British. British. 36. Strasberg. 15. Alabama. 34.

2. India. 2. Strand. 15.

35. Taylor. Taylor. 35. Moscow. 14. Jonathan. 33.

14. Mask. 14.

32. Labor. 32. Bezos. 13. O'Hair. 31. Down

12. Ambassador. 12.

30. Asian. Asian. 30. Sitting. 10. Ridgeway. 28.

11. God. 11.

29. Evans. Evans. 29. Transport. 9. Hayes. 43. Gary. 26.

8. DeSantis. 8.

27. Youngstown. Youngstown. 27. Disc. 8. Fass. 42. Campion. 25.

. Paris. . 1

24. Addams. Addams. 24. Court. 7. Pro. 40. Kirchwey. 22.

23. Yogi. Yogi. 23. Hard. 6. Town. 39. Song. 20. cross A

Summer/Fall 2021 5 January 6th is part of the long history of mob violence to suppress black votes

By Clarence Taylor biracial-members of Black Republicans he Republican Party’s effort and Whites who were members of the nationwide to bring back Populist Party who had teamed up to T Jim Crow has been well create the Fusion Party. In November documented. The passage of voter 1920 white supremacists, upset about suppression laws in Georgia, Florida, blacks voting, led an attack on the black Texas, and the introduction of other community of Ocoee, burning houses, such bills in state legislatures, has businesses and forcing many to flee for received a great deal of attention. their lives. During the Red Summer of Stacey Abrams, head of Fair Fight, an way into the building, looting, breaking 1919 there were 38 white supremacist organization created to protect the into the offices of Congressmen and attacks on black communities. right to vote, has called the latest effort women in their attempt to overturn a One of the motivating factors for some of voter suppression “Jim Crow in a presidential election. One insurrectionist of these racial assaults was white anger over suit and tie.” Abrams’ reference to Jim said to a cop, you did not take back blacks attempting to vote. For example, in Crow is linking the current effort by the building, we gave it back to you. Knoxville, Tennessee, blacks who helped the GOP with the late nineteenth- The President of the , elect a mayor who supported black voting century period where southern states who refused to call out the National rights and had denounced racist attacks, adopted a number of legal measures Guard to stop the rebellion, told the were warned by white supremacists not to deny black Americans their insurrectionists that he loved them and to vote in the upcoming election. After constitutional right to vote. said that they were “special.” a sheriff sneaked a black man accused of However, another part of the Soon after the violent takeover, that killing a white woman out of the jail to campaign to enforce Jim Crow is the resulted in the death of five people, the the next town, a crowd estimated at 5,000 amount of violence that was used by media, Democratic elected officials, and ripped the jailhouse apart in their search white southerners to assure that blacks the President-elect Joe Biden, compared for the accused man. The mob then turned could not vote, could not have access how Black Lives Matter protesters were on the city’s black community and with the to public accommodation, an adequate treated by law enforcement to the lack help of the national guard they destroyed public education, and rights as citizens. of police action on those involved in homes and businesses, forcing many blacks The January 6, 2021 storming of the sedition. However, many also contended to flee for their lives. United States Capitol was part of the that the event was unique, an aberration. Wilmington, Ocoee, and Knoxville story of white supremacists’ use of One popular argument heard was the are just a few examples of the history violence to stop people of color from event was “not who we are.” of organized white supremacist groups their right to vote. No one should be surprised about carrying out vicious assaults to assure January 6 because the violent attempts that black people could not vote. Organized for insurrection to deny people of color the right to vote After a number of people in and near Although there were many people is not new. In 1898 Phoenix, South Syracuse, New York where I live, were at the Nation’s capital on January 6, Carolina after a strong supporter of arrested for their participation in the who were there because they were in black voting rights placed ballot boxes insurrection, it raised the question, what financial despair and believed that Trump in black areas in order to allow blacks to does that tell us about racism in this would relieve their economic pain, vote, a prominent white man was shot country? Racists are not just southern others were there because they saw him and killed after he attempted to remove rednecks or toothless hillbillies. They as the champion of white supremacy. the ballot boxes. On November 9th, are Olympic swimmers, realtors, police The January 6 insurrection was a well- blacks were lynched while hundreds of officers and others in law enforcement. organized white supremacist coalition, whites watched. The following day in They are in the military reserves and consisting of the Proud Boys, the Oath Phoenix, two more blacks were killed retired military officers. The insurrection Keepers, the Three Percenters, the in order to stop blacks from voting. On demonstrated that people are not just Boogaloo movement, Neo-confederates, November 10, 1898, a white supremacist fearful of their economic situation, they Neo-Nazis, Q-Anon believers, and loads mob of thousands in Wilmington, are fearful of being replaced in their of other racist white militias. Hundreds North Carolina launched a successful position on the racial hierarchy. of insurrectionists, violently forced their coup of a duly elected government of continued on next page

6 New York Labor History Association A labor history collaboration gets off the ground

By Keith Danish n March 18, 2021, a “Virtual Forum” was presented via Zoom O as the first public offering of the Collaboration of Labor History Organizations, or “CLHO”. This group was formed early in 2020 with the NY Labor History Association proudly serving as a founding member. It is a network of U.S. and Canadian labor history Alvin Finkel Sara Nelson associations, academic entities, historical enactments, noting that while the U.S. sites, museums, and other institutions took the lead in pro-union and social with an interest in labor history. Its goals welfare laws, by around 1970 Canada include the study and promotion of labor had outpaced it, aided by labor and/ history (especially in schools), networking or social democratic parties such as the in order to exchange information and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation best practices, and presentation of public and the New Democratic Party. programs. The first such program, as Accordingly, as reported by the OECD, aforementioned, was titled “U.S. and the unionization rate for Canada in 2018 Canadian Labor”. was 25.9% compared with only 10.1% in Larry Spivak A history of working together the U.S. intermittent, limited-scope strikes and Sara Nelson (who had just returned The program was well-organized other non-traditional work actions, first from Alabama where she supported the and well-received, with over 200 pre- used in 1993 against Alaska Airlines. movement to unionize Amazon workers) registrations and 113 in attendance. The Nelson’s call for a “General Strike” recounted her personal history as a flight moderator was Larry Spivack, who heads probably contributed to the end of attendant and then a union official, the Illinois Labor History Society. The President Trump’s government shutdown and implored us to remember and learn panelists were Alvin Finkel, a Professor in 2019. from history, including Mother Jones’s Emeritus of History from Athabasca So, the first flight of the fledgling observation that employers organize, so University, Canada and President of labor history collaboration went well, why shouldn’t employees, and Mother’s the Alberta Labour History Institute, undoubtedly aided by the presence of an warning that there will never be labor- and Sara Nelson, President since 2014 experienced flight attendant! We look management peace. Nelson is a fighter, of the Association of Flight Attendants forward to its future programs. (CWA, AFL-CIO). Professor Finkel and her union does not shrink from gave us an overview of comparative conflict, including the use of “CHAOS” Keith Danish is NY Labor History U.S. and Canadian history with regard (“Create Havoc Around Our System”), Association’s liaison to the Collaboration of to unionization and social-welfare what it calls a “trademarked strategy” of Labor History Organization.

