Roaming and rambling with Out in the Union This dispatch covers the first year we had another had fought pay our respects to the amazing book tour of a labor history of launch, this time the union. He labor/queer community of Ann Work History News queer America. at Bluestockings remains active in Arbor, the scene of so much With gratitude to Desma Bookstore on the the fight against creative and volatile union Holcomb who travels with me. Lower East Side. AIDS, and we organizing in the 1970s and Summer 2014: The crowd was stay in touch. later in the 1990s. Activists From the get-go we young and oriented Late in from both those phases of knew that Out in the Union: A towards social May we made queer labor history came to our Common Dreams Labor History of Queer America, justice, but few our way to reading at New York Labor History Association, Inc. Bookstore would need steady, vigorous understood what downtown , which is next door Baltimore A Bridge Between Past and Present Volume 33 No 2 Summer | Fall 2016 promotion and we wanted unions routinely do for to a low-key gay bar. The July readers to learn about it early to sustain themselves a reading at evening was warm, with a long, and directly. in a climate so the fabulous slow dusk. Bookstore staff set us Conference spotlights unfinished tasks of Civil Red Emma’s Bookstore We kicked off with two hostile to labor. In the discussion up on a large patio with paper Labor book parties: a reading/signing I found myself talking basics: before heading to the lanterns and picnic tables. We Rights movement and Working Class History at Word Up! Bookstore in e.g, how right-to-work laws chatted with a young librarian Association conference at By Jane LaTour northern Manhattan in July and damage union security. who would soon start gender Georgetown University a full-house festive launch in Over spring break we headed . transition. n 1960, the great American writer University of Merced, September, at Robert F. Wagner to the LAWCHA advocates dialogue There would be more trips James Baldwin wrote the essay: They Labor Archives /Tamiment California for a warm-hearted between history-loving activists in the months to come, many ICan’t Turn Back, explaining student Library NYU co-sponsored with seminar with faculty, staff, LGBT and scholars who care about more new faces and exciting protests. They aimed to sting consciences, the NYLHA. activists, graduate students. organizing. People were eager reunions with contributors make people think about things they didn’t We arrived in Detroit The big topic was oral history: to know more about Out in the to the half-century of history want to think about… “Americans keep mid-October for a community techniques and ethics, and what Union because their students that Out in the Union has wondering what has ‘got into’ the students. reading at the LGBT we guide or sit back with when have been asking about labor/ documented. What has ‘got into’ them is their history in Affirmations Center in we interview elders-as-narrators. LGBT connections from the Since that July evening this country,” Baldwin wrote. The annual Ferndale and later in the week From Merced we traveled to past; and want to understand there has been another year of May Labor History Conference, May 6-7, the Bay Area a special session at the North to read at the union/queer communities of conferences and book talks and Can’t Turn Back: Unfinished Tasks of the Laurel Bookstore in downtown Wilson Susan credit: Photo American Labor History their own times. seminars and people to share Civil Rights Movement, brought scholars and Wagner Labor Archives Director Timothy Oakland San Professor Jerald Podair giving keynote Conference. People from the and finally at Before we left DC we in the memories and figure out activists together to address four related and Johnson introducing goals of the Francisco’s Modern Times. AFL-CIO address. conference. book showed up at both events, dropped in to how we will continue together. timely topics: economic inequality, housing, headquarters Pride at excited to hear their stories Here we met Criss Romero, an , where I am proud to have gotten policing, and education. distinction between the concepts of equality in New York City Housing, spoke next. Her Work, the federation’s LGBT shared with families, friends activist and worker at the San something started with this On Friday evening, May 6, Jerald and equity—the fight for substantive rights book is a brilliant history of the movement and total strangers. Union allies Francisco AIDS Foundation constituency group had arranged book and am deeply grateful Podair, author of Bayard Rustin: American as opposed to procedural equality. that fought for integrated housing and of those narrators spoke out during the mid-1990s. Because for a book talk in the Phillip for the help and inspiration Dreamer, gave the keynote address Saturday’s program began with a led to the largest stock of public housing about fairness and justice in I interviewed him by phone Murray room. The portraits and of generations of activists who entitled, They Couldn’t Wait: A. Philip panel on housing. Peter Eisenstadt, in the country. Gold described the post- everyday work relations. I knew a lot about him, and marble fittings were formal, but have considered their options, Randolph, Bayard Rustin and the Struggle author of Rochdale Village: Robert Moses, World War II economics of housing, urban was always impressed with his the warmth of the discussion shaped their strategies, done for American Equality. Professor Podair, 6,000 Families, and New York City’s renewal, and the absence of any planning 2015: crystal-clear memory; but we had generated its own excitement. their work, survived and who teaches history and American Studies Great Experiment in Integrated Housing, to accommodate the low-income tenants Out in the Union went never met. From Criss I learned For Summer 2015 we went remembered. at Lawrence University in Appleton, described the opening in 1953, as the pushed out by housing for the middle-class. paperback in January so how intensely SFAF’s board back to Michigan, this time to –Miriam Frank, Summer 2016 Wisconsin, described the arc of leadership largest cooperative in the world, built on “The omission of re-housing provisions Crossword Answers the men provided when others counseled the Jamaica race track. A product of the bedeviled urban renewal, otherwise known forbearance, to allow time and history United Housing Foundation, and the post- as “Negro Removal,” from the beginning,” Across 19. Oakland 30. Hitchcock 3. Doors 18. Ruby to run its course. Randolph and Rustin World War II Jewish labor movement. Gold said. 20. Beach 32. Peace 4. Melville challenged it, confronted it, and ultimately While the complex was 80 per cent white Long-time tenant activist Jenny Laurie 2. Society 21. Cleaver 21. Chubby 34. Ashbury 7. Supremes changed it. In doing so, they presented a in a predominantly African American spoke about the current situation with 5. Krassner 23. Liberation 22. Mets 35. Spartacus 9. Mailer coherent program, something, Professor neighborhood, the integration vastly tenant organizations battling Mayor de 6. Townshend 25. Woody 23. Lenny 37. Gavras 10. Laugh Podair noted that “the left has failed exceeded the mix in any other housing unit. Blasio’s housing plan. “Now it is going 8. Carmichael 28. Godard 24. Stones 38. Algiers 11. Boudin to do.” This broad program a “bill of “There were two levels of integration, but it neighborhood by neighborhood in the 29. Ramparts 10. Leary 25. Wolfe 13. Minh rights” included jobs for all who could fell apart in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s for approval process. It’s a complicated story Down 31. Truffaut 12. Armstrong 26. Russell 14. Generation hold one, medical care, civil rights that many reasons,” Eisenstadt said. about income, race, and class. As statistics 15. Friedan 27. Morgan 1. Bay 15. Fonda 33. Crystal were protected, and peace—within and Roberta Gold, author of When Tenants show, “New York City is much more 17. Diggers 28. Goldwater 2. Sirhan 16. Baldwin 36. Twilight outside America’s borders. He outlined the Claimed the City: The Struggle for Citizenship Continued on page 2 Unfinished tasks Separate universes’ Continued from page 1 York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill- Continued from page 7 nearly separate universes, the Republicans primary voters disproves that “the GOP segregated today in its housing than it was Brownsville Crisis, Professor Taylor, author Ronald Reagan, unlike Carter, proved creating their own virtual reality, making establishment is slowly regaining control historically,” Laurie said. “The debate on of Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. a master politician. He praised frugal compromise with Democrats who inhabited of the party….By finally bringing the Mayor de Blasio’s plan is being carried on in Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New government while generating unprecedented a more quotidian world nearly impossible. Tea Party insurgents to heel…the terms of income, not race,” she said. York City Schools, and activist/organizer federal deficits. He promised evangelical Then came the economic crash of 2008, the establishment appears to have regained Professor Clarence Taylor led the next Zakiyah Ansari, Advocacy Director with Christians, conservative Roman Catholics, ensuing great recession, and a resurgence of the upper hand” (p. 293). McAdam and panel on policing with a history of police the New York State Alliance for Quality and Orthodox Jews restoration of “old-time social movements. Kloos likely miscalculated because they brutality. Referring to Marilyn Johnson’s Education. The discussion was facilitated morality” while doing little to alter the politics The decision by the outgoing Bush chose unwisely among the historians on book, Street Justice, he noted that, not only by Gene Carroll, Director of The Worker and practice of abortion but welcoming gays administration and the incoming Obama whose research they relied. It puzzles me are people missing the history of police Institute, ILR School, Cornell University, into the administration’s inner sanctums. administration to bail out the financial that in their examination of the rise of brutality, but there is little knowledge of and conference co-sponsor. Ms. Ansari He tolerated reforms that stabilized social institutions responsible for the economic right-wing extremism in the Republican how people took it on in the 1930s, with captured the essence of the issues in her security and insured its future solvency. He crisis ignited the Tea Party rebellion, a party they fail to cite Rick Perlstein about the growth of black communities and their opening, as she recited Harlem a poem by also practiced diplomacy with a deft touch. movement that McAdam and Kloos see the Goldwater movement and the Nixon confrontations with the police. Taylor, the Langston Hughes. Yet Reagan Republicanism regularly struck as a reinvigoration of white resistance to presidency (instead they draw on the author of several history books and essays, is Zakiyah Ansari, Alliance for Quality What happens to a dream deferred? / the chords of white resentment, further the gains made by people of color. Tea journalist Theodore White for the 1964 working on a book about minorities and the Education and Bette Craig, NYLHA board Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun? / Or diluted the power of organized labor, and Party adherents resented the election of the election); or Sean Wilentz on the Reagan police, writing about the Civilian Review member. fester like a sore—And then run? reduced taxes substantially for the rich. His nation’s first African American president and Clinton presidencies; or Dan Carter on Board election of 1966, when Mayor John have had to find other, creative alternatives Lack of resources, a lack of racial and administration proved that public policy and policies (especially the Affordable Care George Wallace and “the politics of rage,” V. Lindsay proposed an all-civilian police for their struggle. Professor Nadasen socioeconomic diversity in the city’s public as well as the invisible hand of the market Act) that benefited the “takers” (nonwhites) and so many other historians who have review board and it was voted down in a posed questions to the panelists about the schools, which, according to an article in widened the gap between those with much rather than the “makers.” On the left, the written about the collapse of the New Deal racially-contentious election. importance of their work in the current The New York Times are “by some measures and those with little. “Occupy Wall Street” movement practiced order, the rise of the Southern Democratic- Professor Johanna Fernandez, author economy, especially in light of the headway among the most segregated school districts Over the next two decades economic mass protest in defense of the 99 percent Northern Republican conservative coalition of the forthcoming book, When the World they are making in organizing; the different in the country,” all point to a dream inequality surged as the top one percent against the one percent. TheT ea Party and in congress, and the salience of race in Was Their Stage: A History of the Young models and strategies they employ; and deferred—an unfinished task that must of the population amassed the lion’s share “Occupy Wall Street” inhabit opposed party politics. For a better book that covers Lords Party, 1968-1974, began her talk what it means to have a movement which be discussed, debated, and struggled over, of economic gain (the top 0.001 percent universes, as do the political parties to precisely the same subject, draws on the with a litany of people killed by the police, is led by women of color. “Do you see your by scholars, activists, and members of the gained an even larger proportion) while the which they lean. By 2015-16 congressional work of more historians, and interviews with including the “Boy of the Year” in Harlem, work as primarily class-based? Or is uplifting labor movement. In addition to The Worker bottom 80 percent experienced a decline in Republicans and Democrats shared little leading conservative activists and Republican Police Officers acquitted of charges for the voices and leadership of working-class Institute at Cornell, the conference co- real income. Inequality widened despite Bill in common. The most recent turn of the congresspeople, I would suggest turning to excessive use of force, and murders that took women of color also an important part of sponsors included LaborArts.org and the Clinton’s policies that raised tax rates for political axis shows that the Tea Party has E. J. Dionne’s Why the Right Went Wrong place in front of hundreds of witnesses. your organizing?” she asked. Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU. the wealthiest and expanded employment displaced the Republican establishment. (2016). There readers will find a clearer “The 1960s opened up this way, with Lisa M. Johnson, active in her union’s opportunities. When Republicans returned What has happened thus far in 2015 analysis of the paralysis of democracy in the a spate of killings and reactions,” Professor Fight For Fifteen Campaign, an 1199SEIU to power in 2001, they slashed taxes on and 2016 contradicts the conclusion that US, the enfeeblement of the Republican Fernandez said. Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, member, and mother of six, pointed out Work History News the wealthy, spent profligately on the McAdam and Kloos draw from their establishment, and why Donald Trump a former Police Officer in Charleston, the contradiction in paying people who are military and its wars, and further loosened study of the impact of race and inequality has emerged as the choice of Republican South Carolina, and currently a graduate taking care of their own family, wages that regulation of the financial sector. By 2008 on politics in the US. Donald Trump’s primary voters. New York Labor History Association, Inc. student of Criminal Justice, spoke about the put them one paycheck away from ruin. the dominant political parties inhabited rise as the favored choice of Republican Melvyn Dubofsky dual functionality of policing—ensuring Linda Oalican, Executive Director of the Work History News is published two times per year to keep NYLHA’s members informed of order and peace, and stated that “in our Damayan Migrant Workers Association, labor history events, activities and tours. Union democracy communities, many feel as if they are being described the exodus of women caretakers For more information contact: NYLHA Continued from page 6 also took an active role in the boycott strength of the book is the way in which the terrorized. Some progress is being made, but from the Philippines, who leave their own of many of the industrial changes that were c/o Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives campaign against South Africa; refusing to story is told through the use of interviews there are hundreds of stories about police families behind in order to survive by taking 70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor coming about at the time, trying to drive handle parts which led to Ford’s pulling out with the grassroots activists and it reminds brutality and hundreds that we don’t know care of other peoples’ families. “As grass- New York, NY 10012 home a new agenda of not working smarter http://newyorklaborhistory.org of the country. me of many people I have met throughout about,” Blount-Hill said. roots organizations, we try to be creative but working a lot harder.” and educate the community,” Ms. Oalican President Irwin Yellowitz Trade union solidarity was a key factor my life as a trade union member and shop A lunchtime panel facilitated by Professor Vice-President But 1107 responded by building links George Altomare in their politics as Alan Deyna-Jones steward, ordinary people who worked hard Premilla Nadasen, author of Household said. Christine Lewis, the Cultural Outreach Secretary Abbe Nosoff; Regina Olff with other Ford workers and political activists Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African Coordinator for the Domestic Workers Treasurer Peter Filardo through the national Ford combine and comments; “The banner of the 1107 was for their members and were often victimized American Women Who Built a Movement, United, described how women of color Editor Jane LaTour connecting with workers across Europe and always there on marches and rallies all over for standing up for justice for their members Contributors her discussion featured three home care “take the brunt when the economy is poor, Britain, supporting all other workers like the in their workplace. It is one of the few books Alexander Bernhardt Bloom, Rachel Bernstein, the USA. workers/organizers, each involved in the fight domestic workers included.” Molly Charboneau, Melvyn Dubofsky, In the workplace 1107 was at the nurses, miners and bus drivers.” that are inspiring about the role of trade for economic equality. Exempted from the The last panel of the day focused on Martha Foley, Miriam Frank, Kelsey Harrison, forefront of challenging racism in the Notoriously Militant is an important unions in the workplace and shows how right to organize unions by the New Deal education and included Professor Podair, Bill Hohlfeld, Bernadette Hyland Staughton Lynd, workplace, not just from individual workers book for anyone who wants to find out what together members can make a real difference Ken Nash, Robert Parmet, Susan Wilson legislation of 1933 and 1935, these workers author of The Strike That Changed New but also racist recruitment practices. They real trade unionism means. For me a major to our lives at work and in the wider world.

2 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 19 Tradition’s chains Extraordinary lives Continued from page 12 from the Chicago prisoners. Moreover they Conclusion superficial fairness deluded Wobs into considered it a “base act” to “sign individual It is not the intent of Brother Chester’s The people I love the best jump into work head first... hoping for a good outcome. The jury took applications and leave the Attorney General’s book, or of this review, to trash the IWW. less than an hour to find all one hundred office to select which of our number should This review has dealt with only about half The first line, of Marge Piercy’s poem “To Be of Use,” encapsulates the defendants guilty of all counts in the remain in prison and which should go of the material in the book, for example purpose of the “I’ve Got Something to Say” Lemlich Awards for social indictment. Ninety-three received lengthy free.” Initially, the IWW supported those passing by the story of Wobbly organizing prison terms. Judge Landis ordered that they prisoners who refused to seek their freedom in copper, both at Butte, Montana and activism—to honor unsung heroines who’ve devoted their lives to the be imprisoned in Leavenworth, described individually. Those who had submitted Bisbee, Arizona. Moreover, any one who better good. by Chester as “a maximum-security personal requests for presidential clemency lived through the disintegration of SDS, By Rachel Bernstein penitentiary designed for hardened, violent were expelled from the union. SNCC and the Black Panthers is familiar criminals.” Forty-six more defendants were In June 1923, the government once with tragedies like those described here. n Monday May 9 the Museum Bea Klier. found guilty after another mass conspiracy again dangled before desperate men the The heroism of members of all three groups of the City of New York hosted stopped. In an age before television, she and trial in Sacramento. prospect of release, now available for who were martyrs, such as Frank Little, another standing-room-only her friends entertained themselves devising Thereafter, Chester writes, the “process those individual prisoners promising to Fred Hampton, and the Mississippi Three crowdO for the sixth annual Lemlich Awards, swing dance moves. As a young woman she of granting a commutation of sentence was remain “law-abiding and loyal to the (Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner), sponsored by LaborArts, the Remember started going to Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom manipulated during the administration of Government.” This time a substantial remains. The vision of a qualitatively the Triangle Fire Coalition, and the Puffin (the only integrated ballroom in New York) Warren Harding to divide and demoralize majority of the remaining prisoners different society, as the Zapatistas say “un Gallery for Social Activism at the museum. eventually becoming a competitive dancer IWW prisoners.” The ultimate result was accepted Harding’s offer, and IWW otro mundo,” remains also. May 9th marked the birthday of Debra —a passion revived when Lincoln Center’s “the disastrous split of 1924, leaving the headquarters, in what Chester calls “a What it seems to me we must soberly E. Bernhardt, longtime head of the Robert Midsummer Night Swing program began in union a shell of what it had been only seven sweeping reversal,” gave its approval. Eleven consider is what practices we can adopt F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU and a 1988. Dixon’s quiet first career with DC 37 years earlier.” Executive clemency, like that men at Leavenworth declined this latest to forestall disintegration when different founder of LaborArts who died in 2001; Teresa Chan helped launch her in retirement to a second granted to Debs, was the only hope of the government inducement. In addition, those members of a group make different choices. she was remembered with a quote on the Wobblies in prison for release before the end who were tried in California did not receive Hardened secular radicals though we may cover of the program for the event: “I career in dancing and in health and wellness of their long sentences. President Harding the same offer. be, we can learn something from King Lear’s want to be able to look my children in outreach. She inspires and advises neighbors rejected any thought of a general amnesty, In December 1923 the remaining IWW words to his daughter Cordelia: “When you the eye some day and say I tried to stop and clients of all ages about diet, exercise, obliging each prisoner to fill out the form prisoners at Leavenworth including twenty- ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down and ask of that” said Bernhardt at a demonstration relationships, and dealing with stress, and requesting amnesty as an individual. The two who had been convicted in Sacramento you forgiveness.” against military expenditures in the early offers outreach programs through Brookdale application form for amnesty contained were released unconditionally. The damage Staughton Lynd is an American 1980s capturing the sentiment of Lemlich Hospital and the Mount Ararat Center in an implicit admission of guilt. The newly- had been done. Those who had held out conscientious objector, Quaker, peace honorees over the years. Brooklyn. Earning a brown belt in Karate created ACLU supported this process. the longest launched a campaign within the activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, A proclamation from Mayor de Blasio, and a Bachelor of Arts both at the age of 75, Twenty-four IWW prisoners opted IWW to expel those who had supported historian, professor, author and lawyer. His a jazz poem from UpSurge, stirring songs and becoming the first in her neighborhood to submit a form requesting amnesty. A a form of conditional release. There were book Doing History from the Bottom Up: On from the New York City Labor Chorus, to install solar panels, Etta hasn’t slowed substantial majority refused to plead for accusations against anyone who had E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding and inspiring remarks from Clara Lemlich’s down. Now 82, she performed a very individual release. More than seventy issued allegedly proved himself “a scab and a rat.” the Labor Movement from Below was great grandson all combined to