NARRATOR:
FEW PEOPLE ARE STILL AROUND TO REMEMBER, BUT IN 1926, IN PASSAIC NEW JERSEY, 16 THOUSAND WOOLWORKERS STRUCK THE MILLS AFTER THEIR MEAGER WAGES HAD BEEN CUT. THE STRIKE LASTED NEARLY A YEAR. SUPPORTERS ACROSS THE NATION SENT MONEY AND FOOD.
MARTHA STONE ASHER:
At one time these strikers who were handling a big truck filled with food were stopped by the police, and they arrested him and they arrested all the bread! ? . And it became a big issue among the strikers until the bread was freed. (She laughs.) That?s how they talked about it.
NARRATOR:
THE 19 TWENTIES ROARED ALRIGHT, BUT NOT THE WAY MOST PEOPLE THINK. COMING UP AFTER THE NEWS, A DOCUMENTARY:
Instrumental of ?Ain?t We Got Fun?
00:46
=============================================================
I. THE BATTLEGROUND (O.01)
FUNDING ANNOUNCER:
THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS A CO-PRODUCTION OF NJN PUBLIC RADIO AND THE NEW
Street ambiance. Crowd scene. Milling crowd, a bit threatening. At a distance. Car doors being slammed. A tiny little bit of talking.
JOHN DOS PASSOS:
At the place where the meeting was going to be forbidden the people from
The sheriff was a fat man with a badge like a star off a Christmas tree, ? The cops were waving their clubs about, limbering up their arms .?
?All right move ?em along,? said the sheriff.
? The people who had come from
[BRING UP MUSIC AND LYRICS]:
Every morning, every evening, ain?t we got fun,
Not much money, oh but honey, ain?t we got fun.
[Bring down the music under Dee Garrison.]
DEE GARRISON:
Well, the nineteen twenties is presented as a time of gayety and short skirts and short hair and lots of women dancing around Like, people were supposed to have had money and fun ?. But the reality of the twenties is that it was a very huge gap between the rich and the poor.
[Bring up music and lyrics again.]
There?s nothing purer, the rich get richer and the poor get children.
In the meantime, inbetween time, ain?t we got fun.
NARRATOR:
THE 1920?S ROARED ALRIGHT, WITH THE SIREN OF INJUSTICE. THE RED SCARE, LYNCHINGS, AND THE LABOR WARS?
NOWHERE WAS THIS
NOW THE STORY OF?.
JIM SHENTON:
I was born in
[Eastern European music begins.]
NARRATOR:
THE LATE JAMES SHENTON WAS A LEGENDARY HISTORIAN AND TEACHER AT
My grandmother ? who came in 1878 and died in 1931 -- never learned to speak English. She didn?t have to. She could speak Hungarian, because that was part of the fact of being born in
NARRATOR:
IN
-- THE BOTANY AND THE FORSTMANN AND HUFFMANN, BOTH GERMAN OWNED. IN 1890 CONGRESS HAD PASSED A TARIFF THAT MADE IT PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE TO IMPORT WOOL, SO THE GERMANS OPENED MILLS HERE.
JIM SHENTON:
When World War One began, the Alien Custodian Commission seized control of the factories that were German-owned,
NARRATOR: AGAIN, JAMES SHENTON.
and who exactly was put in charge? American officers.
When World War One ended, Colonel Charles Johnston, who had been in charge of the Botany Woolen Mills, effectively began fighting to gain control. The Germans began fighting for regaining control, and this began to reflect itself in working conditions. The working class got caught in between in these fights. Wages began to come down, and this is where it gets really uneasy. The Bolshevik element came in. And the CP became a fact of life in this area.
[The Red Army singing The Internationale.]
NARRATOR:
IN THE WAKE OF THE 1917 BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN
PAUL BUHLE:
There was a tremendous wave of government-inspired, but also conservative, propaganda ?
NARRATOR:
PAUL BUHLE, SENIOR LECTURER IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AT
under which the Russian Revolution, for instance, was described as having nationalized women, and which the atheistic quality of the new Russian leadership was played up as an attack on God. And through which all respectable, God-fearing and monogamous Americans were told that they had to resist Communism, because otherwise there would be God-less triumph and no sexual morality. ?