Mob violence to suppress black votes continued from previous page when I hear unity and compromise the came out to support them, then expect The end of Trump does not mean the first question I have is what are you willing another Trump in four years. end of Trumpism. Among Republicans, to give up in the process of compromise? Clarence Taylor is professor emeritus of Trump has an 85 percent approval rating. If Biden and the Democrats push unity History at Baruch College in New York Seventy-seven percent of Republicans and are willing to make compromises that City and author of books on racism, reli- think the 2020 election was stolen. So, will not benefit the millions of people who gion, and civil rights in the 20th-century.

Summer/Fall 2021 7 146 workers: The Triangle Shirtwaist

By Sherry Kane world, each holding a hand-made sign with the name of a ach year, on March 25th, hundreds of union members, Triangle fire victim. health and safety advocates, and students gather on the The videos of the history of the fire and the 1982 strike, in E corner of Greene Street and University Place in New York which mostly women workers in Chinatown garment factories City to commemorate the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire struck in order to force their employers to sign the union that killed 146 workers in 1911. contract, grounded the ceremony in the past. This year, commemoration organizers decided that, rather “Women workers have been organizing in the garment than risk meeting in person during the pandemic, they would industry for years,” said Ruth Sergel, the artist who produced the create a dynamic, moving webinar that both remembers video. “And in this period of anti-Asian violence, we felt it was the past and honors today’s workers, focusing especially on important to highlight this historic event. We were honored to the contributions of essential and frontline workers in this have multi-media artist Betty Yu, whose mother worked in the challenging year. garment industry, create the video.” The vibrant 50-minute presentation, which can be seen at Frontline workers talked about the challenges they face, www.rememberthetrianglefire.org, includes music from the describing understaffing at nursing homes, lack of health and Resistance Revival Chorus, Rachel Perez and Rosanne Cash, safety equipment in nail salons, and long hours and low pay short videos about the Triangle Fire and the 1982 Chinatown at Amazon. Strike, and testimonies from health care, nail salon, and Amazon “It breaks my heart when I go in in the morning and I see warehouse workers. The tradition of “saying the names” is so many call bells going off and [there are] not enough hands presented as a slide show with 146 people from around the on deck to really answer these calls,” explained Linda Silva, a Certified Nursing Assistant and member of 1199SEIU, who works in a nursing home and says they need more staff. In order to combat wage theft and unhealthy working conditions, nail technicians formed the Nail Salon Workers Association whose member Araceli Torres said, “In the nail salon industry, there has been a lot of wage theft and we don’t have the proper [health and safety] equipment…We’re fighting to pass a law that holds the salon owners responsible – the Nail Salon Accountability Act. After 100 years, where over 146 women workers died…we see that conditions haven’t changed. We continue fighting. It’s time for a change.” Amazon worker Jennifer Bates, who was active in the ultimately unsuccessful organizing drive in Alabama, called on us to remember that current labor struggles are built on the past. “We remember all the workers who came before us,” she said. “We remember their struggles, their strengths and their sacrifices and we remember the workers who perished in the Triangle fire.” The story of the Triangle Fire can be approached in many different ways – as labor history, Jewish and Italian history, women’s history, as a fight for immigrants’ rights, health and safety, and better conditions in the workplace. Public continued on next page

8 New York Labor History Association Factory Fire Commemoration 2021 continued from previous page outrage at the loss of life led to changes in labor law and fire safety regulations that continue to protect us today and spurred the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. The building was eventually landmarked for its cultural and historical significance. For family members Suzanne Pred Bass and Bill Swersey, the fire continues to impact their lives. Because Mr. Swersey’s great grandfather, Louis Rosen, died in the fire, his father began designing medical equipment, especially to help burn victims, and Bill works at HAIS, an organization that supports refugees. Two of Ms. Pred Bass’ great aunts were Triangle factory workers, Rosie Wiener who died in the fire and Katie who survived. A member of the Remember the Triangle Coalition, which is currently spearheading the building of a memorial at the site of the original fire, Ms. Pred Bass explained its significance. “[The memorial] starts at the 9th floor where most of the people died and goes down [the building] in a ribbon,” she said. “The names of all of the victims will be etched in a panel…and the light and sky will be reflected. This memorial is a reclaiming and a remembering of this horrible tragedy that spawned great changes in the lives of workers, but tragically, it also stands as a reminder of the work that’s still ahead of us.” Organizers hope that schools will use different parts of the video, which is available on YouTube. “These short videos are a great way to introduce labor history and current labor issues in the classroom,” said NYLHA board member Kimberly Schiller, who teaches middle school on Long Island and brings her students to the ceremony every year. “We’ve all seen a lot of Zoom programs this year, but this was really beautiful,” said Donna Ristorucci, former editor of the Teamsters Local 237 Retiree News and Views. “I was so moved, I teared up.” The video is available on YouTube and can be accessed on the Remember the Triangle Fire’s website www. rememberthetrianglefire.org. Sherry Kane is Program Director for the Workers United Education Program/CWE, an adult education program for union and community members. Previously, she spent many years as Communications Director for a local of the garment workers’ union.

