1 10 23 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/ecdefe17e9fa130651abad983ff123ce.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=LnAbSJ6aJCT%7E684pe4JB-v%7Ep46dP3YENYEv0X8Ny9joz-RSJiN5kgDqGb5jQfJ0ecKyX2X2OAWGY4nt8HRP1s9FmdLquWWKl1J6YXXfhOu6sNEazr8l5qSXZwJ-lRooAC0WRVCg0vzzNdVVQgUT1QRWFsp9LtKanFHsBXspH2CrnXMboMlPFxbShvKHjc9orsCYkQ6Cdrjy5iZoq32GUCYiw5LLw3jLQUBOg7TfRiWQ6tl7pkMhtvW-MxhATC7ORGPV5Lu7pBF4EguNM3noQIhNwkoWHwY0AIippNvockcqsR4AeotCznvfTVbwVlj4gXSM3uLDgUO4fMdg7b-x0ng__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM feb28039b56df4d47b3826296e326e64 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document MY MOTHER’S POLITICS Despite all my mother’s personal problems, she seemed to be more consumed with the ill world’s problems: poverty, hunger, sickness, disease, exploitation, war, and hatred, and wondered why so little was being done to deal with them. She “carried on” about these concerns from my earliest days. As a child, it was above my head. Since she had no one else to talk to about them, she talked to me. I would shake my head in agreement, but at the age of six or seven, I really had no idea what she was talking about. To her last days (when I did know what she was talking about) she would denounce injustice, man’s inhumanity to man, and particularly the madness of war. It seems she thought about these problems all the time, but especially when reading the paper or listening to the news on the radio. It is not unusual for people to respond to news stories that upset them. Some respond by writing letters to the editor. Others respond by speaking out to no one in particular—the newspaper they are reading or the newscaster they are listening to. My mother did both. Frequently, when I came home from school in the evening, she would bombard me with her comments on the day’s events. What caused my mother to be so concerned about such matters? It may be linked to her involvement in her union and the 1910 Cloakmakers’ strike. Many of the leaders of the union were Socialists, Bundists. Though they had traditional Jewish educations, they rejected religious observance, and advocated political involvement and social change to benefit all workers. I assume my mother’s first concern when she came to “the Goldene Land” was to survive. She was a skilled tailor working in a sweatshop on the Lower East Side, but she must have had dreams of a time when she would not have to work endlessly for low wages; where she would have enough money for all her needs and for a few luxuries—“Bread and Roses.” Her concerns may have started earlier. One of the stories she told me was that when she was a girl, a neighbor would visit with news of the outside world, about remarkable inventions, like the telegraph and the telephone, and automobiles. And about America. Word of the New World had arrived in Vaslui, and several young people decided that there was where their destiny lay. Among them was my mother. What courage it must have taken to decide to leave one’s family and strike out for the unknown. She explained that the money to enable her to embark on such a voyage, came from a French organization called the “Alliance Isrealite.” Groups of young Jews were formed and they walked across Europe to the various ports from which boats left for America. They were know as “Fees-geyers,” literally, “foot-goers.” I imagine the young people shared their hopes and dreams as they walked, talking about what they hoped to find. And I imagine there were, among the young people, Socialists and Marxists, escaping the Czar, and looking forward to acting on their beliefs in the New World. Others may have been driven by their desire to escape the anti-Semitism under which they lived. All must have heard that America was the land of opportunity, that the streets were paved with gold. How large was her group? How old were they? How were they organized? How long did the journey from Vaslui to a port take? How and where did they eat and sleep? What did they take with them? I have no idea. My mother would have loved to have told me her story, but I was not interested. Not until now, and now it is too late. Did my mother know of the political events that were taking place around her in Eastern Europe? The growing opposition to autocratic rule; the effort of workers to improve their lot; the demand for democratic government. And within the Jewish world, Zionism, and the enlightenment. She certainly learned about them soon after she arrived in New York. And she learned first-hand what