NARRATOR:
MANY YOUTHFUL AMERICAN IDEALISTS WHOSE SYMPATHIES LAY WITH LOW-PAID WORKERS DIDN?T BUY THE RED SCARE, EITHER. SOME JOINED THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE.
PAUL BUHLE:
Ah, yes. It had a following among young people in their teens and in their early twenties -- mostly in
II. VERA AND ALBERT (7:25)
[Sounds of a steam-powered railroad train coming to a stop]
VERA BUCH:
For me the historic Passaic strike began one evening in December 1925, as I was westward bound from New York on a train of the Erie Railroad.
NARRATOR:
VERA BUCH, A YOUNG ACTIVIST LIVING IN
VERA BUCH:
This time I was not headed for
NARRATOR:
BUCH HAD BEEN RECRUITED BY BERT MILLER, A COMMUNIST PARTY ORGANIZER IN
VERA BUCH:
Albert Weisbord met me at the station. As we walked down
[Faint sound of a harmonica. David Rapkin, playing ?Joe Hill?]
In the little office some workingmen were playing checkers in one corner, while in another a slim, dark-eyed youth softly drew a tune out of a harmonica.
NARRATOR:
THE HARMONICA PLAYER WAS MIKE ELASIK, A LOCAL STRIKE LEADER FROM
VERA BUCH:
Mike Elasik and I crossed the railroad tracks, at once entering the mill section of town. ... The dingy, two- or three-storied frame buildings were dark, and complete silence prevailed as though everyone were already asleep.
Soon we came to a bridge over a river. Here a raw wind swept down the valley. I shivered in my winter coat. ? The city behind us cast a faint glow over the sky; the water shimmered vaguely. Here the mills were all around us near and far, up and down the river.
?Forstmann-Huffmann, big rich company,? said Mike, pointing to a huge structure not far away, lighted by floodlights on the lawn in front. ?They have other big mills in
[Sound effects growing in intensity. Build to a climax.]
.
It appeared to be a big complex of buildings of different sizes, some lighted, some dark. In one immense building windows were all alight. The whole structure throbbed with life, looms crashed and wheels whirred, all blending in an incessant pounding rhythm, like some giant heart, permeating the winter night.
NARRATOR:
MILL WORKER MIKE ELISIAK SHOWED VERA BUCH THE INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE. ORGANIZER ALBERT WEISBORD PUT HER TO WORK -- ASKED HER WHETHER SHE?D BE WILLING TO TEACH AN ENGLISH CLASS FOR THE WORKERS. SHE AGREED TO COME BACK TO
VERA BUCH:
[Sounds of people eating in a Chinese restaurant]
Now I found myself opposite Organizer Weisbord at a little table in a Chinese restaurant?There was a suggestion of suppressed passion in his heavy eyelids and in the softness of his voice.
We talked chiefly of our backgrounds. What I said had to be in words pushed in edgewise whenever there might be a pause in his almost unceasing flow of speech. I told him of my home life, my Puritan background, my long struggle with tuberculosis. When he heard I had joined the Communist Party among the first, had been briefly in the underground and also in the IWW, I could see some hint of respect from him.
NARRATOR:
ALBERT WEISBORD, WHO WOULD COME TO LEAD THE PASSAIC WOOL WORKERS STRIKE, WAS BORN IN NEW YORK CITY, DECEMBER 9, 1900, OF RUSSIAN-JEWISH PARENTS. AT
ALBERT WEISBORD:
During the times I was working packing shoulder pads for delivery I would make some effort to urge the workers to organize and to improve their poor conditions. When word of this reached my father he grew very angry accusing me of being ungrateful and disloyal. But I told him it was a matter of principle with me. ? I left home not to see the family again for 12 years.
NARRATOR:
WEISBORD PUT HIMSELF THROUGH
ALBERT WEISBORD:
I had become convinced that my place was with the actual working class, not with the S.P. ? I gave up my old associates and joined the communist Workers Party in
? I was concerned with testing myself whether I had really broken from my petty-bourgeois past and was fit to call myself a communist. The only way I could test myself was to immerse myself in the working class. To get a job in a factory. Here I would find myself. ?
NARRATOR:
FIRST, WEISBORD WORKED AT A SILK MILL IN NEW ENGLAND, THEN MOVED TO, NEW JERSEY TO BECOME A WEAVER IN
BUT THAT STRIKE WAS SMALL AND SHORT-LIVED COMPARED TO ONE THAT LOOMED ON THE HORIZON.