Summer/Fall 2021 9 Profiles in Activism – Kimberly Schiller

ince the pandemic began in March is as an author. She 2020, teachers have been front and recently contributed S center as essential workers, coping an essay, “Teaching with tending to their students and finding the Triangle Fire new ways to connect. We are profiling two to Middle School teachers, Kimberly Schiller and Joe Doyle, Students,” to Talking both members of the NYLHA board; Joe to the Girls: Intimate a stalwart of many years, and Kimberly a and Political Essays relative newcomer who continues to make on the Triangle Fire, significant contributions to our mission of due to be published sharing labor history. in March 2022 (New It seems like only yesterday that Leigh Village press). Benin brought Kimberly Schiller to a Since the board meeting so we could all meet this pandemic emerged, exceptional young woman. Kimberly joined our board in 2013 teaching has been challenging, as she describes: and since then, has worked tirelessly to promote and preserve “Last year’s distance learning amidst a pandemic was labor history. Kimberly’s profession as a teacher keeps her busy. extremely stressful. As an eighth grade English teacher, engaging Like Joe Doyle she is also an active union rep, and has served as students is already challenging and having to do that virtually district vice president from May 2016 to the present. In that role made things harder. My school used a hybrid model, combining for the Associated Teachers of Huntington (LI), she organizes at-home and at-school teaching. For the at-home students, I programs to strengthen the union. She serves as a delegate to the have been live-streaming my lessons through Google Meet. I’ve annual union conference, and supports other initiatives on the had to alter my lessons to have technology as the sole route to political action front. take for teaching in class. I can’t include pen and paper tasks, and group work is rare. In the past, I’ve always tried an arts and crafts A love for history activity, and have the students write out their ideas, rather than Kimberly is an eighth grade English teacher at the J. jump directly to the keyboard. Additionally, the kids were out of Taylor Finley Middle School, where she combines her love practice with their skills. They’ve experienced a lot, as have the of labor history with her English lessons. She has developed faculty and staff over the last nine months. interdisciplinary projects with a focus on history, unions, It’s been quite a balance between planning lessons/ suffrage, and the history of working people and immigrants. She assessments, staying in contact with kids and their families, and organizes annual trips to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire maintaining records of everything turned in online, along with commemorations, the Uprising of the 20,000, and to the Lower revising how to hold the kids accountable. There have been East Side’s Tenement Museum for her students. She serves as a some disappointments – I was not able to take my students to mentor for students taking part in the National History Day and the site of the Triangle fire as I have over the last 10 years, but I supervises their projects. went there on my own and left flowers and chalked for Caterina Kimberly’s work for the NYLHA alone could keep her Maltese, one of the oldest victims of the Triangle fire. And joys – busy: A member of the Commerford Award Committee; one of my former students, now a freshman at Vassar, spoke on a the moderator of the NYLHA Facebook page; organizer panel on the anniversary of the Triangle fire, where she discussed of several film programs as part of the Workers Unite Film how the fire is remembered by a new generation, 110 years later. Festival; contributing articles for the Work History News; and To hear Julia, an amazing young woman, speak about something photographing our events. LaborArts has also benefitted from that I taught her five years earlier, was such an honor.” her contributions, in their efforts to increase teachers’ awareness Kimberly also brought a special labor history program into and involvement in the organization. She has developed her classroom during May, Labor History Month. Based on a curriculum materials and professional development sessions – play called “Layer the Walls,” it involved the development of and so much more. characters based on primary sources, and students got to do their In addition to all of these activities, since joining our board, own “time-traveling” as a character they created. “I’ve never done Kimberly became a mother, first, to Annalee Jane, and then Billy. anything like this before, but I wanted to immerse the students She continues to introduce her children to the wonderful world in something real, since so much of the year has just been in of art and books, museums and history. Kimberly’s latest endeavor front of a screen,” she said.

10 New York Labor History Association Profiles in Activism – Joe Doyle

o short profile can do justice to were overwhelmed. They couldn’t handle Joe Doyle. He has spent decades all the grievers begging them to bury their N dedicating his love of history dead. Worst of all, my students told me, the toward documenting the stories of New ambulance sirens never seemed to stop – York’s diverse population. Chief among night and day. these are the Irish and Irish-Americans, The principal of my high school wrote maritime workers, and the working-class to us about driving by Our Lady of Sorrows communities in New York City’s Chelsea Catholic Church, half a mile away, and neighborhood, as well as the Chinese and seeing a line for the church’s food pantry Chinese-Americans. ten blocks long. One of my students wrote Doyle has contributed to the NYLHA in her journal that week that her mother in numerous ways: serving as Work History went out hoping to get a food parcel from News Editor; organizing a 2012 program, Our Lady of Sorrows – but gave up when a “Murder on the Waterfront” and leading representative from the food pantry – giving a walking tour of the Chelsea waterfront. out numbers in line – said they only had As Editor of the New York Irish History food for 1,000 families. Her mother got out Journal, he produced major contributions of line so families more desperate than her that promoted research, and scholarship own could get something to eat. about the 300-year history of the Irish in New York City. For Students wrote in the wellness check-in I had them do every example, Vol. 9, 1995, of the Journal is a rich compendium of Wednesday – they were “frightened and miserable.” I reached out original essays and primary sources. to my principal and to the student’s counselor several times when Preserving history (maritime workers), studying history students reported they were fighting off suicidal thoughts. One (numerous Gilder Lehrman Foundation seminars, and other student said he wouldn’t be fighting off suicidal thoughts if he residencies), inform his ability to make history come alive for could only get out of his apartment and get some exercise. his students. Helping each other In addition to his many contributions, Doyle serves as a My high school has a number of students who have had almost UFT Chapter Leader. He has received numerous awards, and no formal education. Most students at Newtown High School as all who know him can testify, is a sweet-natured, low-keyed are from Latin America or Asia. Only 5% speak English as their passionate promoter of history that matters: the lost stories of first language. Some of our Newtown students are indigenous New York City’s working-class that contribute to our knowledge people who don’t speak languages NYC emergency food banks of labor history. understand. A half dozen ESL teachers from my school (English as Doyle’s day job is teaching history at Newtown High School a Second Language teachers) personally delivered food parcels to in Queens. Since 1997, he’s worked in several capacities to those students. Alumni from my school banded together to raise transmit his passion for history to the students. The pandemic money for the Our Lady of Sorrows food pantry. brought with it major challenges for teachers, but even greater Our school spent years writing grants and hoarding money in hurdles for the students, as Joe Doyle described: budgets to buy laptop computers for students to use on projects. “I escaped intact last March when the Covid-19 pandemic The week classes were suspended in NYC, we gave out more than struck New York City so hard. But my school, Newtown High 300 of those hard-won laptops for students to take home to use. School, wasn’t so lucky. For weeks, in March and April 2020, NYC, in a single week, transitioned to remote education. Elmhurst Hospital was Ground Zero for the pandemic – the But there was a cost. Half a dozen gym teachers from worst-hit neighborhood in the world. my school got dreadfully sick from Covid-19, during the I had my students write journal entries. Their stories three days they had us teachers come in to school to cram the were hair-raising. One poor kid was living with relatives. Her essentials of Zoom and remote learning. Apparently the gym parents were on the other side of the world. She was sick with teachers were all hanging over each other trying to see a single Covid-19. The relatives she was staying with were so sick they computer in the cramped P.E. office. They were trying to learn were hospitalized. She didn’t know if they were alive or dead. Google Classroom. One of the P.E. teachers was coughing and And she had heard about the refrigerator tractor trailers, full of they all got sick. dead bodies, parked outside Elmhurst Hospital. Funeral homes It now seems like a lifetime ago.”

Summer/Fall 2021 11 In search of John Commerford and other departed labor and populist leaders