exploitation and sweatshops were The 1910 Cloakmakers’ Strike must have been transformative. She was 22 years old. She did not know how to read or write. But she knew the rightness of the struggle to create a union, obtain a contract, reduce hours, increase wages, and improve working conditions. She knew that she and her fellow workers were being exploited. And she know that it was only the Socialist Party that supported the workers, and it was her newly formed union, The International Ladies Garment Workers Union, that supported the Socialist Party. Her heroes became Eugene Debs, Morris Hillquit, Meyer Berger, Norman Thomas, and the leaders of her union. And she became a leader in her shop, and was elected to the Executive Board of Cloak Finishers Local 9. Over the years, new names were added to her list of heroes, and she spoke of them with me. She admired Woodrow Wilson because of his support for the League of Nations, which would put an end to war. To my mother, we were fortunate to have a Mayor like LaGuardia, a Governor like Lehman and a President like Roosevelt. And I guess, she felt the ILGWU was fortunate to have a leader like Dubinsky. Still, she recognized their limitations and the shortcomings of the system—the corrupt Tammany Hall bosses, and the corrupt union Business Agents. By the 1930’s and 1940’s, my mother followed the ILGWU’s position: she supported the American Labor Party (ALP) when the union helped create it in 1936, and shifted to the Liberal Party when the Communists captured the ALP in 1944. She mourned the death of FDR in 1945, and supported Harry Truman for reelection in 1948, despite my support of Henry Wallace. Her politics was also reflected in the newspaper she read: The Jewish Day, which had a liberal editorial policy and supported the New Deal. The Forward was Socialist, the Freiheit was Communist, and the Morning Journal was surprisingly Republican. It was during the last years of her life that my mother reiterated her concerns with which I started this piece: why are we not able to deal with all the injustices in the world? In 1949, at her request, or rather, her insistence, I bought my mother a recording machine to enable her to articulate her concerns. Unfortunately, she did it in Yiddish and I have been unable to translate her remarks. And over the years the sound quality has deteriorated. And she was a Zionist, thrilled at the thought of a Jewish state. Among her heroes were Theodore Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, Rabbi Stephen Wise, and David Ben-Gurion. One of the last big purchases she made was an Israel bond. Toward the end of her life, my mother dreamed of visiting Israel when she retired, which she hoped to do at 65 in 1953. She died in 1951. 1-2-16 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Mother's Politics Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "Despite all my mother's personal problems, she seemed to be more consumed with the ill world's problems[.]" Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-01-02 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910/1951 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MY_MOTHER'S_POLITICS ILGWU Labor Movement Mother Politics Socialism https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/8bd65a3c2474507dcc1a7dd60eb43e75.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=JZSTAqwDcZz7Dx0-Eb2BUfiNDPf55fafL7rD%7EHL6PJrXvLrjyd5NLM-CK1NmhG8KFUQqus3pwmwB0oKSCHDgKPw7pqR%7EYbGEwevSmhOfbdj8BDbE6S81WagsMjLe2ibNZvG4SM3yECSVNQrDFVBylzjlx27a3zQgtB%7E35G0xYzpyGCpJviAnf1GadkPQTXNGrR4x46j0%7ERUrFCIfLKnU6LaTTJfgjHyqMeSvurFIBILSz0sQk13GDmFD9J20WZJhksbk706wc8ACIhZ4f69oFwjswg%7EVp1QvxXUNnA-QACTZ9lZn6gFn0czGnUFR5XxI5DEEE3O986gxpd0otQ4HXg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 58f7eab5d566635e866c36c8690ba71f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document CONNIE AND AL I read the NY Times every day. I start with the front page, then skip to the Op-Ed. By the time I finish the last op and the last ed, breakfast is over, and I lay the paper aside, getting back to it later in the day. Yesterday, when I returned to the paper, I flipped over to the obituaries, and I was shocked to see, in the featured obit, the name of an old friend. The headline read, “Connie Kopelov 90; Marriage Broke Barriers.” I knew Connie when I worked for the JLC beginning in 1956. We became close when I moved on to the Amalgamated Laundry Workers in 1962, as Education Director. Connie was Assistant Education Director for the international