III. STRIKE! STRIKE! (13:39)
ON SEPTEMBER 25, 1925, THE MANAGEMENT OF THE HUGE BOTANY WOOL MILLS IN NEARBY
ALBERT WEISBORD:
The first thing was to get some contacts and learn the true situation first hand. The Party did have a Hungarian Workers Club in
NARRATOR:
WEISBORD?S UNITED FRONT COMMITTEE IN
ALBERT WEISBORD:
Now I went back to
The mass meeting in
NARRATOR:
UNDER WEISBORD?S LEADERSHIP, THE STRIKE COMMITTEE GREW, SO DID TENSIONS INSIDE THE LARGEST MILL, THE BOTANY, WHICH WAS STILL OPERATING. WHEN A WORKER WAS FIRED FOR BEING A MEMBER OF THE
ALBERT WEISBORD:
On Monday, January 25th, a committee not of three but of forty-five went to see Johnson and not to beg for reinstatement but to present their demands ? The whole scene was carefully prepared in advance as were the demands. At a given time, all delegates stopped their machines and went from room to room, in a very impressive manner, gathering themselves together into a committee to go to see the management. All the workers quit work to see what would happen. The air was tense. Each moment was an hour.
The committee presented their demands and found the management ruthless. All were fired and told to leave by the front gate. Chief of Police Zober and many policemen were there to see that the workers got out quickly. But the committee had rehearsed and was prepared for the whole event. With a burst of force they flung the police aside. Into every room they scattered with cries of STRIKE! STRIKE!
NARRATOR:
NOW THE STRIKE WAS TRULY GAINING MOMENTUM. ACCORDING TO VERA BUCH, IT WAS WEISBORD?S PASSIONATE LEADERSHIP AND THE GROWING SENSE OF SOLIDARITY.
VERA BUCH:
? One by one the mills were brought out by picket lines of the workers already on strike. On Wednesday, January 27, the Garfield Worsted Mill; on January 30 the Passaic Worsted Spinning Mill; and the next week on February 6, the big Gera Mill, followed by the New Jersey Spinning Company. Now, with a permit obtained from a surprised chief of police, a great parade of all these strikers marched past an amazed city population. ?
NARRATOR:
NEXT, THE
The workers in F-H had not yet received wage cuts; they were on the ?hunger treatment,? that is, they were working part time, a situation which, as they learned by experience, often preceded wage cuts. With their spirits broken, the workers would not resist the cuts when they came. Forstmann-Huffmann had a company union called ?The Assembly,? the chief purpose of which was to keep the workers obedient to the company. This did not prevent a good number of people from the largest F-H mill, which employed four thousand, from joining the United Front Committee. ?
ALBERT WEISBORD:
The frantic bosses were determined to stop the ever-onward march of the workers. On Monday police mounted on horse and motorcycles appeared. "Terror Week" had started.
[Sounds of strikers marching and chanting]
VERA BUCH:
To reach the biggest of the F-H mills, located in nearby
Having been briefed to expect trouble, the workers braced themselves. The strongest forces had been mobilized; the entire strike committee headed the march. Newspapers from the whole metropolitan area had been notified so that reporters and cameramen were ready at the bridge.
NARRATOR:
THE CROWD GREW TO 3,000. ON THE
DEMONSTRATORS ATTEMPTED TO FLEE THE SWINGING CLUBS.
CLIFTON CAPTAIN OF DETECTIVES ANTHONY BATTELLO ORDERED HIS MEN TO PREVENT THE NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM TAKING PICTURES OF THE MELEE. AGAIN, VERA BUCH.
VERA BUCH:
Many of the casualties came into the office that day with bleeding head wounds, or limping, or holding an arm or shoulder bruised by the clubs. At the mass meeting that evening one of the most severely beaten strikers was up on the platform. When he took off his shirt to expose his broad upper back, completely covered with black and blue marks, a shudder and a groan went through the ranks. Some wept. The town, the
IV. THE STRIKE BULLETIN (20:40)
NARRATOR:
IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT, THE STRIKERS NOW HIRED MARY HEATON VORSE, THE FOREMOST LABOR JOURNALIST OF THE DAY, TO TELL THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY. SHE BEGAN PUBLISHING A STRIKE NEWSPAPER. HISTORIAN DEE GARRISON OF
DEE GARRISON:
G:10:13 ? It was called The Textile Workers Bulletin and it was published every week ? sometimes even more often ? and it is so important historically because it represents an entirely new kind of union tactic in appealing, not writing just to the workers ? not just talking among strike leaders ? an appeal to the wider public ? and it did. And it was also given worldwide, international kind of attention. And that -- it was beautifully written, of course. She was a fabulous writer.