By Keith Danish In this article, the term “buried” is or many years. the NY Labor used to encompass all permanent resting History Association has been places, including those above ground, F honoring the memory of 19th such as the Westchester Hills Cemetery Century labor leader John Commerford, mausoleum where the remains of of the General Trades’ Union and “Amalgamated” founder Sidney Hillman National Trades’ Union, but we knew are maintained. Some remains are in a little about his personal life, including transitory or ephemeral state, such as his final resting place. As a result of the ashes of the longshoremens’ leader some informal detective work, aided by Harry Bridges, which were appropriately historian Sean Wilentz, we now know that scattered in Bay, and those Commerford was born in Hackensack, of Walter Reuther, which were scattered New Jersey in 1800, he died in New over his union’s Black Lake UAW Family York City in 1878, and was buried in Education Center, in Michigan. The ’s Green-Wood Cemetery. body of Marvin Miller, whose strategies John Commerford’s plot – Green-Wood Cemetery (Professor Wilentz had known of our took major league baseball players to Commerford awards program and is grateful to us “for keeping his name alive”. Good news – bad news Your correspondent visited the Commerford plot (see accompanying photo) and was saddened to discover that there is no tombstone or other monument in place. I am attempting to contact his descendants living in northern New Jersey (where John’s grandson is buried), hoping to obtain a photograph and other details of his life, inviting them to attend our awards ceremony, and encouraging them to erect a grave marker for their historic ancestor. The aforementioned investigations prompted me to survey the final resting places of other American labor leaders Samuel Gomphers’ grave stone – Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and advocates of workers’ rights. For example, the burial sites of other 19th unimagined levels of wealth and power, to the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument Century union builders include Terence was donated to a New York City hospital (as well as the graves of Elizabeth Gurley V. Powderly (Knights of Labor), in for medical research. Flynn and ) in Chicago’s Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, Multiple burial sites Forest Home Cemetery. American D.C.; Samuel Gompers (Federation of Communist unionist William Z. Foster Can someone be buried in more Organized Trades and Labor Unions, is interred at the Kremlin Wall and has a predecessor of the AF of L), in Sleepy than one place? Activist and songwriter memorial stone at Forest Home. In the Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, NY, , executed in 1915 following a vicinity of the Haymarket monument where he lies close to Andrew Carnegie’s questionable murder conviction, had one can also visit , who grave; Eugene V. Debs (American Railway arranged for his ashes to be divided and was hanged in 1887 following the Union), in Highland Lawn Cemetery, sent to many IWW members in the U.S. mysterious Chicago bombing, his widow Terre Haute, Indiana; and William H. and overseas. “Big Bill” Haywood’s ashes , whose unrelenting radical Sylvis (National Labor Union), in the are divided between the Kremlin Wall advocacy carried on until her death in Fernwood (PA) Cemetery. Necropolis in Moscow and a site close continued on next page

12 New York Labor History Association In search of John Commerford continued from previous page Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn. He a 1942 fire, and , helped to found and lead the dockworkers’ the anarchist theoretician who opposed Local 8 in Philadelphia, which was said capitalism, marriage and the state. to be the most successful interracial union The most notorious of the unknown of its era, but would then be imprisoned grave sites for labor notables surely following the massive federal onslaught must be that of former Teamsters’ chief against IWW leaders in 1917-18. Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared some 46 Last but not least in this non- years ago. His remains may have been exhaustive survey is the “mother” of buried in an oil can in the New Jersey all labor organizers and activists, Mary Meadowlands, but maybe not! Harris “Mother” Jones, who is buried America’s most famous national in the Union Miners Cemetery, Mount cemetery, Arlington, is the resting place Clara Lemlich Shavelson’s headstone – Olive, Illinois. of Arthur J. Goldberg, the attorney New Montefiore Cemetery I hope that this focus on the dead who helped merge the AFL and CIO, and now rests in peace in Mount Judah and their places of repose will not seem served in national roles as Secretary of Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens, New unduly morbid. I find cemeteries to be Labor, Supreme Court Justice and U.S. York. New York area cemetery interments like outdoor history museums, with the Representative to the . Also include many of the young female victims inhabitants coming back to life when in Arlington is former President Taft, who, of the 1911 Triangle Fire, but also of we visit, if only for a short time, and “with considerable hesitation”, signed the women who were able to live out a full life with monuments providing us with enabling Act for the U.S. Department of of service, including , genealogical data. There is also the great Labor on his last day in office, March 4, long-time President of the Women’s Trade beauty of the classic “rural style” urban 1913. The first Secretary of Labor, former Union League, in Maimonides-Elmont cemeteries like Green-Wood, Woodlawn, coal-miner and UMW official William B. Cemetery, Elmont, New York, and Clara and Newark’s Mount Pleasant. But for Wilson, lies in Arbon Cemetery, Blossburg, Lemlich Shavelson, who, at age 25, called all labor leaders or any others who elect Pennsylvania. The first female Secretary for a general strike of the New York a traditional burial, we hope that it will of Labor, Frances Perkins, is buried in City shirtwaist makers, precipitating the be facilitated by hard-working union Glidden Cemetery, Newcastle, Maine. “Uprising of the 20,000”. She lies in New members such as those in the Cemetery An honored co-founder of our Montefiore Cemetery, West Babylon, Workers locals of the S.E.I.U. association and its long-time supporter, New York. Keith Danish is an executive board member Philoine Hillman Fried passed away at Benjamin Fletcher, called a “Black and the Book Review Editor for the New age 102 after a lifetime of service to labor, Wobbly” by his biographer, rests in The York Labor History Association. A Pandemic Nurse’s Diary Reading the gripping A Pandemic Nurse’s Diary is like immersing yourself in a big-screen film. Getting through the entire book in a single two- or three-hour sitting is ideal, though the faint of heart might prefer it in smaller doses because A Pandemic Nurse’s Diary is a true horror story. Through the anonymous author Nurse T’s eyes, we have an inside view of the initial explosive outbreak of the Covid pandemic in New York City in March and April 2020. She is a 20-year veteran Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse working in a less-than-state-of-the-art hospital. The facility treats mainly poor people, immigrants, and people of color in New York City. (All of the workers and patients mentioned are anonymous and the hospital is not identified.) The author conveys the frenzied pace of Nurse T and her co-workers’ work, and the terror of their patients. Exhausted and afraid, dedicated healthcare workers summoned their bravery to adhere to their oaths to do everything they could for their patients as the latter struggled to breathe. They worked without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), through shortages of essential medications, and with inadequate hospital ventilation and infrastructure to minimize spread of the deadly virus. This book is available at https://www.hardballpress.com/worker-writers.html

Summer/Fall 2021 13 Progressive Crossword Puzzle by Kelsey Harrison

Across on the virus and ignored 14. One of the best ways the Federal Government’s scientist’s recommendations. to prevent the spread of the Payroll Protection Program. 1. Twenty thousand students COVID-19 Virus is to wear a protested in ___, France on 11. During the Uprising of ____ on your face. 16. In 2020 Proposition November 11, 1940 in the the 20,000 Garment Workers 22 was the most expensive first illegal demonstration in 1909 in New York City 15. In March 2021 workers proposition in California against the Nazi occupation. one religious judge told a protested outside the ______history – it allowed gig striker “You are on strike companies like Uber and Lyft 8. Florida Governor Ron Bookstore (“Over 18 Miles against_____.” of Books”) over the owner, to classify their employees as _____ has the distinction “independent ______.” of initially denying that the 12. In June 1968 Senator Nancy Bass Wyden, laying off 188 workers and only hiring The tech companies spent COVID-19 Virus could be Robert Kennedy was $205 million to take away spread from person to person, assassinated in the kitchen at the back one-third of them despite getting a $1 million loan from basic workplace rights. suppressed health statistics ______\\ Hotel in . continued on next page