union, The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. We worked on many projects together, including a union summer school. We both were members of the AFT’s Workers Education Local 189. We both were committed to the labor movement, to civil rights, to social and economic justice. I was married and had three children. Connie was not married. I never gave it any thought. The issue of sexual orientation was never an issue. So what did the obituary focus on? Her 2011 same sex marriage. Connie and her partner of 23 years, Phyllis Siegel, were the first lesbian couple to be married in New York City. It was July 24, 2011, the day that the State law took effect, allowing same sex couples to wed. Connie was 85. The following year, Connie and her wife were honored as grand marshals of NYC’s Gay Pride Parade. She was a good friend. I am sorry I missed her wedding and the parade. I finished reading the obit, and as I was thinking about Connie, I was startled to see that the paid obituary in the adjoining column was of another old labor friend, Al Bilik, who died at 93. Thanks to the JLC, I knew, and corresponded, with practically every Jewish labor leader in the US, so I was aware that Al was the AFSCME Cincinnati District Council Director. He later became the President of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. We connected when I was the AFSCME Education Director in 1965. He later came to DC to serve as AFSCME’s Director of Organization. We maintained a friendship after I moved on to the US Civil Rights Commission. Another connection was his first wife, Dorothy, who taught Yiddish at the University of Maryland. I was holding the fort for Yiddish with the DC Workmen’s Circle. Al returned to New York to work with Vic Gotbaum at District Council 37, remarried, moved back to Washington, and became the head of the AFL-CIO’s Public Employees Department. Al finally retired in 2011 at the age of 89. Between Connie and Al, that takes care of about 30 years of my working life: the JLC, the Amalgamated Laundry Workers, AFSCME and the US Civil Rights Commission. They were good, productive years, and I had the good fortune to work with some wonderful people. Connie and Al were two of them. Their memories are a blessing. 6-2-16 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Connie and Al Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "I read the NY Times every day. I start with the front page, then skip to the Op-Ed." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-06-02 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1956/2016 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DIFFERENT_STROKES_FOR_DIFFERENT_FOLKS AFSCME Career Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) Labor Movement Sexuality https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/7a1bb9038c98165defd224e734204ec3.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=BzbuqruMLufvcCoIDHQFVczOlCs3mcHCtOJ-4loIfzTZYLKzwwDX2l-cJwXDvp%7El0-W%7EdX4bhgZX6jDkLSFGJY%7EyU82uaXq1pJ-E7IUyk-DdMcNK9Cz2qBIQipB02HwxhuvZBMXTf7CjAqMiuwdIrmV0HZxNeW%7ELiLGUFzBcJq1Fl1dNi0DcT2gxK1d5eq65d6YQw0DsNe0fvdTKBy6v2zpU4yNZOxJBASMbypAFzkDH5poGRV5C%7EpKpLFfFYRegjyguDzxFlz%7Eo8hnkysO7lbY8iwBemK3AcjK%7E8LYr9lyczjAgE54WC68KMWjb6xY6uowb78wzm28gj19l2nlEYQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ef9a01106b5bd2ec4a0e183e28c8a618 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I’M STILL FOR BERNIE (It was April. It is now August Observations in February, March, April and now) UNTIL I SWITCHED TO HILLARY It is February 2016, and there were the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Hillary won Iowa by .6% and Bernie took New Hampshire by over 20%. What is going on? What has happened to “conventional wisdom?” Bernie was supposed to push Hillary to the left, excite young people, and then exit. It is March, and there was the Michigan caucus and Bernie won that, losing Mississippi. Hillary is getting annoyed. Michigan wasn’t supposed to happen. Some of Bernie’s supporters thought that he might do in Ohio, or Missouri or Illinois, what he did in Michigan. I was thrilled that he took Michigan, but by how much? One and a half points. Not a very impressive win. It is not 20 points, or 10 points or even 5 points. Bernie has to keep saying that it is only the beginning. He is not quitting the race. He can still win it. He has to say that. He is leading a movement and there are millions of people who have joined the movement. They are not Democratic Socialists, but they have gotten the