NARRATOR:
IN A MARCH ISSUE OF THE TEXTILE STRIKE BULLETIN, MARY HEATON VORSE WROTE A PORTRAIT OF ONE OF THE STRIKERS. IT WAS TITLED: ?MRS. BREZNAC AND THE PICKET LINE.?
MARY HEATON VORSE:
She never misses picket lines. You always see her tramping sturdily along, a short, powerful figure, broad shouldered, deep breasted, a heavy built woman, strong. Her mouth is a determined line. Her nose juts out obstinately. Her eyes are two bright sparkling points. Humor and intelligence are in them and often indignation and anger. She never misses a meeting. After the meeting you could see her in the hall talking. Maybe, she's telling about what happened on the picket line, Maybe she's telling how her husband first made 15 cents an hour and pretty soon that is all the workers will be getting if they don?t win the strike.
Round and round she's always at strike meetings at night. She is a delegate of the United Front Committee from the Botany Mills. In some way she embodies the spirit of the strike more than any one person. Strong, powerful, persistent and is fortified with the indignation of years. That is Mrs. Anna Breznac. She is not an individual. She embodies the working mothers whose slow anger is now kindled.
DEE GARRISON:
Well, she brought the strike alive. She brought the people alive.
NARRATOR:
AGAIN, PROFESSOR DEE GARRISON.
. .. and remember she also had all those ties to
V. WORKERS RELIEF (23:41)
NARRATOR:
AS THE STRIKING WOOLWORKERS STRUGGLED THROUGH THE COLD WINTER OF 1926, MANY BEGAN TO RUN SHORT OF FOOD AND FUEL. BUT THE PUBLICITY TRIGGERED A FLOW OF MONEY AND RELIEF SUPPLIES THROUGH THE COMMUNIST PARTY?S WORKERS INTERNATIONAL RELIEF ORGANIZATION. ALBERT WEISBORD LATER REFLECTED -- WITH SOME AMBIVALENCE -- THAT THE PARTY MUST HAVE RAISED A MILLION DOLLARS?
ALBERT WEISBORD:
? over half of this was siphoned off for Party use. So long as these funds were used, if only in part, to pay all the union's bills, I really had no objection that the Party was the major beneficiary, since it and it alone could have mounted the campaign?. could use the money for the organization of the unorganized in other places. But of course this was not the intention of the Party leadership at all. What they found was a bonanza for them that could help them mightily in their factional struggles.
NARRATOR:
IF HALF THE RELIEF WAS DIVERTED; THE OTHER HALF GOT TO THE HUNGRY STRIKERS.
MARTHA STONE ASHER:
A-6:10 - Well, the food was brought in from out of town.
NARRATOR:
AT AGE 16, MARTHA STONE ASHER, WAS ONE OF A HANDFUL OF IDEALISTIC YOUNG NEW YORKERS WHO CAME TO HELP THE STRIKING
Bakers, you know, donated food. And other places ? larger places ? produced food - made donations. And that was just tremendous. And in fact at one time these strikers who were handling a big truck filled with food were stopped by the police, and they arrested him and they arrested all the bread! ? The men were driving the truck ? I don?t have their names ? were you know released after bond was put up for them, they were released. But the question of getting the bread out was big problem. And it became a big issue among the strikers until the bread was freed. (She laughs.) That?s how they talked about it. And they were then able to distribute it to the ? there were then about seven stations as I recall. I might not be right about the number.
VERA BUCH:
Now a change took place in my own status in the strike.
NARRATOR:
AGAIN, THE WORDS OF VERA BUCH.
VERA BUCH:
One day I went to visit the soup kitchen for the strikers? children, run by the Council of Workingclass Housewives, a group of Jewish women, residents of
ALBERT WEISBORD:
The women marched shoulder to shoulder with the men on the picket line and were in the heart of all activities of the union.
NARRATOR:
ALBERT WEISBORD.