14 New York Labor History Association continued from previous page Atheists in 1963 and later human history. 250 million mask mandate on public 18. In April 2021 Police won a ground-breaking people walked out, led by transportation in New York Officer Kim Potter mistook Supreme Court decision that farmers, labor unions, student City before Dr. Fauci or the her gun for a taser and killed kept mandatory bible-reading activists and industry and CDC required it. They were Daunte _____ in Brooklyn and prayers out of the public transportation workers. ignored and 137 MTA workers Center, Minnesota. school system. died from COVID-19. 3. Rose ______led an 19. Even though it didn’t 33. ______Swift made “A I.L.G.W.U. strike by the 10. ______Bull (1831- become a meme on Instagram, Modest proposal” in 1729 to newly-formed Local 96 in 1890) became a leader of the it’s believed that Moses, the poor Irish people to sell their Los Angeles in 1933. 4,000, Hunkpapa Lakota and was first Jewish Labor Organizer, children as food to the rich. mainly Latina dressmakers, finally assassinated during an parted the Red ___. walked off the job and arrest attempt in the Standing 34. Amazon employed eventually won the 35-hour Rock Indian Reservation in 20. “____ of Solomon” is many sleazy tactics to defeat work seek and enforcement South Dakota. one of Toni Morrison’s most a unionization attempt by of a minimum wage in the famous books and won the the Retail, Wholesale and industry. 13. CEO Jeff ____ (and his National Book Critics Circle Department Store Union in mistress) personally earned Award in 1978. 2021 at its Bessemer, ______4. In May 2021 _____ over $70 billion during the (state) warehouse. workers at the port of Livorno first eleven months of the 22. Freda ______edited in L’Unione Sindicatle di Base COVID Crisis (think of The Nation from 1933 - 38. Musician Lou ____ took refused to load weapons onto the head of a major online 1955 and was active with “A Walk on the Wild Side” in ships headed to Israel during retailer). the NAACP, the Women’s the 1970s. the Israeli bombardment of International League for Peace 14. 37. Emmeline ______Gaza. “______Mitch” refused and Freedom and the League founded the Women’s Social to appropriate more than of Woman Voters. 5. J.D. ______was a loner and Political Union in 1903 as ten percent of the requested and world-famous writer who money to monitor the 2020 25. Jane ______directed the a more militant organization will have his unpublished Presidential Election because he Oscar-Nominated film “The in the women’s suffrage short stories and novels issued approved of foreign interference Piano” and won the Oscar for movement in England. posthumously over the next in American elections. Best Screenplay. Women won the right to vote decade. He spent his time in in 1928. self-imposed isolation in 17 15. The Group Theater was 26. In 1919 85% of ____, down. formed in New York City Indiana steelworkers went on 39. Stuyvesant ___ was the in 1931 and featured such strike against U.S. Steel as part subject of the 2021 book by 6. “ ____ Times” is Charles teachers as Lee ______, Stella of a national steel strike. The Dan Garodnick and the fight Dickens’ 1854 novel attacking Adler and Harold Clurman. U.S. Army imposed marital against Tishman Speyer and factory-owners and the process law and entered the city with BlackRock to destroy tenant’s of industrialization. 17. ___ Hampshire was the mortars, hand grenades and rights. first state to pass a state law machine guns. 7. The 2013 Supreme declaring the ten-hour day 40. The ___ Act will support _____ Case United States immigrants and prevent sleazy (1847). 28. James ______, the vs. Windsor overturned Bill companies from using anti- Washington correspondent Clinton’s Defense of Marriage 21. ____ Parsons was an union tactics. for The Village Voice for thirty Act that declared marriage editor, orator, founder of the is only between a man and a I.W.W. and the Haymarket years, died at the age of 84 in 42. Bob ____, a pioneer of woman (Should the United widow of Albert Parsons. 2021. He also edited Ramparts free-form radio at WBAI, died States have taken marriage Magazine from 1970-1975 in April 2021 at the age of 87. advice from Bill Clinton?). 23. A new stamp coming out and while at The New Republic in 2021 commemorates long- 43. Chris _____ is a in 1964 he exposed the 8. Compact ____ sales have time Yankees catcher ____ progressive weeknight host on dangers of American-made dropped from almost one billion Berra. cars with a then-unknown MSNBC. per year in 2002 to just 31.6 source named Ralph Nader. million in 2020 (think music). 24. Jane ______founded what Down became the International League 31. Madalyn Murray _____ 2. In 2020 this nation,_____, 9. The ______Workers for Peace and Freedom in at Union insisted on a founded the group American hosted the largest strike in continued on next page

Summer/Fall 2021 15 Debra E. Bernhardt LABOR JOURNALISM PRIZE 2021 – Call for submissions 2020-2021

The Debra E. Bernhardt Award for Labor Journalism is a prize of $1000 given for an article that furthers the understanding of the history of working people. Articles focused on historical events AND articles about current issues (work, housing, organizing, health, education) that include historical context are both welcome. The work should be published in print or online between August 31, 2020 and August 30, 2021. The 2020 prize went to two articles: Josh Eidelson, “How the American Worker Got Fleeced," with data analysis and graphics by Christopher Cannon, Bloomberg Businessweek July 2, 2020 and David Unger, “Which Side Are We On: Can Labor Support #BlackLivesMatter and Police Unions?” New Labor Forum, July 6, 2020. The October 2020 Forum featured labor journalist and author, Steven Greenhouse and Culture Workers Education Center founder Natasha Bunten.

TO ENTER: visit http://www.laborarts.org/Bernhardt Deadline: Sunday August 30, 2021.

The winner will be announced at a virtual forum on labor journalism with NYU's Bobst Library on Tuesday October 12, 2021, 5:00-6:00 p.m. Sponsored by the New York Labor History Association and NYU's Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives with LaborArts, Metro New York Labor Communications Council, and the NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

continued from previous page 29. Photographer Walker the U.S. Government’s anti- 36. The French and Indian an International Congress of _____ worked for the Farm worker War ____ Board, one War resulted in Canada being Women at the Hague in 1915. Security Administration and of the biggest waves of strikes, transferred from French documented the effects of the mainly wildcats, occurred in ownership to _____ ownership 27. The “Little Steel Strike” Great Depression. U.S. history –14,471 strikes by in 1763. of 1937 included 28,000 6,774,000 workers. workers in Massillon, Canton, 30. Anti-____ discrimination 41. Amy ___ wrote the Warren and ______, and street incidents have 35. In February 2021 Georgia ground-breaking novel “The Ohio. The workers lost the increased seven-fold from Congresswoman Marjorie Joy Luck Club” in 1989. strike and three strikers were 2019 to 2020 in New York ______Greene was stripped killed and five wounded but City, reaching a total of 200 of her committee assignments the Steelworkers Organizing incidents in 2020. by the Democrats due to her Committee eventually won support of lunatic conspiracy union recognition. 32. In WWII in response to theories. Answers on page 5