lift spirits graceful and astonishingly athletic dance at a statement in which they insisted that “all When a convention convened in 1924 both published by Haymarket in December 2014 and bring delight to the ceremony honoring the Lemlich Awards with her dance partner, are innocent and all must receive the same sides claimed the headquarters office and and a new edition of his Solidarity Unionism: five remarkable women. They were feted for Bernard Dove. consideration.” The government insisted on went to court. An organization consisting Rebuilding the Labor Movement with an following in the footsteps of lifelong activist Born in 1916 (!), Bea Klier’s fascination a case-by-case approach. Fifty-two prisoners of the few hundred members who had introduction by radical labor scholar and Clara Lemlich, who stood up to a stage full Etta Dixon with the Earth and the cosmos led her responded that they refused to accept the supported the consistent rejection of all activist Immanuel Ness, was published by of older male leaders to inspire her fellow by her desk. Toddlers at the Garment to earn a degree in geology from Hunter president’s division of the Sacramento government offers “faded into oblivion by PM Press in Spring 2015. He can be reached garment workers to strike in 1909—and was Industry Day Care Center would come College in 1937. She worked as civilian prisoners, still alleged to have burned fields, 1931.” at [email protected]. still organizing seven decades later when she back years later to have Chan help them meteorologist for the US Air Force during was in a nursing home. prepare for prom, to get her advice, or World War II, high school earth science Teresa Chan was born in China, to work as interns in the Center as teens; teacher, researcher of climatology with A manifesto educated in Hong Kong, immigrated their parents would call for advice as well. NASA, and director of education at the to America in 1968, and worked as an With her husband she also volunteers at Academy of Sciences. With her husband, Continued from page 9 build bridges with community Employees, are moving in this supporting the protests against accountant and administrator for decades. every election, registering, translating and her activism started with helping neighbors Unions in the 1930s joined groups, which are also direction, building coalitions police violence in Ferguson, Her skill, though, is to consistently gather assisting in the voting process. Chan’s long in the 1930s who had been evicted, and protests against unemployment manifestations of working-class with allies in faith-based Missouri, the Southern Moral information from those around her‚ commitment to her community is reflected continued to agitate for the unemployment and evictions and supported politics. Today some unions, organizations and the growing Monday protests and most social workers, immigration lawyers and back in every smiling face she greets in her insurance and social security programs that civil rights and, of course, such as DC 37 and its parent community labor alliances that recently the People’s Climate everyone else—and then to share that daily walks throughout Chinatown. became the New Deal. At the Academy of other unions' struggles. Now, union, the American Federation speak for low-wage workers March. vital information with neighbors and the Brooklyn born Etta Dixon began Sciences she devised innovative programs Aronowitz says, unions need to of State, County and Municipal and immigrant rights and children and their families who passed dancing in her mother’s womb and never Continued on page 9

18 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 3 A miner’s life – the children’s story Gender, identity and solidarity Susan Campbell Bartoletti, the descriptions the book’s opening chapters, Multiple authors, You Better of lesser-known feminists, Growing Up in Coal Country, of miners’ lives an a rough and tough life, dirty Work: Queer/Trans*/Feminist unionists, socialists and peace Houghton Mifflin Co., 1996. intimate quality, but dignified, in its later pages Workers’ Stories, Twin Cities and social justice activists of all Reviewed by a recollection becomes a portrait of injustice IWW, Issue 1: August 2014. ages. Here we meet Betty Tebbs, Alexander Bernhardt Bloom from those who and the struggle for survival in Bernadette Hyland, Northern still in the struggle at age 96; Pia lived it. spite of the devastation it doled arely have school ReSisters: Conversations with Feig, a Jewish activist involved Bartoletti for out. Arriving at the book’s final children been moved Radical Women, Mary Quaile in the Palestine Solidarity the most part chapter, “Strike!,” this response, by admonishments as Club, 2015. Committee; Claire Mooney, a R remains apolitical on the part of the miners to such: “In the olden days, kids feminist and musician; Mandy in these early the conditions of life described, your age didn’t get to learn Reviewed by Vere, a radical bookseller, and so chapters, and seems prudent. and play. They had to work! Be Molly Charboneau people’s comfort matters a many more. uncritical in the Missing is a historical grateful!” n the age of social media hell of a lot more than your Color photographs of descriptions she introduction, to the basics of Better then to deliver this and online campaigns, these ability to carry out the basic these Northern women and gives of harsh coal as a product and the place message, and a good deal of two brief but powerful functions of life.” This timely their campaigns enliven each conditions, the of this industry in America I essay gives a human dimension historical knowledge to boot, publications—addressing biographical sketch, and many brutality of the during this era. What is coal? by presenting these same gender, identity and creativity in to New York City’s recent order of the articles include contact inheritance, with a human work, and bleak realities of How’d it get buried? What was youngsters the stories told in the building of workplace and guaranteeing people access to information so readers can join touch and intimate feel. life in the “patch towns.” She it used for once it was pulled Growing Up in Coal Country, community solidarity—remind facilities consistent with their their struggles. Arranged in short, readable leaves it to the voices of the from the mines? Why all the fuss, gender identity at city-operated Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s us that printed pieces are still Though both works offer chapters each dedicated to a miners and members of this it’s just black rock!? When and buildings. engaging, informative, and valuable organizing tools. valuable lessons, they would different section of the mine’s community who lived it. But where was all of this happening? Other essays are by authors often touching study of the You Better Work: Queer/ have benefited from including operation, the early chapters on the whole these are more Why? What was happening who creatively fought sexual life of children in 19th century Trans*/Feminist Workers’ Stories the voices of people of color. explain the division of work in resolute and declarative than elsewhere in the US at this time? harassment and oppressive and American mining towns. is a zine written by U.S.-based “Without these voices, this the mines with a close eye to opinionated. “It’s the only work Why are these stories important hateful language and behavior The book is based on oral Industrial Workers of the World project is far, far weaker,” the child’s place in it. Successive I ever did,” Bartoletti quotes to me, now? Reference is made at work; overcame the effects histories collected by the author, (IWW) organizers. This short writes editor Thundercat of the chapters explain the progression former mineworker William to many of the particulars of domestic violence through many from members of her work was inspired by Lines of Mixed in with articles on zine’s unintended omission. of workers’ duties in the mine Jones matter-of-factly, “I was in the answers to these the power of solidarity; and family, and extensive archival Work (Black Cat Press 2014), a well known women, such as Hopefully this shortcoming will which aging children might born with a shovel in my hand, questions but never is a clear transitioned from intersex male research. Bartoletti’s book seeks larger collection of stories about Irish activist and former MP be remedied in future editions follow, and finally brings the and I will die, I guess, with one foundation set (leaving the to intersex female while active to tell the story from the ground workplace resistance, some of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, to strengthen these illuminating focus outside of the mineshaft in my hand.” (p.55) reader incompletely equipped) in community and workplace level. It reads more like the them reprinted in the zine. are compelling portraits for some description of life before the book drops you into organizing. publications. explanations a family member Struggle for survival The zine’s focus is the and recreation in the American the mines. Bartoletti takes a might give leafing through an The author’s tone in the later writers’ lived experiences mining town. determinedly close view of the old photo album, though one chapters does shift however, with gender and sexualized In Northern ReSisters: With powerful and well world of coal mining, a good very well organized and curated, from this arms length telling oppression at work and how Conversations with Radical situated photographs, which choice for a historical volume From the Editor: than it does an academic study. to one of greater resolve. they “found ways to fight back Women, author Bernadette extended to the young reader. serve effectively as visual aides Bartoletti’s indignance emerges against patriarchy, homo/ Hyland combines new interviews This issue of the Work History News will be my Annotated photo album The ground level explanation of the daily work and lives of in the grander consideration trans* phobia, and many other and past articles about “women last as editor. For the past four years, it has been The idea for the book was of the day to day work delivers the children who worked in of significant happenings forms of oppression in their who have taken part in some of my great pleasure to put this newsletter together. conceived, Bartoletti explains a sense of intimacy and the mines they are described, accidents, strikes, harsh organizing,” says editor FW Colt the most important campaigns, Now I am leaving this behind in order to work in the introduction, in response immediacy the reader—you’re and wonderfully animated with company reprisals and the Thundercat—vital information including the women’s to stories recounted around right there! But also is left quite full time on the books I hope to write. slang and expressions of the era ongoing degradation of working for today’s organizers. movement, trade unionism, the dining room table in her a bit of room for confusion. The good news is that we have a very talented past. The early chapters make and living conditions that In “Bathrooms,” Gayge the peace movement, Ireland, family home, told in passing at Context is important for person taking over, NYLHA board member and a quick expert of the reader in colored the lives of miners. Her Operaista describes not being Palestine, and campaigns against first, they became a deliberate the middle grade reader, whose oral historian Leyla Vural. Thank you to all of the the industry shop-talk and the descriptions become far more allowed, while a university racism and fascism.” pursuit. She was fascinated and world-view is rapidly expanding. particulars of the backstage. editorialized with a bent toward employee, to use the bathroom Hyland’s focus is Northern correspondents who contributed to the newsletter, wanted to hear more. The result The personal stories would be They invite the reader to the angry critiques of mine at work and having to walk England and its women to the New York Labor History Association for certainly does that, and aimed only more accessible for the 11- at middle-grade readers, the imagine his or herself placed owners she makes reference to, up the road to use a library’s organizers, but her message is all of its support, and to Leyla, for taking on this 13 year old student of history depictions and discussion of this in the shoes of the characters and the injustice of the tragedies facilities because “when you’re universal: “to remind people mission, which is close to my heart. given some introduction and a important chapter of American described in the stories. Original and tragic realities these owners genderqueer (or any sort of that the working class has an bit of guidance on the way into –Jane LaTour social and labor history are quotes gathered from extensive precipitated and were frequently trans*, or visibly gender non- honourable history of political them. delivered as something of an interviews and oral history give responsible for. What was, in Continued on page 14 conforming in any way) random activism.”