The strike freed the women the worst enslaved of all. They were made to feel the breath of life that a union puts into their beings. Special clubs were formed attached to the national organization of the United Council of Working Class Women. Not only the women strikers, but the wives of the men, were drawn into the struggle through these women's clubs. It was the women who managed the children's kitchens and did the thousand and one strike duties necessary to be performed. These "backward peasants," as the labor traitors would say, became the greatest strike enthusiasts of all.
MARTHA STONE ASHER:
Yes, there was one woman who walked through a crowd when the police were trying to hold her up, you know,
NARRATOR:
AGAIN MARTHA STONE ASHER...
and she walked with her child and bypassed the police and came to the head of the line. And every striker had their heart in their mouths. They were afraid that they would just shoot at her. But it never happened. And she walked successfully through the crowd of pickets and placed herself at the head of the line, pushing her carriage with the baby in it.
VI. THE SILENT MOVIE (29:06)
[Sounds of the movie projector starting up]
NARRATOR:
THE STRIKERS KNEW THEIR STORY HAD THE POWER TO MOVE PEOPLE EMOTIONALLY. WHILE MARY HEATON VORSE WAS WRITING THE TEXTILE WORKERS BULLETIN, STRIKERS COMMISSIONED A FILM TO SPREAD THE WORD, SILENTLY. IT WAS CALLED: THE
[Sound up and down]
NARRATOR:
THE MOVIE STILL EXISTS. PROFESSIONAL FILMAKERS BEGAN THE PROJECT, BUT IT WAS COMPLETED BY A RADICAL GROUP WHO LATER WOULD FORM THE FILM AND PHOTO LEAGUE WHICH MADE PROPAGANDA FILMS IN THE 30S. THE FILM ENDED UP HALF MELODRAMA, HALF DOCUMENTARY. IT CONTAINS GRAPHIC FOOTAGE OF THE POLICE BEATING UP THE STRIKERS. IN THE FICTIONALIZED SEGMENTS, THE BOSS IS PORTRAYED NOT ONLY AS A MISER BUT A LECHER. DOCUMENTARY FILM HISTORIAN STEVE KRINSKY?
STEVE KRINSKY:
What?s interesting about the film they made is that it was really an attempt kind of to harness the power of silent movies, which in the early days of the twentieth century was the most powerful medium imaginable to people at the time. You know, that was the era of movie palaces and the big
NARRATOR:
THE
The film was shown six times in two days in
[Balalaika music]
It was often shown alongside Russian films brought over from the revolutionary country. According to news reports in
I don?t have any doubt that anybody seeing this film in the right context would not be moved by it, particularly since the standard method for showing films like this was for it to travel with a speaker...the response was very positive.
VII. STRIKE STRATEGY (32:15)
NARRATOR:
DESPITE GROWING NATIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE STRIKERS, THE MANAGEMENT OF THE MILLS SHOWED NO SIGN OF RELENTING ON THE WAGE CUT. IN MARCH, 1926, A COMMITTEE OF STRIKERS WENT TO
DEE GARRISON:
She along with others went to appeal to senators and congressmen in Washington
NARRATOR:
AGAIN HISTORIAN DEE GARRISON:
and in particular Senator LaFollette was a person who eventually came out in support of the strike among many, many other middle-class politicians.
She was a little too aggressive in her approach to these politicians. She didn?t know how to say it in such a way as to ? she wanted to say, ?Senator, LaFollette,? you know ?get off your butt and do something now.? And this was not the way you address senators. They didn?t let her go back very much. ?
NARRATOR:
THE STRIKERS DELEGATION ATTEMPTED TO SEE PRESIDENT CALVIN COOLIDGE. WHEN THEY REACHED THE WHITE HOUSE, THE PRESIDENT?S SECRETARY TOLD THEM TO TAKE THEIR CASE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.
ALBERT WEISBORD LATER SAID HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THE PRESIDENT COULD BE TOO BUSY TO MEET WITH THEM, WHEN - IN HIS WORDS THEY HE HAD TIME FOR ?
IN FACT, COOLIDGE WASN?T TOO BUSY. HE AND OTHER CONSERVATIVES WERE SYMPATHETIC TO THE MILL OWNERS, AND SUSPICOUS OF THE STRIKE?S LEADERSHIP. HISTORIAN DEE GARRISON?