Democratic Socialist message. I am a Democratic Socialist. Bernie is a Democratic Socialist. We both pay dues to DSA. And DSA has less than 10,000 members. And that is the way it has been for a long time. The difference now is that, where in the past, socialists and “Progressives” ran on a third party ticket, we have a socialist running for the Democratic Party nomination. There were a few elections, local and state, where a third party candidate got elected, but not an election for the President of the US. I was thinking that “It is déjà vu all over again” as I remembered the 1948 election. I was a senior in college, I was 20 years and 11 months; one and a half months short of being eligible to vote. And I was an enthusiastic supporter of the Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace. The Democratic Party candidate for reelection was Harry Truman, and the Republican Party candidate was Thomas E. Dewey. America was caught up in a Red Scare, and we were engaged in a cold war with the Soviet Union led by our Commander in Chief, Truman. Communists supported Wallace. I was neither a Communist nor a Communist sympathizer, but I was opposed to the hysteria and to the saber rattling. To many Americans, you were a Commie if you were going to vote for Wallace. As usual, the choice was between the Republican party “establishment’s” candidate, Dewey, or the Democratic party “establishment’s candidate Truman. On top of everything, the Democrats had a civil rights plank which upset the Southern Democrats, so they put up Strom Thurmond. It appeared that Wallace would take away votes from Truman on the left, and Thurmond on the right. Similar to today, young people supported Wallace (Sanders), and their parents supported Truman (Clinton). The obvious difference: then the fight was between the Democratic candidate and a third party candidate. Now, it is between two candidates, one establishment and one anti-establishment, for the nomination. Those of us who supported Wallace did not expect him to win. Ours would be a protest vote. We would be telling America and the world that there is a substantial number of Americans opposed to the cold war. In fact, opposed to all war. In addition, Wallace spoke out strongly for a progressive domestic agenda, for workers, for civil rights, for everything Sanders is advocating. How could I not support him? True, Norman Thomas decided to run, but that would be throwing away my vote (which I didn’t have,) My mother, and I suspect the parents of all my friends who were for Wallace, voted, thank God, for Truman. It is April, and Bernie took a whole bunch of states, but Hillary is ahead by a lot of delegates. The exchange has gotten nastier, which I regret. The big NY primary will take place April 19, and the debate in Brooklyn will take place April 14. I assume Hillary will take NY, and in my heart of hearts, I am not unhappy if she does. I am still for Bernie, but from the beginning, I assumed Hillary would get the nomination. I just wanted Bernie to get his message out, and to be listened to. To push Hillary to the left. It is August. The Republicans nominated Trump and the Democrats nominated Clinton. Trump is getting uglier, and he is losing in the polls big time. He is changing staff, back pedaling, making appeals for the black vote, looking for excuses to explain his eventual loss—rigged elections. Hillary can’t shake the email situation, now being linked to the Clinton Foundation when she was Secretary of State. I suspect most Americans would like two different candidates, but are stuck with Trump and Clinton. Bernie has been quiet. The Green Party (Stein) and the Libertarians, Johnson and Weld, are going to get more votes than usual. But it won’t change the outcome—a big win for Hillary. I have been most upset by the picture of the typical Trump supporter—a blue collar worker, white, unsure of his future, with no more than a high school education, persuaded that the government is the enemy, and is more concerned about minorities than about him, and that the big danger is “them”—the Mexicans, the Muslims, the Terrorists who will sneak in as refugees. He gets a kick out of the fact that a candidate for President is saying what he, himself, thinks, and knows that it is politically incorrect to say it. And a lot of people still believe that the polls are not finding them because they arte not telling the pollsters they support Trump, because being for Trump is not “politically correct.” And very troubling is the phenomenon of the extreme