4 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 17 Crossword puzzle clues ‘Nearly separate universes’ Across Doug McAdam and Karina George Wallace were added to Kloss, Deeply Divided: Racial those amassed by Nixon, white Politics and Social Movements in resentment triumphed totally. 2. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson 32. Women Strike for _____ organized 21. Eldridge ______led the Black Panthers Postwar America. NY: Oxford In the 1972 presidential election promised a “Great ______.” against nuclear weapons and the Vietnam and later ran for the U.S. Senate as a University Press, 2014. Nixon Republicans played the 5. Paul ______founded “The Realist” War. Republican. politics of white resentment and the Yippies. Reviewed by Mel Dubofsky, 34. Haight-______was the place to be in 23. The Gay ______Front was like virtuosos sweeping the 6. Pete ______was a founding member San Francisco in the 1960’s. formed in 1969 shortly after the Stonewall Distinguished Professor Emertius Binghamton South, the north, and the of The Who. Rebellion. 35. This slave revolt movie, written by University, SUNY west in a landslide that left the 8. Stokely ______was a leader of Dalton Trumbo, broke the Hollywood 25. _____ Allen was a rising comedian in Democratic candidate, George his book represents the Black Power Movement who married Blacklist in 1960. the 1960s. McGovern, with the electoral one of many recent votes of only Massachusetts and musician Miriam Makeba. 37. Costa-_____ directed “Z”, “State of 28. Jean-Luc ______directed the movie maps of critical elections plus political moderation and T attempts to explain the District of Columbia. 10. Timothy _____ , the LSD advocate. Siege” and “Missing.” “Breathless.” graphs and tables of income compromise ruled the day. the rise of extreme economic Between 1968 and 1972 and wealth variation to draw For McAdam and 12. Neil ______was the first man to 38. “The Battle of ______” was a 1966 29. ______Magazine was one of the inequality and fractured politics social movements reconstructed simple correlations. (Oxford Kloos political moderation walk on the moon in 1969. movie on the fight against French leading left-wing magazines of the 1960s in the contemporary United the Democratic party. The University Press did the authors ended in the 1960s. The 15. Betty ______was one of the founders imperialism in North Africa. and 1970s. States. McAdam and Kloss, Democrats reformed their a disservice in making the Dixiecrat rebellion in 1948 of the National Organization for Women in both sociologists at Stanford process for selecting convention 31. Francois ______directed “Jules and graphic materials opaque.) Still and the inroads made by 1966. Down University, focus on how and delegates and strengthened Jim” in 1963. the story told in the graphics the Republican party in the why political compromise the influence of primary 17. The ______were San Francisco’s most 33. Coca ______worked for the East appears comprehensible. The south during the 1952 and 1. The failed ___ of Pigs invasion of Cuba. and bipartisanship collapsed. elections. The party required famous group of hippies, giving out free Village Other and hosted an anarchist public 1950s represented a moment of 1956 presidential elections They stress the relationship that delegates reflect the food in Golden Gate Park. 2. This double-named person assassinated television show for over 20 years. relative economic equality and foreshadowed the future. As Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968. between social movements and organization’s demographic 19. The Black Panthers were founded in political moderation exemplified the civil rights movement 36. The ______Zone was created by political action, hypothesizing constituencies, opening its ______, California in 1966. 3. The _____ of the 1960’s and 1970’s by Dwight Eisenhower’s version intensified in the early 1960s, Rod Serling. that mass social movements convention to nonwhites, featured the poetry of Jim Morrison. Answers on page 20 of modern Republicanism white resistance peaked in 20. The _____ Boys wished they all could be precipitate political change. women, and youths; it ruled that incorporated the major the south and spread north. “California Girls.” 4. Sam ______took part in anti-Vietnam Hence the movements propelled that primaries bind delegates reforms of the New Deal but Social movements refashioned War bombings in N.Y.C. and was finally by dispossessed workers and to the candidates preferred 21. ______Checker danced “TheT wist.” promised to administer them political parties and political killed in the Attica Uprising. agrarians during the Great by voters. Had Watergate not 22. The Amazin’ ____ won the World Series with greater fiscal responsibility. dynamics. The Democrats Depression produced the intervened the Republicans in 1969. 7. Diana Ross and the ______. Although Democrats controlled with support from a number New Deal “revolution” and a might have established the House during Eisenhower’s of Republican colleagues 23. _____ Bruce, who died in 1966, was 9. Norman ______wrote “The Armies of A miner’s life revitalized Democratic party. durable political dominance eight years in office and the enacted advanced civil rights one of the most innovative comedians in the Night” about the 1967 March on the Continued from page 4 The civil rights movement of by appealing to white identity Senate after 1954, Republicans legislation. Southern ties to American history. Pentagon. the 1960s created the “Great while practicing “modern collaborated with Democrats to the Democratic party frayed On the whole, Bartoletti’s historical Society” that transformed the Republicanism”. Instead the 24. The Rolling ______hits of the 1960’s 10. ____-In was one of the funniest and enact legislation. Republicans while conservative Republicans volume paints a terrific human view of the composition and character of Democratic candidate in 1976, included “Lady Jane,” Paint it Black” and “(I most popular T.V. shows of the 1960’s. and northern Democrats united rejected moderation. The 1964 lives of children and miners in America’s the Democratic party. And that James Earl Carter, a native Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” to pass civil rights reforms election revealed the future. 11. Kathy ______was a member of the 19th century coal mining towns. It was a life movement in turn led to a more Georgian and a born-again 25. Tom _____ wrote “The Electric Kool- of hardship, grittiness, and grind, but one despite resistance from Southern Movement conservatives seized Weather Underground. Southern-based Republican Baptist, attracted Southern Aid Acid Test” in 1968. too that inspired pride and professionalism Democrats. Some Southern control of the Republican 13. Ho Chi ____ led the defeat of the U.S. party and exacerbated political white voters, yet maintained the and a rich sense of community among those Democrats, nearly all northern convention and nominated 26. Bertrand ______led the International in Vietnam. conflict (p. 68). support of African Americans, War Crimes Tribunal on the Vietnam War. who lived it. Democrats, and a bloc of Barry Goldwater conservatism. Days of compromise organized labor, women, and 14. “My ______” was one of The Who’s “My daddy was a miner, and I’m a moderate Republicans coalesced Goldwater lost in a landslide 27. Robin ______was a founding member youths. Carter proved a more most famous songs and an anthem for the miner’s son,” reads the line from the classic Their hypotheses draw on the to enhance social security, but carried the states of the of N.Y. Radical Women and author of the virtuous and humble president era. song. It is a line mournful and tinged with published studies of sociologists, raise the minimum wage, and deep South. Four years later bestseller “Sisterhood is Powerful.” than Nixon but a far less adept 15. Movie stars Henry or Jane _____. sorrow, but also filled with pride, and political scientists, journalists, enact other modest reforms. A Richard Nixon proved masterful politician. His administration 28. Barry ______was the Republican ownership, and steadfastness. Such was the and a random selection of coalition of Southern Democrats at playing to Southern white 16. James ______wrote “Go Tell It On implemented policies that frayed Nominee for President in 1964. life of a miner as described in Bartoletti’s historians. Little in the book and more conservative resentment while wooing more The Mountain” and “The Fire NextT ime.” the Democratic coalition and 30. Many people couldn’t take a shower in book, and from the angle of the child as will strike those knowledgeable Republicans resisted major moderate Republicans to win a foreshadowed those instituted 1960 without thinking of Movie Director 18. Jack ____ killed Kennedy assassin Lee chronicler, she paints a very tender and about recent US political history changes in social and economic narrow victory. If the electoral by Reagan. Alfred ______. Harvey Oswald. human depiction. as revelatory. They use electoral policy. Absent social movements, and popular votes garnered by Continued on page 19

14 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 7 Disintegration of ‘tradition’s chains’ Extraordinary lives Eric Chester, The Wobblies in their Heyday: For years, Wobbly Self-evidently, what Replansky and Kollisch have shared their The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial leaders had insisted Chester terms the IWW’s lives on the Upper West Side. Eva Kollisch, Workers of the World during the World War I that sabotage could “diffidence” was the very an American Jewish author and a professor Era, Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2014. force employers to opposite of Eugene Debs’ emerita at Sarah Lawrence College, was make concessions, defiant opposition to the born in Vienna in 1925. She was rescued Reviewed by Staughton Lynd Chester writes. war. When Wobbly activists from the Nazis on a 1939 Kindertransport he Wobblies are back Many young But what Chester “flooded IWW offices with to the United Kingdom, eventually arriving radicals find the Industrial Workers terms “nebulous requests for help and pleas in America in 1940. Like Replansky, T of the World (IWW) the most calls for arson” and for a collective response to Kollisch started out working in factories congenial available platform on which to “macho bravado” the draft,” the usual response during World War II, though she stand in trying to change the world. This only stiffened the was that what to do was up eventually became a specialist in German effort has been handicapped by the lack determination of to each individual member. and comparative literature. An activist of a hard-headed history of the IWW in California authorities Haywood, Chester writes, for over six decades, in anti-war, feminist its initial incarnation, from 1905 to just not to modify “consistently sought to steer and human rights causes, most recently after World War I. The existing literature, jail sentences for the