16 New York Labor History Association Send a girl!

This March, Women’s very small numbers and lack of History Month, a new media attention. It is probably picture book for children was not an exaggeration to say that published. Send a Girl! The girls are more aware of women True Story of How Women astronauts than women Joined the FDNY, by Jessica firefighters. It is so important M. Rinker and illustrator to make visible every role Meg Hunt, tells the story because jobs have no gender. of Brenda Berkman and the Q: How did this book project women who broke through come about? many barriers to become the A: The author, Jess Rinker, first female firefighters in New sent me an email and said she York City. We caught up with wanted to write a children’s Brenda to explore her take on book about me. I was very making history – labor history apprehensive as I wanted any milestones within these 39 winning a race discrimination – in 1982, when she and 40 book about me to be both years? What has changed for lawsuit. women finally forced the New historically accurate and to the better? Women getting promoted York City Fire Department to convey messages of inspiration, A: Milestones: Change to higher ranks. comply with the Civil Rights the difficulty of social change, in the entry level firefighter “Fun Fact:” The book’s Act of 1964. and what a great career physical abilities exams. The title Send a Girl! actually Q: You have often spoken firefighting is for women. But struggle to force the FDNY appropriates the anti-women about the need for role models without any formal editorial and other fire departments to bumper sticker that FDNY for little girls … Why is this so rights, all I could do was make use a job-related physical did men put on their cars when important? suggestions and hope for the not end with the first lawsuits women came on the job – A: Billie Jean King is best. I advised both Jess and in the 1980s but continues to “Don’t send a girl to do a famously credited with saying: the illustrator, Meg Hunt. this day. Why? Because much man’s job!” Probably only the original group of 41 women “You have to see it to be it!” Q: What are your hopes for of society and the fire service “get” that reference. I love it. In my growing up years – the this book? continue to believe – despite 1950s and 1960s – the visible A: I literally had no idea all empirical evidence to the Q: As a pioneer – a woman roles for women outside of what the final book would be contrary for more than 45 who has made history, what mother and homemaker were like until it was published. years – that women are not does this legacy mean to you? very limited. I yearned for Fortunately, I am pleased up to the task of firefighting A: How about options! As Send a Girl! makes with the book and want it to physically or emotionally. But “trailblazer?” I am just trying clear, I was infuriated that I reach as many children (and gradually testing and training to carry forward a long legacy was barred from doing things adults) as possible. The book have changed to enable more of “pioneers” who went before – Little League, shop classes provides both women’s history women to become firefighters. me – women and men who – not because I lacked talent Although more [and labor history] and struggled to create a more or interest but simply because women slowly came on inspiration/encouragement at just future. As a student of I was born a girl. Billie Jean fire departments around a time when every age group history, I have always known King came along to inspire me the country, the national that achieving social change is really needs – maybe even in my teen years. Today there percentage hasn’t really a marathon and that anything craves – these things. The are many options visible to risen above 4 percent. Some worth doing is going to be “lessons” of Send a Gir!l go girls and young women but departments have increased hard. But my parents taught with some roles – firefighter, far beyond my life or even their percentages of women, me that we are not on earth to skilled trades, and certain women in firefighting. including the FDNY, which just take up space. People need subcategories of jobs like Q: It’s been a long time since went from 3/10s of a percent to try to leave the world better combat military or surgeon 1982 when women joined to about 1 percent between than they found it. Courage – women in these roles are the FDNY and now – 2021. 2005 and 2021 (largely as the has no gender and bravery virtually invisible because of Are there some significant result of the Vulcan Society comes un many forms.

Summer/Fall 2021 17 Movie Review Radium Girls– a story close to home

By Mike Matejka had already died. Josephine magine ingesting a known is becoming anemic and carcinogen onto your lips, beginning to lose her teeth, a I hundreds of times daily, common malady of the plant all part of your work routine. workers. Because they were In central Illinois the told the paint was safe, the “Radium Girls” at the Radium young women often paint Dial Company in Ottawa is a their nails and faces with well-known and tragic story. the toxic poison. Both girls Young women were hired to are wrapped up in a 1920s paint radium onto watch and fad, studying ancient Egypt. clock faces, so they would be As Josephine sickens, naïve visible at night. but earnest Bessie starts to ask questions. The workers malfeasance and treachery this year but was delayed Recently, a new film, that is a too common story because of COVID. It is Radium Girls, tells the story of are photographed by Walt, a young Communist who but also, to see young, isolated available on Amazon for rental the unfolding tragedy and how working class women find for $4.99 at https://amzn. young working class women develops a relationship with Bessie and exposes her to their voice and fight injustice. to/2L4CLWL. The film’s finally found a voice to stand The film was originally executive producers are Lily up to their bosses. the wider world’s injustices. Josephine is reclusive and scheduled for theatrical release Tomlin and Jane Wagner. A recipe for disaster virginal – a company doctor Ten years before the comes to examine her and Ottawa court cases exploded gives the same diagnosis he Radium Girls – This new movie calls attention to the in the news, 100 young labels every sick woman from workplace ravages rampant throughout our economy. women at the U.S. Radium the factory with – syphilis. “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2020”, is the 29th Corporation in Orange, New With the help of the year that the AFL-CIO has produced a report on the Jersey, painted the clock faces, Consumers League, the safety and health protections for America’s workers. It paid approximately one and women find a lawyer in 1928. includes national and state information on workplace one-half cent for each dial Bessie is harassed for her fatalities, injuries, illnesses, the number and frequency of completed. The plant opened efforts and shunned by other workplace inspections, penalties, funding, staffing and during World War to provide women, fearing for their jobs. public employee coverage under the Occupational Safety luminous watches for the The media descends on the and Health Act. It also includes information on the state military. The women used courtroom and the women’s of mine safety and health, and the COVID-19 pandemic fine camel hair paint brushes affliction gathers favorable https://aflcio.org/reports/death-job-toll-neglect-2020. and were encouraged to media attention. The film On April 28th, unions and worker organizations maintain a fine point on the ends as the real case ended, celebrated Workers Memorial Day, the 50th anniversary brush by twirling it on their an out-of-court settlement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Each year, lips. Chemists and managers for $10,000 each for the thousands of workers are killed and millions more suffer avoided the radium and used five women plaintiffs (about injury or illness because of their jobs. lead shields but there was $150,000 in today’s dollars). As a companion to Mike Matejka’s movie review, we no protection for the young As the story in New Jersey include a link to an interview with the author Kate Moore, female workers. The company unfolded, Ottawa workers whose book, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s did not end the hand painting were told that the New Jersey Shining Women, a New York Times bestseller is a lyrical, of clock faces until 1947. plant had viral infections and powerful, and heartbreaking account of this history In this semi-fictionalized the paint was safe. Ten years https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/03/radium- film, Italian immigrant later the Ottawa women were superfund-legacy/519408/ daughters, Josephine (Abby in court, ravaged by radium Mike Matejka is Vice-President of the Illinois Labor Quinn) and Bessie (Joey and seeking justice. History Society and a long-time community activist. He King) Cavallo work at the The film is worth the is currently preparing a museum exhibit on asbestos plant. An older sister, Mary, watch for two reasons – first, exposure in Illinois. who also worked at the plant, to realize the corporate