right, the Nationalists, the bigots, the KKK, the neo-Nazis, the xenophobes, who come crawling out from under the rocks to support Trump. They are the ones who are coming to his rallies, and cheering his dog whistle allusions. There was a time when unions were strong, when union members felt they had a voice and had hope. That when they organized, they would win a contract that would improve their conditions, and that government supported them in their efforts. And that their union, their voice, was instrumental, together with other like-minded groups, in getting laws passed that benefited them and all Americans. More than a third of American workers were union members. They, together with small farmers, young people, retirees, storekeepers, small businessmen, immigrants, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, constituted a majority. And they voted. But Big Business, Wall Street, The One Percent, feeling threatened, cracked down. They weakened and broke unions, moved jobs overseas, wages stagnated and declined while their profits and executive salaries skyrocketed, they pitted group against group, put obstacles in the way of voting, gerrymandered Congressional districts, and silenced the voice of the majority. Thank you Bernie, for pointing some of this out: Supporting the Fight for $15, Medicare for All, Consumer Protection, Early Childhood Education, Exposing Income and Wealth Inequality, Calling for overturning Citizens United, and for a Political Revolution, and inspiring a new generation of young voters. Bernie’s backing Hillary, and so am I. It will be an interesting couple of months. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource I'm Still For Bernie Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "Until I Switched to Hillary." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-08-23 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 2016 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context I'M_STILL_FOR_BERNIE Labor Movement Observations Politics Socialism https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/790238786240bfcd79db17d0956f102d.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=LLi84xxoQDrcxXDvKfPYrZeXq%7EC2yR4-zgikYKNHToy5sj-8Sv1fBBspReRKguxfLbG8SOHmTGcp7HsOVMaNZXl2q1-PGkK76nTNr3YyO%7EhO6Yfd830bw0wMgqKqBuKmMOZ-TcU%7ERkDj5-YUdWe9jxnuD3coMoOUVUOvZwMgW3lmUnqja3lypXGBmWvM0NeEqL--UVWKF-RzG3vtpHeephVPBJ0Z2RaYJDwBd%7E4qmhd6lG75cNBdnTW6w%7En15YA02Z4UzRpF76mt1n9rPI1IN9j7CiezV7KwmadlxWtz1Eu2lRc34DgKOVWPga85tkIj5%7E3VKeLo638r0hnVSIsW8A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f2afe5bd52661408689ec95d0a0a6288 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document WALMART From time to time I get a phone call asking if I would care to participate in a survey. I always say yes. I want my liberal, labor position recorded. Sometimes it is Gallup, sometimes, another polling organization. Around election time, it is usually an outfit that is hired by a candidate, and the questions are obvious. Occasionally, there is a live person at the other end; at other times, it is a recording, asking me to press a number on the phone key pad for my response: press 1 for yes; press 2 for no. Or press 1 for the most and 5 for the least. For years, I have been handing out leaflets, carrying placards, making phone calls, ringing doorbells. For a change, someone is coming to me to ask me about my position. Some time in mid-February, I received a call asking me if I shopped at “big box” stores, like Best Buy, or Costco or Walmart. Press 1 for yes, press 2 for never, press 3 for sometimes. I pressed 3 for sometimes. Then, some more questions, which I believe were about service or price. Then a bunch of questions which were focused on Walmart. Aha! So that is where they were heading. Do I shop at Walmart? Press 1 for yes, press 2 for never, press 3 for sometimes. I pressed 2 for never. I believe there followed a series of questions about whether the store’s social policies and its treatment of its workers influenced my decision. I pressed 1 for yes. Whatever question gave me the opportunity to be critical of Walmart’s employment policy, I took it. The last questions dealt with my sex, age, education, income etc. I hung up, rather pleased with myself. I have been upset by Walmart for a long time. By its anti-union policies; by its emphasis on part-time workers; by the way it has driven out retail stores wherever it opened up, resulting in a loss of jobs; by its ability to force manufacturers to move overseas for cheap