union away from any Kollisch is a member of One by One, a for example Franklin Rosemont’s splendid Wobbly leaders involvement in the draft Naomi Replansky and Eva Kollisch. small intergenerational group that practices resistance movement.”Debs book on Joe Hill, is strong on movement Ford and Suhr. Continued from page 3 Naomi Replansky and Eva Kollisch dialogue with the enemy. culture and atmosphere. It is weak on why notwithstanding, however, Chester finds that to engage students of all backgrounds in both began their literary activism in The Lemlich Awards were organized by the organization went to pieces in the early the national leadership of there is no credible science research; she even initiated a contest a factory. Born in the Bronx in 1918, Rachel Bernstein, Esther Cohen, Evelyn 1920s. the Socialist Party like the evidence that any (still in place) for art works that explicate Replansky toiled in factories, starting on Jones Rich, May Chen, Sherry Kane and national leadership of the IWW “scrambled Eric Chester’s new book fills this gap. It fields were, in fact, burned. But after the complicated scientific concepts. Klier has an assembly line during World War II Rose Imperato; co-sponsored by the New to avoid any confrontation with federal is indispensable reading for Wobblies and United States entered World War I in April traveled broadly: “I want to see things with in the heyday of Rosie the Riveter, and York Labor History Association and Jewish authorities.” Radical activists from both labor historians. One way to summarize 1917, this extravagant rhetoric calling for my own eyes. I have that problem. I don’t eventually graduated to operating a lathe. Currents; and generously funded by the organizations formed ad hoc alliances what is between these covers is to say that the destruction of crops apparently helped accept what is written. Cause I know it is Years later, she trained herself to become a Puffin Foundation and the Shelley and cutting across organizational boundaries. Chester spells out three tragic mistakes to convince President Wilson to initiate a easy to lie or mask the truth with fancy pioneering computer programmer for not- Donald Rubin Foundation. The IWW General Executive Board, made by the old IWW that the reinvented systematic and coordinated campaign to words.” She has traveled to Costa Rica for-profit organizations, starting with the Video interviews and longer bios of meeting from June 29 to July 6, 1917, was organization must do its best to avoid. suppress the Wobblies. and Guatemala to do research and see earliest punch cards used by the first giant these remarkable women (and the complete unable to arrive at a decision about the Macho posturing Efforts to avoid repression by sweatshops for herself. After returning she computers. This variegated background Piercy poem) are available on LaborArts. war and conscription, and a committee discontinuing discussion of the war led an effort to force all businesses in the helped Replansky develop into an eloquent org; video and photographs from the May Labor organizing flourished during and the draft including both Haywood and Little, tasked city to discontinue using those places to poet of the working class. She published 9 ceremony can be found there and also on World War I because of the government’s to draft a statement, likewise failed to do so. International solidarity and militant manufacture their goods. her first poems in 1936. For some decades, the LaborArts Facebook page. need for a variety of raw materials. Among In the end, Chester says, “the IWW sought opposition to war and the draft were central these were food, timber, and copper. to position itself as a purely economic tenets of the IWW. Wobblies who had Wobbly organizers made dramatic headway organization concerned solely with short- enrolled in the British Army were expelled in all three industries. At its peak in August run gains in wages and working conditions.” from the union. At the union’s tenth general A manifesto to revive the labor movement 1917 the IWW had a membership of more convention in November 1915, the delegates Disunity among IWW prisoners than 150,000. Nine months later, Chester fostered by the Government Stanley Aronowitz, Death and decades and says the current a movement capable of social change. adopted a resolution calling for a “General Life of American Labor: Toward a discontent over chronic Workers in the 1930s did not just organize writes, “the union was in total disarray, The reluctance of the Wobbly leadership Strike in all industries” should the United New Workers’ Movement, Verso, underemployment, poverty but conducted civil disobedience in the forced to devote most of its time and to advocate resistance to the war and States enter the war. What actually happened 2015. and stagnant wages can be the form of waves of workplace sit-downs and resources to raising funds for attorneys and conscription carried over to a legalistic was that General Secretary-Treasurer Bill source of new vitality. Labor’s even general strikes. He cites two recent bail bonds.”This sad state of affairs was, response when the government indicted Reviewed by Ken Nash Haywood and a majority of IWW leaders last big gains, he argues, were militant upsurges that challenged the of course, partly the result of a calculated agreed that the union should desist from IWW leaders. Haywood urged all those ith U.S. union in the heyday of public sector decline of workers’ conditions—the Occupy decision by the federal government to any discussion of the war or the draft, in the named in the indictment to surrender membership at its organizing in the 1960s, with Movement and the protests in Madison, destroy the IWW. But only partly. vain hope that this policy would persuade voluntarily and to waive any objection to W lowest level since the considerable inspiration from Wisconsin, against right-wing Republican According to Chester another cause of the federal government to refrain from being extradited to Chicago. In the mass 1920s, scholar and labor activist the Civil Rights Movement. moves to wipe out public sector collective the government’s successful suppression of targeting the union for repression. At the trial that followed, the defendants were Stanley Aronowitz has issued a He highlights the strategies bargaining. In his analysis, the Madison the Wobblies was that during and after the same time, the great majority of rank-and- represented by a very good trial lawyer who manifesto for reawakening the that built the movements of Central Labor Council erred by focusing on Wheatlands strike in California hop fields file members, with support of a few leaders was also an enthusiastic supporter of the war sleeping giant as a broader, more radical the 1930s and 1960s but were abandoned in electoral politics in the unsuccessful effort in 1913 some Wobblies threatened to “burn such as Frank Little, insisted that the IWW and passed up the opportunity to make a movement. later years. to oust Governor Scott Walker and defusing California’s agricultural fields if two leaders should be at the forefront of the opposition closing statement to the jury. Judge Landis’ His new book analyzes the decline of Aronowitz is adamant that only the on-the-ground protests. of the strike were not released from jail.” to the war. Continued on page 18 much of the labor movement in recent continual militant protests can produce Continued on page 18

12 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 9 Union democracy from the shop floor up The 1960’s TheCrossword 1960s Crossword Puzzle Puzzle by Kelsey Harrison Sheila Cohen, Notoriously workers were role was played by men’s jobs refused to accept the 1 Militant The Story of a Union paid well, they branch TGWU poor working conditions: as one Branch, Merlin Press, 2014. By Kelsey Harrison were subject 1/1107 which was the of the convenors commented; 2 Reviewed by Bernadette Hyland to a selective largest union branch “During the war it was through 3 4 5 6 7 hy would anyone join a process based in one of the key the women, quite honestly, that Wtrade union? Why would on Ford’s own industries in Britain. we gained a lot of the advances- 8 9 10 bizarre views of As Cohen comments; rest periods, washing facilities, anyone want to be a trade union 11 morality whilst “This place is all all that sort of thing-because activist? It seems that every 12 13 day we hear of trade union Ford employed the more deserved they wouldn’t put up with what 14 representatives being sacked for spies within given the historic the men used to put up with.” 15 16 17 18 nothing more than representing the workplace struggles carried out But it was in the early 1980s their members. to ensure by 1107 against the that new activists in 1107 19 20 In this very important book that workers anti-union and anti- reformed the branch “based 21 22 Sheila Cohen answers these did not talk about union worker culture of the company on principles of workplace questions. It is a history of one organization. which gave its name to a whole union democracy” and 23 24 of the most anti-trade union Throughout the 1920s and industrial system-Fordism.” determined opposition to Ford’s 1930s it was the Communist What is fascinating in this collaborationist “Employee 25 companies, Ford and the way 26 Party and dedicated groups book is the militancy of the involvement policies.” in which trade unions, with 27 all their imperfections, made a of activists who organized the workers in resisting Ford’s The new leadership of 28 29 real difference to working class workers at Ford. Faced with the attempts to undermine them— 1107 came in as Thatcher depression, workers became more for example—in 1944 when came to power. Over the last people’s lives, not just at work 30 31 32 33 but also in giving them hope for militant and in 1932 took part in stewards from the TGWU and year there have been many a “March on Hunger” mobilizing 34 a better future. AEU occupied the manager’s commemorations of the Miners thousands of workers who office and forced theT UC and Strike 84-65 but there has been Central to the book is the 35 36 faced the full force of the state; a lack of a wider analysis of the David and Goliath struggle Ford to reopen their talks on 37 “The police used tear gas and real reasons why the miners 38 between the global empire of organizing. As Cohen shows the water cannons to disperse the and other trade unionists were Ford’s and ordinary working class grassroots shop stewards were demonstrators, who nevertheless defeated. As Cohen shows it was people: it reads like a modern not just fighting Ford but the broke through and began to the anti-trade union laws that day story about slavery and the reactionary forces within their throw bricks at the plant.” really kicked the stuffing out attempts by people to escape the own trade unions. And as a Ford came to Britain in of shopfloor militancy plus the misery and servitude, not on a former shop steward I can testify 1911 to a plant at Trafford lack of leadership from the trade plantation but