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George Mink, the Marine Workers Industrial Union, and the Comintern

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George Mink, the Marine Workers Industrial Union, and the Comintern LaborHistory, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2000 GeorgeMink, the MarineWorkers Industrial Union,and the Cominternin America VERNONL. PEDERSEN In the1949 RKO ®lm, TheWoman on Pier 13 ,Brad Collins,who, as an angry young man had brie¯y joinedthe Communist party, is drawnback into awebof sabotage and intrigue which threatensto destroy both his marriage andhis picture-perfectAmerican life. The agent ofCollins ’ downfallis abluntspoken, vaguely EastEuropean Commu- nistnamed Vanning whospecializes in waterfrontwork. Except for theabsence of his trademark black leather jacket(this particular movie Communistblends into the post-warera by wearing aconservative suit)the character ofVanning bears astriking resemblanceto the real CommunistGeorge Mink, the founder of the Marine Workers Industrial Union(MWIU). 1 HowardHughes, who owned RKO, wanted TheWoman on Pier 13 toestablish his anti-Communistcredentials and warn his fellowcitizens of the dangers posed by Soviet spiesand saboteurs. But, Hughes ’ eccentricities,and the need to make apro® t,created insteada dark andbrooding ªBºmovie which only caricatured theCommunist threat. Critics dismissedthe ® lm asnothing buta Hollywoodfantasy borrowing equally from gangster ®lms andwar-time Nazi spy movies. The fateof the real Minkmirrors that ofhis ®lm counterpart.At oneextreme heis condemnedas Mink the butcher, the harbor pirate, theNKVD enforcer,and the self-proclaimed representative ofthe Comintern in America. Others dismisshim asan obscuresecond-level ® gure oflittle importance, someclaim henever existed, and he is occasionally defendedas a pro-labor, anti-Fascist,union builder. 2 The controversysurrounding Mink ’scareer is part ofthe much larger debateover the natureof American Communismand the extent of theparty ’stiesto the Soviet Union. By thelate 1980s thosescholars discounting tales ofCommunist espionage and generally defendingthe party asa positive aspectof American life had cometo dominate thehistorical exchange.However, the opening oftheCentral Archives ofthe 1The Womanon Pier13 ,originallytitled ª IMarrieda Communist ,ºwas releasedby RKO in 1950.An informative, and entertaining,account of the ®lm ’sproduction and signi®cance as apart ofpost-war anti-Communism canbe found in Daniel J.Leab, ªHowRed was my Valley: Hollywood, the Cold War Film, and IMarrieda Communist ,º Journal ofContemporary History ,19(1984), 59±88. 2Richard Krebs® rstbrought Mink to public attention in 1940in Out ofthe Night ,aclassicof anti-Communist literature,which accusesMink ofbeing little more than awaterfrontthug. Al Richmond, in ALong View fromThe Left ,takesa moremoderate stance and admits that he found Mink, whom he knewpersonally, an attractivebut ambivalent ®gure.Mink ’smost completerehabilitation is in Bruce Nelson’s Workerson the Waterfront which portrays Mink as aminor ®gurewho has becomethe subject ofanti-Communist fantasies. Jan Valtin (aka Richard Krebs), Out ofthe Night (NewYork: AllianceBook Corporation, 1941);Al Richmond, ALong View fromthe Left:Memoirs of an American Revolutionary (Boston: Houghton Mif¯in Company, 1973);Bruce Nelson, Workerson the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, andUnionism in the 1930s (Urbana: Universityof Illinois Press,1988). ISSN0023-656X print/ISSN1469-9702 online/00/030307±14 Ó 2000 Taylor &Francis Ltd on behalf of The Tamiment Institute 308 V.L. Pedersen CommunistParty ofthe Soviet Union,now the Russian Center for theStorage and Studyof Documents of Contemporary History (RTZKhIDNI), thegranting oflimited accessto selected KGB ® les,and the declassi® cation oftheCIA ’sVENONA intercepts transformedthe discussion. The ¯oodof books and articles basedon these sources conclusivelydocumented the extent and nature of Communist party tiesto the Soviet Unionand led former party defenderMaurice Isserman to state that it has ªlong since becomeapparent that thoseof us who tended to discount Communist involvement in Soviet espionagewere mistaken.º 3 Asexciting asthe recent revelations have beenthey are only thebeginning ofa completereevaluation ofthis aspectof American history which mustextend beyond thehigh-pro® le issuesof Soviet in¯uenceand espionage. This studyof Mink ’s American career begins by establishing his statusas a Soviet agent,but continues beyondhis relationship tothe Comintern to shed light ona widerange ofother issuesas well. Two important areas consideredin this studyare thegoals andmethods ofComintern organizers in theUnited States and the relationship betweenthe Comintern,the Pro® ntern,and the CPUSA. Much information is also revealed about themundane aspects of union organizing andthe continual dif® cultiesfaced by Communistactivists in theUnited States. A pleasant