labor; by its being the biggest damned private employer in the world, making more money than I can comprehend, and paying low wages. For the past two Black Fridays, I picketed Walmart, schlepping out to Quincy, protesting the exploitation of their workers. A week after responding to the survey, Walmart announced that it was raising the wages of its workers, first to $9 an hour, and then to $10. That is going to benefit a half million workers! The fact is, lots of Walmart workers, part of Our Walmart, have been calling for $15 an hour. Many unions and progressive organizations, have demanded that Walmart pay their workers decent salaries. Newspaper editorials have been calling for wage increases. Nothing happened. Could be that it was my answer to the survey questions, along with other people who responded as I did, that did the trick. Next time you receive a phone call asking you to answer a few questions, do it. You never know whom you may be helping. 2-17-15 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Walmart Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "From time to time I get a phone call asking if I would care to participate in a survey." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-02-17 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 2015 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context WALMART Labor Movement Observations Politics https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/f0cee19ff1e0fa426e4b4e33867edcb6.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=UwM%7E5%7EHiF-myeE9AhU%7EyoRuAZMCly9vZG2GBCCPauKkkYEobtafmbq5cmqgQALnYjRynhfgyd6dCKZyXMwsG6aIXBsyvlKJr5Pf-QUS2sMH-IEYwIIVBB2-WtcpYs%7ERdcR%7EZXs13CoA83U7%7E3ODsIy3YSM23ZXEcVJL4S-dTQA19qxmGy8269Wkoiuuxzv30%7EYVXnTwHX7Nr5Hi%7E2ejY%7E4UwDaCPf%7EeYKlmQ10M0KH7ZC8n-fMyMVyoOdae77iInXPRZi7tfRWAk8%7EGd09IUiZc5D29tvB52zEtTe63b5817hqF4Gfz4P8ZEsIEb63j4-P2or8bBIoKex1Ka6snnVw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM b93c55bc7f6e317bc2e0f072955f70ea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document UNIONS Are we beginning to see signs of a reawakening? Not that the American labor movement was ever a sleeping giant. At best, it was a scrappy outfit fighting forces much more powerful than itself. From time to time, it won victories, but that was when it had help from a supportive uncle, or when its opponent was small or weak. The Golden Age was the period from the 1930s to the 1960s. Unions had been around since the turn of the century and before, but they had few members, and they were mostly craft unions. They may have negotiated a few contracts and won a few concessions, but they never were a force to be reckoned with. When conditions got so bad that the workers felt they could take it no longer, and struck, the employers were able to call upon private, as well as public law enforcement, to break the strikes. In most cases, there were hundreds, if not thousands of replacements, strikebreakers, eager to take the jobs of the strikers. In the 1930s, the unions, and nice people, concerned about America’s exploited workers, pressed for pro-labor legislation. With the help of FDR, the Wagner Act, was passed. Unions undertook major organizing drives; workers were told that they could not be fired for joining a union; unions grew; wages and working conditions improved. By the 1940s and 1950s, one third of America’s workers were union members. However, in 1947, with a Republican Congress, anti-union forces pushed through the Taft-Hartley Act, and in 1959, the Landrum-Griffin Act. . Management was handed two laws aimed at weakening unions. And through the next decades, unions became weaker and weaker. Unions were stigmatized; they were labeled either communist or corrupt. This was followed by the movement of jobs from the industrial north to the rural south, and then overseas. Union membership, as well as manufacturing jobs, disappeared. With the loss of membership, the unions lost its political power. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Unions Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "Are we beginning to see signs of a reawakening?" Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-02-23 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context UNIONS Fragment Labor Movement Politics https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/9731a75227dd842650bf32ff430299d7.