in a car plant. that very often activists spend Park in Manchester... but unions. as much time fighting their full- Historic struggles faced serious unrest from the She says; “Thatcherite anti- A Depression Era story told by those who lived it time trade union officers as the Ford has a long history, workers and several strikes. union laws limiting solidarity Harvey Schwartz Building The bridge, but it also pays tribute Their willingness to do management. founded by Henry Ford in 1903 Their local manager Baron Perry and undermining workplace Golden Gate Bridge – A Workers’ to an American generation that whatever it takes to succeed The Irish in this country in the USA, and was the pioneer commented; “Manchester.. the trade union democracy were Oral History, University of was capable of dreaming big, is found not just in the actual have played a major role in trade of the modern motor car hot bed of trade unionism.” to have a devastating impact Washington Press, 2015. working hard, and seeing things erection of the bridge, but unions and the labour movement industry. The term “Fordism” Eventually in 1931 the on even strongly-organised through to the finish. It is often in their attitude toward any and Ford was not an exception. Reviewed by Bill Hohlfeld summed up the nature of its Manchester plant closed and workplaces like Ford’s this second story that is the more obstacle they may encounter. Cohen shows this Irish militancy “An Army cannot exist of officers method of production and the workers were transferred to Dagenham plant.” compelling of the two. For while Whether it is the willingness of in 1944 when two shop stewards, alone, however talented; and “Taylorism” which as Cohen Dagenham. The Ford Dagenham The new leadership of 1107 technical journals and as building engineer, Fred Divita, (who put Sweetman and Lynch, are sacked. a great bridge – while it owes says; “was as dedicated as Ford plant became a key part of were not just fighting Thatcher drawings can be found on file himself through night school to “They received great support not so much to its designers and to squeezing maximum labour the global empire where new but major changes taking place and can easily enough explain the get a degree) to work scraping only from Sweetman’s fellow- construction supervisors – owes out of the industrial workforce.” methods of production and work in the car industry including bridge’s design and its subsequent paint, or the self determination an equal, if not superior, debt of Fordism meant huge factories organization were tried out. Irishmen in the foundry, who getting the workers to take on implementation, the recorded of cable spinner, John Urban, to gratitude to the workers who built and a conveyor belt system Central to this book is the had become ‘pillars of the union more tasks as well as contracting who climbed the towers, spun the interviews in Building The Golden conquer his own fear of heights it.” which suited the design and story of ordinary people who at Ford’s.’” out jobs and imposing more – Kevin Starr. cables and riveted the steel. Gate Bridge preserves for posterity to get to the top of a tower production of cars and led to organized themselves in the Cohen also shows how the flexible work practices.T GWU Thus reads the epilogue to Throughout its pages, this the ethos of a working class and complete his ironworker massive profits for the company. workplace and did not wait increasing numbers of women official SteveT urner summed it Mr. Schwartz’s fascinating story oral history tells two discrete America, that subscribed to the apprenticeship, this book paints Assembly line work was for the trade unions officials being recruited at Ford during up; “Ford was at the forefront of the building of the Golden tales. It tells the story of the belief that all things were possible a vivid portrait of those who monotonous and, although to do it for them. A crucial the Second World War to do Continued on page 19 Gate Bridge as recounted by those erection of an iconic American in the country they called home. Continued on page 16

6 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 15 American radical Class warfare in Appalachia Continued from page 5 adroit maneuvering that kept her out of the opera score? It is waiting to be written! complained to city authorities as did local jail and working for the defense of her But it is only one more episode in this James Green, The Devil Is Here in These and European immigrants than white shopkeepers, who feared the Wobblies were colleagues. Through CarloT resca she came dramatic life that has more cliffhangers Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Americans, hoping these new laborers driving away business. The city invoked an in contact with the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense than a Yankees vs Red Sox game. Flynn Battle for Freedom, New York: Grove Press, would be more compliant and productive ordinance preventing the disturbance of the Committee. “They were suspicious of had a triumphant trip to Europe for a 2015. than the gnarly mountaineers.” However, as peace and quiet of any street. outsiders, but they accepted Flynn because women’s conference only to have her these groups had work habits that did not The Wobblies went to jail in large of her work as a strike leader in Lawrence passport confiscated upon her return. This Reviewed by Robert D. Parmet, conform to management’s expectations, they numbers; when one person was arrested, and her connections to Italian radicals.” is but a prelude to several legal battles York College, CUNY often disappointed their employers. Most another took his place. Soon the jails were Based on her experience with the Workers and a prison sentence served at Alderson troublesome, though, were the workers who he sound often heard in the hills of full and getting fuller. Flynn spent one night Defense Union (WDU) she was able to Prison, now famous for another inmate, dared say, “Boys, we ought to get together West Virginia in the early twentieth in jail with prostitutes and wrote about it. get international support for Sacco and Martha Stewart. Flynn started writing her and have a union down here.” Immigrant Tcentury was that of gunshots. Armed This caused a great commotion. She went on Vanzetti. But all the support in the world autobiography, but was not allowed to see women made war on scabs by insulting and coal miners, most of whom resided in trial for inciting to riot but was acquitted. did not help them. Flynn became a founder the finished copy until her prison time was assaulting them “with mops, brooms, and company towns, and whose freedoms were Where is Hollywood? This is such a fabulous of the ACLU, which was an outgrowth of over. She got out of prison just in time for iron skillets.” To prevent the importation of few, were in revolt. They opposed mine story! her work with the Workers Defense Union. her sister to die, and to win her case to operators who were protected by private scabs by rail, women tore up tracks. Challenges and triumphs She was heartbroken after the executions of get her passport returned. While she was detectives, law enforcement officers, local As Green also points out, residential, Sacco and Vanzetti. in prison she accumulated Social Security striking workers from houses owned by the Flynn returned to New York to have her officials, and even Federal troops. Mine educational and social segregation prevailed Vapnek doesn’t mince words over the payments enough to finance a trip back Stone Mountain Coal Company. The next baby, then went off to recuperate at Caritas labor violence was not unique to this state. in the coal industry, but within the UMWA, ending of what Flynn called her First Life and to the Soviet Union, where she collapsed year, Hatfield himself was murdered. Among Island as the guest of Rose Pastor Stokes. For example, witness Colorado, the site which was “highly varied in racial and the beginning of her Second Life ten years and died. Part of her ashes are in the the violent personalities, Sheriff Don Chafin Once she had recovered, her mother and of the Ludlow Massacre of 1914. In West ethnic composition,” “union affairs were later. A series of personal and professional Kremlin wall and the rest are in Waldheim of Logan County also deserves mention. sister took charge of the baby and she was Virginia two wars occurred between 1912 integrated.” “Probably,” he contends, within disappointments caused the worn out Flynn Cemetery in Chicago. She was given a Following his orders, biplane pilots dropped on the road again. She would not have been and 1922, leaving mine workers without the UMWA of West Virginia there was a to collapse on the West Coast and spend the state funeral by the U.S.S.R. and had an gas and pipe bombs on marching miners able to resume her career without the help of rights until an agreement between the significant black presence and contribution next 10 years there convalescing. Finally, her obituary on the front page of The New York near Cripple Creek. her mother and sister at home bringing up United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to the “cause of black-white unionism.” family had enough and convinced her to Times. Perhaps the most memorable person Buster and making Flynn’s distinctive and and the operators’ association in 1934 that However, “when strikebreakers were black come back to New York. This is how Vapnek summarizes Flynn’s in this book is Mary Harris Jones, “the beautiful clothes. included the eight-hour day and forty-hour men or immigrants, strikers weighted their Back on the East Coast, she soon had life: Flynn believed in change, but she notorious Mother Jones.” Born in Ireland, The next five years were full of challenges week. she fled the “Great Hunger” for Canada, but epithets with racial and ethnic slurs.” and triumphs as the IWW lead striking a regular column in the Daily Worker and could not make it happen on her own. James Green describes this ordeal she then moved to Tennessee where she lost Long struggle for safety Lawrence Massachusetts textile workers to became a high ranking Party member. Thus, she spent most of her life working amazingly well. His writing is solid, with her husband and four children to disease victory. There she became acquainted with Her battles for civil rights got lost in the within organizations whose principles she information that fascinates and sometimes Like the miners, this book is gritty and before beginning a career as a labor agitator. a number of Italian Activists, among them government’s efforts to persecute her and shared, but whose direction she sometimes shocks. The book’s opening pages brilliantly unadorned. Green introduces organized She honed union organizing skills in Illinois Ettor and Giovanetti, and the infamous members of the Party. Reading about doubted. set the stage for the industrial conflict it labor’s traditional heroes, but other than and Pennsylvania before UMWA President Carlo Tresca. Flynn’s expulsion from the ACLU by Walter Read this for yourself