18 New York Labor History Association Labor and the media By Jane LaTour org/web/?page_id=1948. that there was a huge hunger n May 20, the Professor Dolber’s talk for information about NYLHA, along with focused on the rise of a new workers, she said. This in several co-sponsors, technology – radio – and the turn led to more content. Ms. O potential of broadcasting as Levin discussed the use of hosted a Zoom program, “Labor and the Media: a working-class medium – a Facebook in organizing and Labor Adapts its Message popular medium. This was the popular use of memes to to Changing Media a fascinating look at the communicate labor messages Environments.” It proved to 1920s – the nadir of the labor in an appealing, fun way. be a perfect blend of history movement and responses to She offered many examples and what’s happening now. the attacks on labor. along with graphic images. Irwin Yellowitz welcomed The question was: how One popular sample: The participants and invited them to use radio to sustain the recent, infamous photo of to join the labor history working-class culturally. former America’s Mayor with association. Board member Professor Dolber looked at hair dye dripping down his Keith Danish, who initiated New York City’s WEVD, face. The message? “Why you and organized the program, English publications; and Chicago’s WCFL., and the should hire a professional noted that this is a topic close all of these reached a broad role of the Forward. The hairdresser.” to his heart, since his father, audience,” he said. Materials tumultuous history of this Another popular example Max Danish, edited Justice, such as pamphlets and period holds many lessons for is the farmworkers in the the paper of the ILGWU, for flyers were read, shared, and labor today. UFW and their campaign over thirty years. circulated. “There was an Elana Levin, Program called: We Feed You – with Director at New Media A hunger to be informed impulse for self-education farmworkers documenting and it generated a world of Mentors, was the bridge their own lives. “With social UCLA Professor Tobias organized labor education to some of these lessons in media, you are able to get Higbe kicked off the discussion programs and at least 5 her discussion of how social information to someone with a fascinating look at residential labor colleges.” media presents such rich who is not looking for it – to early 20th century readers Reading was central to labor opportunities to put labor’s get it in front of them,” she and their hunger for reading messages in front of people said. While labor was slow to material and how this was fed unions and their work to and to expand the base. embrace the new technology, by radical labor organizations. develop future representatives forward into a world of books She noted that, “suddenly, it has now taken hold. “Clear, The presumption in the United blogging was appearing in States is that reading is for the and leisure, where knowledge straightforward messages with was power and collective spaces that would be read, good images can open up great educated elites. However, at a and you didn’t have to ask time when fewer than 5 percent aspirations undergirded the opportunities. And memes are process of self-education, he for permission.” Levin’s a part of the legacy of political of the population were college educational mission is to concluded. cartooning,” she said. “They graduates, and only 25 percent help people share their own had completed high school Professor Brian Dolber, offer terrific opportunities to words, and she has seen a – when it was common for author of Media and Culture share labor’s stories and feed huge shift since she took up working-class children to leave in the U.S. Jewish Labor the demand for them.” this work. One example she school by the age of 14, the Movement: Sweating for Kudos to our co-sponsors: offered was Teen Vogue, which working-class was “unschooled Democracy in the Interwar The CUNY School of regularly features a labor but not uneducated,” Professor Era, sketched out the Labor & Urban Studies; Higbe said. landscape of the Jewish column. The International Labor “There was a great Left, who “kept alive the Making information easily Communications Association; demand for newspapers traditions of community, available The Metro New York Labor and pulp novels; there was culture, and social unionism,” The ability to produce Communications Council; a vibrant alternative media according to reviewer work that reaches a popular The United Hebrew Trades; in the pre-WWI period, Professor Brain Greenberg. audience came about because and the New York Jewish with both English and non- http://newyorklaborhistory. it was able to demonstrate Labor Committee.

Summer/Fall 2021 19 Haymarket – a history of workers in America Haymarket: The Bomb, the magazine graphics, and Anarchists, the Labor Struggle, photos of the day’s papers to directed by Adrian Prawica, give the film a dynamic visual documentary, 83 minutes, sensibility. Movies, of course, 2021, Filmadria. are not of the day, but a few By Marc Stern early 20th century clips make it into the film to provide mericans’ collective a sense of Chicago’s urban sense of history is dynamism, although I found weak at best, and their A them somewhat jarring. In knowledge of labor history alone doubled in population model or another. Anarchists any event, I felt the film was is frequently non-existent. to over one million residents usually rejected electoral well-carried by its story and Though most Americans during the 1880’s. politics as a sham. the characters it presents, work, the institutional labor The great wealth of the On May 4, 1886, as the including August Spies, movement struggles to survive, robber barons who owned great national May 1 strike Albert Parsons, Lucy Parsons, and as the recent defeat at and manipulated this growth for the Eight Hour Day and their anarchist comrades. Amazon in Alabama suggests, coexisted with great privation. surged forward, a bomb killed Haymarket focuses on the faces an uphill struggle even Both existed within an unstable seven Chicago policemen event and its meaning in the when working conditions seem economic environment. sent to break up a peaceful moment and for an anarchist to cry out for collective action. Workers faced intense cycles rally of about two-three vision that accepted the In this context, then, filmmaker of boom and bust and, for thousand workers protesting likely imperative of violent Adrian Pawica’s documentary many, extreme vulnerability to the killing of two strikers resistance to oppression by a look at the labor markets and mechanized at Chicago’s McCormick capitalism bent on destroying is an important telling of a key production. Hours were long, Harvesting Machine workers’ organizations and, moment in American history. conditions were often fraught Company factory the day through corruption, the It takes us into some of the with danger, and wages were before. The McCormick strike ability to work within any conflicting historical views of subject to the vagaries of labor was not for the eight-hour sort of democratic framework. this event while it attempts and product markets and day; rather, it was by skilled Late nineteenth century to place it into a broader productive innovations that workers fighting to keep America saw the rise of the new understanding of the moment. challenged and often reduced their union and protect their and increasingly integrated It will prove a valuable resource worker control. standing as skilled workers, industrial order linked via for both classroom use (largely Protecting union jobs something the film does not railroads and telegraphs, for discussion after out-of- clarify. The violent police with production rooted in Working people struggled class viewing) and by people response that followed the the immense productivity to understand the implications attempting to understand bombing at Haymarket killed of the factory system and, of these changes and, as a the complexities of American at least three civilians. The increasingly, consumption at result of their experiences working-class history. bomb thrower has never been a national level. Workshop and observations, moved identified, although historian How to tell the history production by master and in a variety of directions. Timothy Messer-Kruse argues Haymarket relies on a journeymen artisans often These included a range of the bomb maker’s identity diverse set of sources. It shifted to more divided, large- organizational forms including was one of those charged and includes interviews and scale, managed, mechanized both craft and industrial offers another suggestion as comments from historians factories. Not surprisingly, unions and political groupings to the bombardier. Other with differing opinions railroad, industrial, and designed to work within and historians remain wedded although it does not directly commercial nodes like Chicago outside electoral politics. to the possibility that the pit them against one another. grew quickly, attracting Some worked both inside and bombing was the work of an It also relies on a rich trove immigrants from both rural outside these different forms, agent provocateur. Although of photos, newspaper and America and Europe. Chicago while others cleaved to one continued on next page