surpriseis that although Mink’sAmerican career is fully illuminated thecentral ®gure is notdiminished. Minkremains (ashis critics andadmirers have portrayed him, blunt,ambitious, ambiguous) and,although shornof myth, still surroundedby controversy,con ¯ict,and intrigue. Analmost universally heldassumption about Minkis that hewas a native-born American. However,in a1932 autobiography writtenfor theComintern, Mink re- portedthat hewas born GodiMinkowsky, of Jewish parentage, in theRussian village ofZittomir Volyan in 1899. Abandonedby his mother andfather Minkwas sent by his grandparents totheUnited States to live with relatives in Philadelphia. Attheage of14 Minkdecided to shift for himself andmoved to Chicago wherehe worked at avariety ofjobs and perfected his American accent.He wrote in 1932: Ialways lived with native born Americans andI adaptedmyself tothe life of theCountry, and picked up the language in aslang form ¼Irealized very soonthat an American Native Born couldget along better than anemigrant soI decidedto Americanize myself,and in theyear of1916 Ijoinedthe UnitedStates Navy giving my nameas George Martin Mink,born in the USA. Sosuccessfulwas Mink ’sdeceptionthat a1942 FBI report listedhim asborn onApril 23rd, 1899, in Scranton,Pennsylvania. 4 3Themost important recentstudies drawing upon the newlyavailable sourcesare: Harvey Klehr, John EarlHaynes and Fridrikh Firsov, The Secret Worldof American Communism (NewHaven: Yale University Press,1996); Harvey Klehr, John EarlHaynes and KyrillM. Anderson, The Soviet Worldof American Communism (New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1998); the secondedition of Ron Radosh and Joyce Milton, The Rosenberg File (NewHaven: Yale UniversityPress, 1997); Allen Weinsteinand Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood:Soviet Espionage in AmericaÐThe Stalin Era (NewYork: Random House, 1998).Maurice Isserman, ª GuessWhatÐ They Really WereSpies,º http:/ /www.forward.com/current/ arts.html. 4GeorgeMink Autobiography, April 29,1932, 2± 3, ®le495± 261± 1667, Russian Centerfor the Storage and Study ofDocuments of Contemporary History(RTzKhIDNI) Moscow,Russian Federation; Federal Bureauof Investigation, Custodial DetentionReport, Dec.26, 1942, 1 (Courtesy ofDavid P.Hornstein). GeorgeMink and theComintern 309 Assignedto the Boston naval yards Minkwas serving aboard abattleship whenthe badly damaged Russiancruiser Variag steamedinto theport for repairs. Mink,who modestlyacknowledged that, ashis family had comefrom that country,he spoke ª a little Russian,ºwas assigned as liaison with the Variag’screw.The sailors introduced Minkto radicalism which strucksuch a responsivecord in theyoung seamanthat he later wrote,ª only then[did Irealize] what waswhat in theworld.º Inspired by the RussiansMink took every opportunity during theremainder ofhis career in theNavy topromote socialism andagitate against thewar. Because of these activities Mink receivedan ordinary, rather than an honorable, discharge from theNavy in 1919 and tookup the life ofa merchant seamanand union organizer. 5 In 1921 Minkbecame the International Seamen ’sUnion(ISU) representative tothe AFL Central Labor Councilin Philadelphia. In May ofthesame year astrike broke out andMink found himself elevatedto the strike committee,an experiencewhich con- vincedhim that theISU did not properly servethe needs of marine workers.Searching for an alternative Minkjoined the Industrial Workers ofthe World (IWW) and,when thestrike failed, led500 sailors outof theAFL andinto theIWW. Expelled from the International Seamen ’sUnionas a Communist(although hewas not) Mink left Philadelphia andsailed tothe west coast where he made contactwith theAmerican Communistparty. Helater recalled: While in Portland, Oregon Icame closerto the Communist party there,the (Worker’sParty) andin [month illegible] 1921 Ijoinedthe Worker ’s Party later theCP of the USA. I becamevery active in theseamen ’sfraction and workedwithin theIWW keeping in touchwith HarrisonGeorge who was in charge ofthe Red International Committee.I kept going tosea making trips toJapan, China,etc. Harrison Georgeheaded the Pan Paci® cTrade Union,an organization which fronted for awiderange oflegal andillegal Cominternactivity. The highlighting ofGeorge ’s name in his autobiography indicatesthe importance Minkplaced onthe association andstrongly suggeststhat hebecame involved with theComintern ’sinternational work almost immediately after joining theCommunist party. 6 Mink’sinternational travel andresidence on the west coast insulated him from the factional struggles which sweptover theparty in theearly 1920s. The constant upheavals required regular Cominternintervention and caused considerable member- ship turnover.As a consequencewhen Mink returned to New York in 1925 noone rememberedhis earlier activities (whichhad beenoutside the party in any case)and he seemedto be a freshface. Transferred
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