and see what you would later describe. Dating back to the Mother Jones, and possibly Eugene V. John Mitchell dispatched her to West After the Feds charged the IWW strike Baldwin on the eve of her son’s death from can make out of the life of one of the first eighteenth century, Americans, including Debs, none occupies center stage, not Virginia, where, as Green writes, “she looked leaders with sedition, it was only Flynn’s lung cancer is high drama indeed. Where is home-grown American radicals. Thomas Jefferson, had a love affair with even UMWA presidents John Mitchell like a grandmother,” and addressed miners coal that in the next century resulted (“Johnny d’Mitch”) and John L. Lewis. “like a drill sergeant.” in “battalions” of men, constituting a Green does not glamorize either leader, Frank Keeney was ultimately less Tim Sheard’s Lenny Moss Mystery… “demographic explosion,” eager to mine and in his epilogue notes Lewis’s eventual appreciated than Mother Jones, but he it. Coming mainly from the North, they concession to coal industry mechanization, Timothy Sheard, Someone Has And in the middle of this of the workers as union activists who are had a long career in the forefront of the rushed into Appalachia and created a world which displaced miners and left them with To Die, Hard Ball Press 2015. fight a nurse named Anna forever being harassed, monitored both on West Virginia miners’ struggle for rights. of frontier towns populated primarily by inadequate health and welfare benefits. Louisa is fired for allegedly camera and in person by constantly snooping Militant and often immersed in violence, Reviewed by Kelsey Harrison coal miners and their families residing in James Green’s account reaches into the letting a patient die due to her security guards and have to use every trick in he led the state’s miners until, among other Someone Has to Die is the 7th company-owned houses amidst foul air and 1970s, but in the four decades since then negligence. Without a job, the book to get the truth out and fight for things, he crossed an emerging leader named in the Lenny Moss mystery and unable to work in the their rights. The nurses wear GPS units that polluted streams. West Virginia’s coal mining country has John L. Lewis, whose leadership involved series and it is a real page- nursing field again, Ms. Louisa monitor their conversations and locations Violent suppression not yet become a safe workplace. Two mine accommodation with management. Though turner. It’s as good as any is worried she will also lose while the doctors are being ordered to follow explosions, in 2006 and 2010, took the Their life was hard and often filled with Keeney eventually died in obscurity, his bestselling thriller but differs in custody of her daughter to her a computer diagnosis protocol rather than lives of twenty-five miners. Nevertheless, conflict. In 1920, the town of Matewan, in union activities are recognized. that its plot takes place amid a ex-husband. to use their own common sense to diagnose The Devil Is Here In These Hillsis a valuable what would be known as “Bloody” Mingo In addition, there were the African union fighting for its healthcare It’s up to Lenny Moss of patients. This is a very exciting story and reminder that the battle to prevent such County, police chief Sid Hatfield and his Americans and other ethnic minorities. workers pension and healthcare the housekeeping unit (and the anyone who has ever stayed in a hospital will tragedies and improve working conditions in deputies shot seven agents of the Baldwin- Green notes that “during the early 1900s, benefit funds after a large corporation has Union Steward) at the hospital to exonerate immediately recognize all of the chaos and Felts Detective Agency who had evicted employers hired far more African Americans Appalachia began a long time ago. taken over the hospital the novel is set in. her. The story is told from the point of view problems that occur there.

8 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 13 NYLHA celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with Bussel book party Homegrown American radical By Jane LaTour lessons for the labor movement in neighborhoods. So, in addition Hoffa, and Frank Fitzsimmons. Lara Vapnek, Elizabeth Gurley Wobblies called their speakers), ob Bussel began his talk our current fight for survival. He to building “a wall of security” Even as corruption riddled the Flynn: Modern American Flynn charmed audiences with at NYU’s Tamiment took up his story, of Teamsters for members, with health care huge union, Harold Gibbons Revolutionary, Westview Press, her wit and impressed them Library/Robert F. Local 688, located in St. Louis, and other traditional trade offered his services to the union 2015 with her logic. She hammered BWagner Labor Archives, on Missouri, in the early 1950s, union goals, the Local led drives in Washington, DC. Eventually, away at the flaws of capitalism March 17, with a tip of the hat shortly after the merger of the for community empowerment, a rupture led to his being ejected. Reviewed by Martha A. Foley and she described the potential to the audience. A small but American Federation of Labor thus drawing them out of The complexities and power of socialism to transform spirited group who came out and the Congress of Industrial themselves and their island of relations are explored in the t was with great pleasure American Society. to hear the historian, in town Organizations. security into broader fights. book. Bussel’s talk concluded that I read Professor Lara Flynn plunged into all the way from the University As Robert Parmet wrote in Gibbons and Calloway saw this with what trade unions might Work History News Vapnek’s biography, Elizabeth organizing striking workers of Oregon, talk about his new his review ( , as “the community bargaining take away from the instructive I Gurley Flynn: Modern American in 1907 in Bridgeport, book, Fighting For Total Person Vol. 33, No. 1, Winter/Spring table, and they treated St. example of a local that attacked Revolutionary. The work was Connecticut, and continued Unionism: Harold Gibbons, 2016), Fighting for Total Person Louis as an employer.” Street race discrimination head-on, and commissioned as part of a nonstop through both the Ernest Calloway, and Working- Unionism… brilliantly follows lighting, paving, the sewer used its members’ connection to series, “Lives of American East and West coasts. She then Class Citizenship. “My book is Calloway and Gibbons as they system and prevention of their communities to fight for Women,” written specifically for went to represent her local of dedicated to people who fight combined to transform workers flooding, better public oversight amiment change in power relations. The the good fight, and I include all into activists who would bring of transportation, better bus undergraduates. These books do the IWW at a convention in story of “total person unionism of you in this, in solidarity with about political change that would service, an enforceable rat much to remind us of the lives Chicago. There she became is very rich—potentially,” Bussel Saint Patrick’s Day,” he said. benefit them as well as their city. control ordinance—these were of a number of very significant acquainted with national said. A lively question and In his talk, Professor Bussel The idea was to integrate the some of the issues on the table— American women who might leaders of the IWW, Vincent unionists’ workplace and civic and turned out, they were answer session took place at otherwise be forgotten. NYU/ T photo credit: St. John and Big Bill Haywood. concentrated on the alternative Elizabeth Gurley Flynn vision of trade unionism lives.” These “fully functioning winnable. the conclusion of his talk. The Biographies in the series The radical direction of the constructed by the two main citizens,” through their unions, Using a set of photos to Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives include, among others, those loud and clear in this biography. make a difference and help to organization did not deter characters in his book—their acted as “community stewards,” illustrate his talk, Bussel placed co-sponsored the event and of Dolly Madison, Dr. Lillian Her voice was similar to Ethel make the world a better place the 17-year-old one bit. She respective histories and influences leading campaigns to fight for Local 688 and its leadership Director Timothy V. Johnson Gilbreth, Mary Pickford, Shirley Merman’s in old recordings. The for all. Flynn was a woman visited factories and tried to that led them to providing the social justice through pragmatic, within the context of the recorded the program. The Jackson and Angela Davis. footnotes, index, and annotated before her time. Her views, learn all she could about the model, how they constructed it, broadly popular measures. International Teamsters, from book is available in a paperback Elizabeth Gurley Flynn belongs bibliography are accompanied once thought to be extreme workers’ lives. Soon she was on some of its successes, roadblocks, Racism and poverty were Dave Beck’s term of office, version, from the University of in this distinguished group. by an excellent glossary and leftist. would seem liberal today, the Mesabi Range speaking to its eventual demise, and some endemic within these urban through that of Jimmy (James R.) Illinois Press. While Flynn is all but suggested study questions. merely a century after her career miners and their families. She forgotten now, it was not always The life of Flynn is began. She firmly believed that met and married a miner almost so. From the time she began so remarkable that no government had a vital role to twice her age. The marriage A Depression Era story her professional life, in 1910, fictionalization or theorizing play in providing for the welfare was not successful. Flynn had Continued from page 15 that dozens of men line up to interdependence and self. There Norwegian or Irish. They’d had until her death in 1964, she was is required. Flynn herself of the people, and that women two pregnancies and produced were faced with the prospect of take his job. is the poignant recollection previous jobs as fishermen or frequently in the newspapers acknowledged that her should be free to control their one child, a son, Fred, who was called Buster. During her second abject poverty during the great Self-sacrifice / mutual an anonymous man who cooks or cowboys. Some had here and abroad. Her success as immersion in radical politics own bodies. depression, and dipped into support while hospitalized, but still managed to get an education and a public speaker and organizer began at home. Both her Vapnek’s account of Flynn’s pregnancy she was responsible were legendary. She was parents were outspoken career trajectory does not focus for organizing protests for a Free personal reserves of strength and Yet, also present, as is the ambulatory, holds a basin others had not. Today, nearly constantly being written about Irish nationalists. Upon her on the fact that she was one of