20 New York Labor History Association A history of workers in America continued from previous page helped spark the nationwide the Eight Hour Strike faltered strike. Both the K of L and in the wake of this bombing the AFL formally opposed and the antiradicalism it and violence, engendered, labor activity but both included anarchist continued, another subject and socialist members and the film does not develop. had member unions/lodges The arrest of 8 anarchists that embraced . connected with the rally’s Parsons himself had been call or as speakers or just for an important Knight in being well-known anarchists Chicago and was a long-time led to charges of conspiracy. activist in the eight-hour In the context of lurid press movement even as it was coverage and a - disparaged as reformist by like environment, the trial purer anarchist comrades. and eventual conviction were Though the Knights Grand followed throughout the Master Workman, Terrance United States and around the Powderly, attacked the world and, despite world- anarchists and rejected the wide protests, led to the eight-hour strikers after exceptionally brutal 1887 Haymarket, many Knights hanging of four of the accused. remained committed to One, the defendant identified these strikes and condemned by Messer-Kruse as the the trial. The AFL bombmaker, committed suicide denounced the bombing, but before the hanging, another Sam Gompers also inveighed was sentenced to fifteen years in against the executions of the prison, and Illinois’s Governor accused conspirators, and Richard Oglesby commuted many union members and two sentences to life in prison. their organizations saw the Two hundred thousand Haymarket, the film, is development are smoothed trials as shams. Chicagoans marched in the at its best when it examines over. Skilled work and workers These were, indeed, funeral procession. the rise of anarchism, the all but disappear, their gains complex and powerful times The three survivors bombing as an event and and standing obliterated in the in the history of American were pardoned in 1893 by the trial, executions, and the dialectic of industrialization. labor and radicalism, and Governor John Peter Altgeld proceedings that followed. Even more importantly, Haymarket: the Bomb, the in 1893 in consideration of The participants come alive, the labor movement itself Anarchists, the Labor Struggle trial irregularities. The Second their struggles are made is entirely absent from brings these issues and International’s designation of comprehensible, and whatever this narrative. There are years to life with verve and May Day as the international the analytical differences no Knights of Labor, a thoughtfulness. It will prove worker’s holiday commemorated amongst historians, righteous powerful organization a valuable resource as we both the strikes for the Eight- demands of the eight-hour with a complex ideological attempt to move forward Hour Day and the Haymarket movement and strike, the identity and almost 800,000 towards a more just society. Martyrs. That eight-hour goal martyrdom of the accused, national members and a Marc Stern is Professor of languished until the New Deal and the impact of capitalist strong presence among History, Bentley University and has, sad to say, returned to industrialization become both skilled and less-skilled (Waltham, MA) where he has the status of an ambition for palpable and understandable. workers in Chicago in taught labor and economic many American workers today, These are no mean feats. 1886. The smaller trades history for 32 years. Producer as workdays frequently average There are, however, unions are absent as well, and host of Radio With a more than “8 hours for work, 8 some problematic issues in although the call for a May View on WMBR-FM and at hours for sleep, and 8 hours for Haymarket. The complexities 1, 1886 action by the AFL’s https://www.mixcloud.com/ what we will.” and unevenness of industrial predecessor organization radiowithaview/

Summer / Fall 2021 21 Working Class New York revisited – The past and future of struggles for progressive change

By Joshua Barnett rare balance between being Red Vienna in the 20s and the Symposium on Joshua B. sympathetic and clear-eyed, post-WWII European social Freeman’s Working Class New don’t come along very often. and the outright York, CUNY School of Labor The consensus at the socialist countries raised the and Urban Studies, April 23, symposium “Working Class bar much higher). 2021. New York Revisited: The Past It’s impossible to do and Future of Struggles for justice to all the speakers, or anyone who grew Progressives Change” held each of whom brought depth up in New York City, April 23 at the CUNY School of working class and diverse Fnostalgia is a never- of Labor and Urban Studies perspective to the discussion, ending game, bordering on (virtually) was that the work but it is possible to note the blood sport; the “real” New was more than rare, and on the strongest themes throughout York, the best times, the most occasion of Professor Freeman’s Harris brought a riveting the event: the evident deep vibrant neighborhood, was, retirement, warranted a serious perspective to the interior lives appreciation for Freeman’s naturally, whenever you were discussion of the work, and of working class people and incredible book and work, the growing up there. It involves his work, at an all day series a sharp focus on the broader willingness to bring additional acknowledging that change of presentations by two dozen themes in Freeman’s work insights into how diversity, is inevitable but change is, of labor and class historians (many with an account of his family’s gender studies, LGBTQ+ course, always negative when of them his former students). devastating history. Johanna studies, and other real urban gauged against your experience. The more glaring changes Fernandez elaborated on elements also factored into But change is more than the between working class New the nuances of the powerful working class New York, which switch from nickels to subway York and gentrified New York unions that shaped the city Freeman clearly appreciated; tokens, disappearance of phone were pointed out by many of as described in Working Class and the inspiration that this booths, difficulty finding an the speakers: the severe decline New York: often socialist or still is, in a real way, working egg cream (google it) or even in union presence, going from communist influenced, but class New York. The city the endless shifts in the ethnic a city of over 1,000 locals, as also often insular, racist, sexist, may have shifted from macro or racial composition of the old Samir Shonti pointed out, even while fighting for access breweries like Schaeffer to neighborhood. For the working including a vibrant left, to a to what the working class micro breweries serving class, it can mean the loss of city where informal workers needs, health care, housing. artisanal beer, MOMA may an all too rare commodity in are, as Premilla Nadasen cost twenty five bucks and a capitalist society: influence. The historians speak noted, the norm. Aldo Lauria Harlem may be mostly white. Influence over lives, jobs, The final session, including Santiago expanded on the But it’s still a working class politics, working conditions, remarks by Frances Fox Piven, themes in Working Class city, our city, and the working housing, culture. Eric Foner, New York, pointing out how class influence so effectively Documenting change and Freeman all noted (not the Young Lords tied in to that anyone needed to be described in Professor That change, the rise, and Freeman’s discussion of Puerto reminded) that we’re now Freeman’s book is neither decline of a rare working class Ricans in the city and how in Trump’s New York, a city so unique nor so distant influence, was the subject of union struggles against mob where working class and union that we can’t take it back, so historian Joshua B. Freeman’s controlled unions benefitted power is far more potential working class New York won’t groundbreaking 2001 history, from alliances with Black than actualized. That as be the history so effectively Working Class New York, workers. That was one of Marta Gutman pointed out described in Freeman’s book Life and Labor Since World the most powerful threads the New York City described and incredible symposium, but War II. Needless to say, since throughout the symposium, in Freeman’s book was current events. mainstream history is rarely as speakers added the growing like a laboratory for urban Joshua Barnett is an affordable viewed from a working class insights from diversity- progressive ideas (although housing activist and works as an perspective, books like this, based historiography to the have to note that’s as far as architect for the New York City much less one that strikes a original work. Lashawn D. American cities go; cities like Housing Authority (NYCHA).

22 New York Labor History Association