DEE GARRISON:
-- and of course Vorse was accused of being a Communist. Albert Weisbord, who led the strike, a young recent graduate from
NARRATOR:
TO COUNTER THE ACCUSATION THAT THIS FIRST COMMUNIST-LED STRIKE IN AMERICA WAS FOREIGN THREAT -- MOSCOW TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE CITY OF PASSAIC --- WEISBORD COUNTERED WITH WHAT HE CALLED THE ?GERMAN QUESTION.?
ALBERT WEISBORD:
The mill owners were not Americans but Germans, some of them enemy aliens whose property had been sequestered by the U.S. Government and was in the custody of Col. Johnson. I decided to ignore the Colonel and to attack the real owners. ?
Many of the strikers were returned soldiers. To the clubs and bombs of the police, the strikers had answered with the wearing of their steel trench helmets and gas masks. They had fought the Kaiser in
NARRATOR:
ALBERT WEISBORD DEFLECTED ANTI-COMMUNISM WITH PATRIOTISM. BUT THERE WAS ALSO THE QUESTION OF ANTI-SEMITISM. HE WAS A JEW IN ATOWN OF CATHOLIC WORKERS. BUT HE TURNED THIS TO HIS ADVANTAGE AS WELL.
ALBERT WEISBORD:
By openly matching myself with Abe Preskel, Jewish Commissioner of Public Safety in charge of the police, actually headed by the German Chief Zober. I openly called Preskel to task for violating the Jewish tradition ? [by] being part of a police military force and ? behaving against the interests of the people in the country where Jews immigrated. Not Preskel, but I, was the best example of the Jew in his relation to the general population. The strikers met my attack on the Jew Preskel with whoops of joy and merriment. The "Jewish" issue was settled. No one talked of "the protocols of
NARRATOR:
FAILING TO DISCREDIT ALBERT WEISBORD, THE MILL OWNERS AND THEIR ALLIES DECIDED TO LOCK HIM UP.
ON APRIL 10TH,1926,
VERA BUCH:
In the evening following the arrests those of us left of the staff ? a few women ? went into
NARRATOR:
AGAIN VERA BUCH.
I was unable to sleep at all that night imagining Albert attacked and beaten in jail. A few days later I went out to see him in the county jail at
VIII. THE RIOT ACT (35:05)
WEISBORD:
Then with the strike leaders in jail, Sheriff Morgan was called into the city of
NARRATOR:
TWO DAYS AFTER WEISBORD WAS ARRESTED POLICE DISPERSED A CROWD OF 5,000 STRIKERS AT THE FORSTMANN AND HUFFMANN MILL IN
SEVEN PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED INCLUDING ROBERT N. DUNN, DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES
ALBERT WEISBORD:
To cap it all the Forstmann-Huffman Company secured the most drastic temporary restraining order in
NARRATOR:
NOW THE ISSUE BECAME ONE OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY. LIKE ANOTHER CAUSE CELEBRE OF THE PERIOD ? THE SACCO AND VANZETTI CASE ? THE
MARTHA STONE ASHER:
Norman Thomas was in a big feud with the Communists.
NARRATOR:
MARTHA STONE ASHER.
They spoke at different meetings and debated all the questions that came
from the text books of Karl Marx and Lenin. And he was an ardent ? you know,
active opponent. He announced to the Communists that he was going into the
strike. And he didn't want any hassles. He wanted to speak to the
people. He wanted to support. His members in the Socialist Party
wanted to help out and they didn't want to be ostracized. And they
weren't. That was one time when the Communists yielded. In those
years the struggles were pretty bitter. But in the case, he was
honored. He spoke and the only opposition came from the police who
arrested him. ?
NARRATOR:
IN FACT, NORMAN THOMAS GOT ARRESTED ON PURPOSE, AN ATTEMPT TO OVETURN THE "RIOT ACT" AS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL RESTRICTION ON ALL PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS. THOMAS, WHO HAD INHERITED THE LEADERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY FROM EUGENE DEBS, WAS FREED ON $10,000 BAIL. WEISBORD WAS RELEASED WHEN HE POSTED $25,000.
VERA BUCH:
Public reaction to these fresh outrages was intense.
NARRATOR:
VERA BUCH.