Speech Fight. character in order to survive. case in any workplace, is humor. beneath another bedridden eighty years later, those workers Of course, not everyone worker’s chin so he can preserve are gone, but the beautiful bridge and photographed. arrival in this country at the the very few female organizers in The Wobblies needed to be It ranges from the living life did survive. Such was the case a bit of dignity while he retches. that they built still stands tall—a Vapnek’s account of Flynn’s age of sixteen, Annie Gurley the IWW; instead, it focuses on able to speak freely on the streets with gusto attitude of “halfway of Kermit Moore, the first There is also the more tragic monument to who they were. life is even handed and just. supported her brothers and Flynn’s unique ability to reach her in order to pursue their goal of to hell” club member, Al ironworker to die on the project. story of “Slim Lambert” who And thanks to the diligent and While several academic studies sister with her skills as a tailor in audience and gain their sympathy. “direct action” an organizing Zampa, to the nods and winks Mr. Moore’s story is all the more after falling 220 ft. from a painstaking work of Harvey have been published in recent Manchester, New Hampshire. Vapnek’s account of the heady technique built around public chilling because it is told by his of Sister Mary Zita Felciano scaffold and sustaining multiple Schwartz, curator of the Oral years, this one is the most Tom Flynn, born in Maine years leading up to WWI are very protest…In Missoula, Jones, co-worker with a certain matter who made it her business not to injuries, including a broken History Collection of the ILWU successful at capturing Flynn’s of Irish descent, lost an eye compelling reading. The names Flynn and other agitators drew of fact resignation. They are co- be on the ward when the injured neck, tried desperately, but Library, their personal stories essence. Vapnek went back to working in the quarries, and of Flynn’s associates comprise a crowds of lumberjacks and workers, not close friends. They men who inhabited the hospital unsuccessfully to save the remain with us, inspire us, and Flynn’s own papers deposited had briefly attended Dartmouth “Who’s Who” of radical and labor minors by criticizing the practices knew one another to say hello to, (sometimes for months) played life of fellow worker, Fred remind us that after all the in the Tamiment Library at College. These two articulate history, from Emma Goldman of local labor contractors, who or nod at during union meetings. cards with a deck adorned with Dummatzen. rhetoric, grand visions become a NYU. There she listened to oral and activist individuals, and to Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, collected fees from transient Then, one day, one of them is a “girlie pictures.” They came from the Bay Area reality when very ordinary people histories, looked at scrapbooks, their participation in political Eugene Dennis, Carlo Tresca, workers without providing them statistic and no longer present. And amidst all the and the Ozarks and Montana. work hard to accomplish the clippings and Flynn’s own events in New York City, fueled Sacco and Vanzetti, among others. with steady jobs. The contractors The harsh reality of the times is self-reliance are stories of Their parents were Italian or extraordinary. writings. I hear Flynn’s voice their eldest daughter’s desires to As an IWW “jawsmith” (as Continued on page 13

16 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 5 In Freedom, a music video for the song by Taina Asili, a group of young activists are depicted engaged in protest, and nods are offered to important current issues: police violence, prison and corrections reform, Occupy and economic policy, and Black Lives Matter activism. It is a forceful and spirited song, and one hungry and hopeful. The short films selected for the middle section of the program provided a segue of sorts, each an iteration of the struggles ongoing for justice, equality, and freedom, and bringing the discussion to the here and NYLHA now of America today.     By Alexander Bernhardt Bloom goes to the movies violence perpetrated on people of color n 1968, in the aftermath of the is an epidemic in today’s America, argue and protests, the film draws stark contrast and classroom educator shares stories of assassination of Martin Luther King the filmmakers and subjects featured, and between the then and now. Panning shots of protest and the crimes of injustice with a Jr. and a great deal of social turmoil Profiled offers insight and up close portraits scenes past and present on the site of some of group of small school children, and their which rocked the United States, of protest movements, communities I the great battlegrounds in the fight for social faces show innocence but also a terrific James Baldwin exiled himself to France, organized, and and artistic responses to these justice in America are accompanied by a resourcefulness, power, and potential. settling in France in St. Paul de Vence and recurring episodes. dramatic and often resonant narration in the Heard it Through the Grapevine is adopting the life of an expatriate, one not Packed into a fastpaced and gripping 53 voice of Baldwin, whose musings recall and ultimately a discussion, on the shortcomings unfamiliar. Baldwin had already spent minutes, Foster’s film covers a lot of ground. appraise. As important are the encounters of the movements and activism of the 60’s, many years of his life living, writing and We have up close portraits of people whose between Baldwin and the people he meets of the heavy lifting to be done, the resiliency travelling abroad. Twenty years later is where lives have been touched by police violence, during his travels. demanded, and the awesome spirit of those filmmakers Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley Fly-on-the-wall views into community In each of the cities he visits we see who stood and will stand to do the work pick up Baldwin’s story, opening with the meetings and demonstrations, interviews self-exiled writer’s decision to return to Baldwin in conversation with extraordinary that lies ahead. It offers an argument on the individuals: artists, musicians, advocates, and importance of recounting and reflecting with historians and experts, and finally, some the States to retrace his steps as an activist efforts at sense-making with a look at race and agitator in the South during the most educators. These friends and comrades are a upon the events of the past, using them to pleasure to watch in verbal volley with their frame and inspire the work toward the future. theory and contextualizing race and racial explosive and transformational years of the politics historically. The film ultimately Civil Rights movement. The story they tell visitor, their musings poetic and profound, brings it all back to the issues of economic in this film is one of historical reckoning, of but with a purpose too as they help Baldwin     inequality, this as a significant measure promises unfulfilled and struggles ongoing. to make sense of the history and the course of racial disparity in America, and here These themes connected the film it took. The selections following picked up this narrative neatly, beginning with a series connects us meaningfully to the organizing directly to the others featured in the the Baldwin’s travels and discussions are of short films. These included a short themes of the NYLHA conference. Workers Unite Film Festival, a program continually begging the questions: Did we set of news segments on the presidential But as much as it is an assessment and among events in its annual festival this win? Was justice achieved? Have we finished? The answer appears, at least at a surface level, campaigns and the candidates talking points reflection on the state of racial and economic year, and in a broader way to the focus of a resounding no. Poverty, social division, on economic disparity and labor politics. justice in America and the path that brought the NYLHA conference, titled: Can’t Turn bleak settings, and emptiness of opportunity Next came Scenario 6, in which a us to it, the film is a call to action. As in Back: Unfinished Tasks of the Civil Rights present a choice between resignation and dramatic sequence depicts a mundane The night’s screenings ended with committed activists and strong voices in the Baldwin film, young people are thrust Movement. renewed activist engagement. and tenderly youthful episode: boys in a Profiled, a 2015 documentary film directed the Black Lives Matter movement. The film forward in a hopeful answer to the trying Making sense of history But comes a hopeful chapter as the film boutique designer clothing shop fitting by Kathleen Foster on race, policing, and the offers a steady and unflinching account of questions of our time, and importantly, Heard it Through the Grapevine follows takes a late turn. We meet a series of young themselves and fawning before a mirror pressing fronts in the fight for social justice these episodes, and considers the stunning educators, school children, and community Baldwin as he embarks south, following activists engaged in new and persistent but with nightmarish sound effects and in America today. number of stories similar to be drawn from activists. him as he solemnly tours significant sites struggles and it seems a passing of the daunting news clips in audio background, The film recounts episodes of police our recent history. Let the films tell it, we’ve a lot of from his days as a civil rights activist, many torch. The spirit of young people appears and flashing light visual filters which violence in New York City, including The audience is brought into intimate work ahead in the struggles for social and immediately recognizable if not for the to hold the answer for Baldwin and too the make it resemble the scene of a crime. A Kimani Gray, Ramarley Graham, and Eric contact with the victims and survivors of economic justice in America. Armed with monuments erected in his absence. Spliced filmmakers. The film holds children in a narrator reads a quietly penetrating poetic Garner, who lost their lives at the hands of police violence, then effectively whisked to our knowledge of the past and heads bent with powerful original footage, much of it tender light, depicted for the great hope and monologue in the background, recounting uniformed police, and prominently features a broader vantage for a discussion of the in our work toward the future they tell us, familiar, from campaigns in Birmingham and promise they represent. In one of the most a cruel and frightful interaction with the the family members of the victims of police historical context and the larger implications however, we’ll have the strength and resolve Selma, marches, sit-ins, community meetings touching and poignant scenes, an activist police. violence, many of whom have become of social inequality in America. Police to finish the tasks.

10 Summer / Fall 2016 New York Labor History Association 11