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"With the Class-Conscious Workers Under One Roof": Union Halls and Labor Temples in American Working-Class Formation, 1880-1970

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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 "With the Class-Conscious Workers Under One Roof": Union Halls and Labor Temples in American Working-Class Formation, 1880-1970 Stephen McFarland Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/367 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] "WITH THE CLASS-CONSCIOUS WORKERS UNDER ONE ROOF": UNION HALLS AND LABOR TEMPLES IN AMERICAN WORKING-CLASS FORMATION, 1880-1970 by STEPHEN MCFARLAND A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Earth and Environmental Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 STEPHEN MCFARLAND All rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Earth and Environmental Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore Date Chair of Examining Committee Dr. Cindi Katz Date Executive Officer Dr. Vinay Gidwani Dr. Joshua Freeman Supervisory Committee iii Abstract "WITH THE CLASS-CONSCIOUS WORKERS UNDER ONE ROOF": UNION HALLS AND LABOR TEMPLES IN AMERICAN WORKING-CLASS FORMATION, 1880-1970 by Stephen McFarland Advisor: Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore This dissertation is a historical geography of interior spaces created by labor unions and other working class organizations in the United States between 1880 and 1970. I argue that these spaces-- labor lyceums, labor temples, and union halls-- both reflected and shaped the character of the working class organizations that created them. Drawing on Neil Smith's theories of geographic scale, I spatialize Ira Katznelson's framework for understanding working class formation. I demonstrate that at their best, these labor spaces furthered working class formation at multiple scales, enabling collective action across lines of racial, ethnic, and gender difference, and bridging the division between organizing on the shop floor and organizing in residential neighborhoods. In periods of inclusive organizing along lines of social unionism, these spaces were bustling hubs of cultural, social, political, educational, and recreational activities with close ties to working class neighborhood life. The beginning chapters focus on the Brooklyn Labor Lyceum created by immigrant socialists in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood in 1882, and on the Labor Temples constructed by AFL-affiliated unions in San Francisco in the early 20th Century. The latter chapters examine the spaces created by CIO unions (in particular New York City's District 65, and Detroit's United Auto Workers) in the mid-twentieth century. iv Acknowledgements The late Neil Smith provided considerable encouragement and acumen as my committee chair at the outset of this project, and his illness and untimely passing was a terrible loss. Ruthie Gilmore stepped into the breech graciously and without hesitation, and her unerring advice and support in this project and in my development as a scholar have been invaluable gifts. I was wise enough to followed her suggestion to make projects in her classes count towards my dissertation, and Chapter 4 is much the better for it. Josh Freeman's introductory course in U.S. Labor history, with its spatial orientation, cast light on the fertile ground between labor history and labor geography where this project took root. His encyclopedic knowledge of the labor movement as well as his generosity with his time and in sharing his many contacts, deeply enriched my work. I'm grateful to Vinay Gidwani for gamely agreeing to serve on my committee from afar. I've benefited immensely from the support of the rich intellectual community at the graduate center. Rolf Pendall, in advising me on my graduate school applications, suggested that the students would make the experience, and he was absolutely right. David Spataro, Cindy Gorn, Jesse Goldstein, Alyson Spurgas, Cathy Borck, Asher Dupuy-Spencer, Amanda Matles, Naomi Adiv, Terri Bennett, Francesca Manning, Laurel Mei Turbin, Hector Agredano, Amanda Huron, Bradley Gardener, Keith Miyake, Rachel Goffe, Antonia Levy, Jane McAlevey, Marnie Brady, Dominique Nisperos, Jeff Broxmeyer and many others helped cultivate a convivial and stimulating community of radical scholarship in and around our department that has made these six years unforgettable. Classes and encounters with labor scholars Ruth Milkman, Ed Ott, Stanley Aronowitz, Bill Kornblum, and John Mollenkopf helped make the Graduate Center the ideal place to carry out this project. Thanks are due to the Center for Place Culture and Politics seminar for financial support during 2013-14, and to my colleagues in the seminar there for v inspiring discussions that sustained me during a long year of writing-- especially Ruthie Gilmore, David Harvey, Sujatha Fernandes, Don Mitchell, Christina Heatherton, Tom Angotti, and Libby Garland. Many archivists in collections across the country helped make my diggings efficient, fruitful, and enjoyable. Catherine Powell at the Labor Archives and Research Center at S.F. State, William LeFevre at the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State, and Marjorie Bryer at San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society, who put the community in "community archive" with her generous introductions to the other researchers there. Archivists at the Tamiment collection at NYU, at Berkeley's Bancroft Library, and at the New York Public Library's map room also provided essential materials and guidance. I thank Bert Silverman, Gene Eisner, Patricia Sexton, and Michael Lardner for taking the time to share their firsthand memories of the unions I studied. The New Media Lab provided resources for the GIS portion of the project. Thanks to Andrea Vasquez and Steve Brier there. Steve tipped me off to the Chronicling America website without which Chapters 2 and 3 would be much diminished. Thanks to my yoga teachers for keeping my spine straight and my mind clear during many months spent otherwise hunched over a keyboard. Susan Pennybacker, John Forester, Rolf Pendall, and Marianna Pavlovskaya have provided years of mentorship and professional guidance. The fond memory of Fred Pfeil helps me figure out the kind of person I want to be in the academy and in the world. I'm ever grateful to my mother Suzanne Curley, my father Steve McFarland Sr. and my brother Guy McFarland for a lifetime of love and support. vi This study is dedicated to the workers and organizers who envisioned, built, and sustained the working class spaces in the study. I hope that what I have been able to recover of their legacy here can help in shaping the spaces of the social justice movements that will come. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1- Introduction 1 Chapter 2- From the Saloon to the Labor Temple 16 Chapter 3- The AFL Labor Temple: "An outward and visible sign" 43 Chapter 4- "The Center of the Worker's Life": 92 Free Spaces and Union Halls in the Rise of the CIO Chapter 5- Resting on Solidarity: 170 Scale, Horizontalism, Bureaucracy, and Interior Space Chapter 6- Conclusion: Scalar Tensions 193 Bibliography 204 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Diagram- Scaling working class formation.........................................................................11 2. Chart of U.S. Labor Temples Planned, 1886-1922............................................................46 3. Building Trades Council- 14th and Guerrero interior, c. 1910..........................................55 4. Diagram comparing class formation in Labor Lyceums and Labor Temples....................67 5. A Group of Sacramento Buildings, photomontage, 1913..................................................71 6. Children from Paterson at the Labor Temple, New York 1913........................................78 7. Big Bill Haywood and office employees, 1917.................................................................83 8. Denver IWW Hall, 1924....................................................................................................85 9. IWW Hall in New York City after the raid by federal agents, 1919.................................88 10. KKK March in front of IWW Hall, San Pedro, CA 1924...............................................89 11. San Pedro IWW Hall after KKK assault, 1924...............................................................89 12. "On Duty" Cartoon. 1922................................................................................................90 13. 174 Headquarters at 2730 Maybury Grand, 1944.........................................................115 14. Map of 174 shop stewards c. 1939...............................................................................117 15. "Ford Riot" Mural by Walter Speck (1937)..................................................................119 16. Local 174 Joint Council in Session (c. 1952)...............................................................120 17. UAW Local 174 Financial Secretary Jack Fuller in the local hall (1940)....................121 18. Diagram: Scaling class formation, Local 174...............................................................123 19. UAW Local 174 Library (c. 1940)................................................................................124
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