We had publicized the extremely low wages, the new wage cuts
inflicted, the long hours, the speed-up, the night work of women
(illegal at that time in New Jersey), the high death rate of babies
and young children in the mill towns, the illiteracy of the workers ?,
and the employers' resistance to efforts of the Board of Education to
teach the workers English.
In the wake of public indignation some of the more decent men on the
resigned, their placed being filled by thugs picked up from the Bowery
of New York. The strike had become a scandal. ?
VERA BUCH:
Public reaction to these fresh outrages was intense.
NARRATOR:
VERA BUCH.
VERA BUCH:
We had publicized the extremely low wages, the new wage cuts inflicted, the long hours, the speed-up, the night work of women (illegal at that time in New Jersey), the high death rate of babies and young children in the mill towns, the illiteracy of the workers ?, and the employers? resistance to efforts of the Board of Education to teach the workers English.
In the wake of public indignation some of the more decent men on the
X. ENTER THE AFL (39:11)
NARRATOR:
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE
VERA BUCH:
Now, to add to our difficulties, the AFL leadership, which so far had followed a hands-off, no-help policy toward our strike, came out openly against it.
NARRATOR:
ON JULY FIRST, 1926, NINE MONTHS INTO THE WALKOUT, AFL PRESIDENT WILLIAM GREEN DENOUNCED THE STRIKE LEADERS AS COMMUNISTS BENT ON DESTROYING THE AFL, BY SETTING UP A COMPETING DUAL
ALBERT WEISBORD:
Out of jail, I was informed by the leading Party comrades that there was a fair chance the strike could be settled if we entered the American Federation of Labor. An appointment was made for me to see Sidney Hillman, President of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union of America, who, with the interested concern of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, might serve as an intermediary. At our meeting held in his office, Hillman asked how I felt on joining the A.F. of L., and the indispensability of my leadership. I answered warily that the United Front Committee had come to
NARRATOR:
THOUGH HE FOUGHT THE DECISION, WEISBORD DID WHAT THE PARTY LEADERSHIP TOLD HIM TO DO ? HAND OVER THE STRIKE TO THE AFL.
ON AUGUST 13, 1926 ? IN THE TENTH MONTH OF THE STRIKE ? ALBERT WEISBORD STEPPED ASIDE AS LEADER OF THE
LATER, HE CAME TO BELIEVE THERE WAS A CONSPIRACY BETWEEN THE AFL AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY TO DESTROY HIS MILITANT, INDEPENDENT
PAUL BUHLE:
The complications of the national leadership of the Communist Party on the one hand and the local leadership of individual Communists in
They may have been jealous of Albert Weisbord?s rising popularity and charisma as threats to themselves. But it seems just as likely that they were terrified by the prospect of needing to conduct a major strike without anything close to the kind of material resources and human resources to put into the cause.
ALBERT WEISBORD:
I did not know, and the strikers did not know, that I was to be removed permanently and not allowed to come back. It was also made sure that when I did come back there was nothing to come back to. At a big union rally I bade my departure, but the strikers waited for weeks before the A.F. of L. United Textile Workers came into the picture. I was sent away on a several months' national speaking tour
VERA BUCH:
Now the mill owners revealed what they really had in mind. On August 19 Charles F. H. Johnson, vice president of Botany Worsted Mill, announced to his employees gathered in the mill yard that the company would have nothing to do with the new union sponsored by the American Federation of Labor claiming to represent those no longer employed at the mills, in other words, the strikers.
On August 20 Julius Forstmann, president of the Forstmann-Huffmann Company, told his employees he would deal with them only through the representative assembly, in other words, the company union?.
ALBERT WEISBORD:
Soon the strike had fizzled out to a mere caricature of what it was.
NARRATOR:
AGAIN, THE LEADER OF THE
The U.T.W. officials all met secretly with the mill owners. No workers had anything to say about the so-called negotiations which dragged on interminably. There was no recognition of the union. Those returning were discriminated against and refused employment. In one year's time this splendid body of strikers was reduced to a mere carcass. This was the "victory" that the C.P. leaders had foreseen and hailed.
? I yielded to fight another day. I had not heard from
X. THE FINAL CHAPTER (43:11)
[Sad Slavic music begins.]
VERA BUCH:
And now it was all over; the great meetings,
NARRATOR:
VERA BUCH.
the parades, the eloquent speeches, the cheers and singing, the terror, the turmoil, the constant daily effort, the travail and the glory of our strike ? all gone. The headquarters returned to the subdued quiet that had preceded the strike. Our small staff would gather forlornly for consultation and mutual commiseration. We were all tired and some were ill. ?
ALBERT WEISBORD:
At the end of the year there was not even a union to come back to. All was dead in textile unionism in
MARTHA STONE ASHER:
Everybody was exhausted. ? They couldn?t see themselves going on. Hunger was a big question already. Relief was beginning to decline a bit, although they raised plenty of money all along. But, you know, it was so long and with both men and women working, there was no source of any other income. And so people said, ?Look. You can?t win.?
They regretted that Weisbord was gone. They kept saying, ?Maybe we would have had a better settlement if he was there in the negotiations.? But they gave support to the people who were there. (Pause) I went home.
NARRATOR:
UNLIKE THE YOUNG VOLUNTEERS OR THE WELL-HEALED SUPPORTERS WHO CAME AND WENT IN THEIR SHINY SEDANS FROM
ALBERT WEISBORD?S VISION OF A POWERFUL, INDEPENDENT MILITANT
ONE LASTING
PAUL BUHLE:
Albert Weisbord was far too mercurial to remain in any organization that he did not lead. ?
NARRATOR:
HISTORIAN PAUL BUHLE.
And, he would have been expelled as a follower of Leon Trotsky, if he hadn?t left of his own accord Thereafter, he led or took part in several further splits within the Trotskyist wing of the general American Left, and ended up in a small Chicago office by himself. It was said only two or three people ever came into that office. He was waiting for the Revolution to come to him.
[Bring up Bruce Springsteen music ?My Home Town?]
NARRATOR:
IN 1956 THE BOTANY WOOL MILL IN
They?re closing down the textile mill
Across the railroad tracks.
Foreman says, ?These jobs are going, boys,
And they ain?t coming back.?
To your hometown?
Your hometown
To your hometown
To your hometown
[Bring down the music]
JIM SHENTON:
If you said to me, ?What was the ultimate consequence of the 1926 strike??
? Let?s be blunt. THEY LOST! NOTHING HAD CHANGED! IF ANYTHING, IT HAD GOTTEN WORSE!
NARRATOR:
JIM SHENTON.
If I were to summarize it in a single word, I would say, ?If you lived in
[Bring up the Springsteen music again]
Last night me and Kate we laid in bed
Talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe
Heading south.
I?m thirty-five, We got a boy
Of our own now.
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel
And said, ?Son, take a good look around.
This is your hometown.?
[Play a loop of the instrumental accompaniment under the credits]
NARRATOR:
?
IT WAS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY DAVID S. COHEN AND MARTY GOLDENSOHN.
PHIL BOSCO PLAYED ALBERT WEISBORD
ALLISON FRASIER PLAYED VERA BUCH.
.CHARLES POTTER: JOHN DOS PASSOS.
JANE SHARP PLAYED MARY HEATON VORSE.
MARTHA STONE ASHER, WHO WAS SIXTEEN WHEN SHE VOLUNTEERED AT THE STRIKE, PLAYED HERSELF.
LESZEK WOJCIK WAS THE RECORDING ENGINEER.
SPECIAL EFFECTS: DAVID RAPKIN
GRAPHICS: DEBORAH THOMAS
THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER WAS BILL JOBES.
THANKS ALSO TO:
THE BOTTO HOUSE/ AMERICAN LABOR MUSEUM,
THE PASSAIC PUBLIC LIBRARY,
AND
MARK AUERBACH
FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM CAME FROM THE NEW JERSEY COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES, A STATE PARTNER OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, AND THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL COMMISSION.
I?M MARTY GOLDENSOHN.
[Fade out the Springsteen music.]
Musical Works:
Title: "Ain't We Got Fun?"
Artist: Van and Schenck
Album: Hits of '21
Label:Columbia
Year: 1921
Length of Excerpt: 3:05
Title: "My Hometown"
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Album: Born in theUSA
Label:Columbia
Year: 1984
Length of Excerpt: 3:05
Artist: Van and Schenck
Album: Hits of '21
Label:
Year: 1921
Length of Excerpt: 3:05
Title: "My Hometown"
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Album: Born in the
Label:
Year: 1984
Length of Excerpt: 3:05