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=D2S0djnApm0-aJpGVL6OuV005aEEOsrrLZYiVDnurrKZO6LF2lyChbf4KB2NSPM1EDiqM9e65ZvkKjazFTlfBye7VvqaxLwclJfUHzvILYFrKcgjSpzgxOBV%7EHLqwiDqlPMTFtypU4JvVF60Awr1Wy1HkyPxmrnf%7EvaIT5EhfbqtQ37PtgGcC8Anivct79Eusuv441rf7nTZHok2bLPiIUthxGkniv7vdNeeF0CCa-nisx2Y9ktbKZ4LkFwOE7hIcWotlPzbYA0eh4MlP6L0VYcPDZE4uJVBCC2fUVQDdhm%7EkYGPds9Qbw-Kd6pJtSiuZFKoEDbXIYjbtdsfkp7DFg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 5f287337e77bdf302b689de6ad655a63 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SELMA, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND ME (Prologue: The following is what happens if you think too long about a piece of history that you want to write about. The 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March brought to mind my involvement in the request from Dr. King for AFSCME’s participation. But being who I am, instead of just telling that story, everything, no matter how remotely related, came spilling out. Rather than edit it, here it is.) On Sunday March 8, 2015, America commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights, and for a while, 50 years ago, I thought I might be participating in that march, representing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The 10 years preceding the march were exciting and instructive ones for me, as were the years that followed. In 1955, I was in the US Army, stationed at Camp Gordon, Georgia, having been transferred from Camp Rucker, Alabama, giving me a first hand look at the segregated south. The Army had been desegregated in 1948, which made southern Army camps integrated islands in a segregated sea. Most of us in my unit were white and had been drafted. At each camp to which I had been assigned, a large proportion of the non-commissioned officers were black and had enlisted, a big change from the pre-World War II armed forces. The Augusta bus service, which I seldom used, required blacks to sit in the back. My first experience: Several of us got on at the Camp Gordon bus stop to go into town. There was a black soldier with us. We sat down together, and the bus driver told the black soldier, who was from New Jersey, to move to the back. He was incredulous, and stared at the driver, who repeated his order. We all got off the bus together. He never took the bus after that. On February 29, 1956, I received my discharge. I had made friends with several Augustans. They knew me as a New York Jew, pro-labor and pro-civil rights. Touchingly, they asked me to stay, and take part in helping to change the segregated world in which they lived. Instead, we returned to New York, and after a year, moved from a very changed Fox Street in the Bronx—changed from majority Jewish to majority Puerto Rican and black—to an integrated Sterling Place in Crown Heights Brooklyn. From 1956 to 1962, I worked for the Jewish Labor Committee. My job was to fight discrimination and advance civil rights among unions. We helped unions set up civil rights committees, prepared educational materials, taught at union summer schools, developed coalitions of labor and civil rights groups. When southern states were being called upon to implement the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision, I worked with the Virginia AFL-CIO getting it to accept the decision, and not participate in the state’s “massive resistance.” Part of my job was to staff the NYC AFL-CIO’s Civil Rights Committee, which was chaired by the manager of the Laundry Workers Joint Board. In 1962 he offered me the job of education director of the union, and I accepted. The overwhelming majority of our members were black and Puerto Rican. It was in my capacity as the laundry workers union education director that I worked as a volunteer for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and organized our participation, sending five buses of laundry workers to the march. In December 1964, I went to work for AFSCME in Washington D.C. as education director, having been offered the job by its President, Jerry Wurf. I was aware that he would be a difficult person to work for, but I also knew that were few labor leaders as committed to organizing workers, and to advancing civil rights. He was very close to Jim Farmer of CORE, and three years later, would be linked with Dr. King as a result of the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike. In February 1965, Jerry decided to create a new position of director of education and research, and designated the current director of education (me) and the longtime director of research, as assistant directors. He had hired Elwood Taub, who had held a similar joint position with the Woodworkers Union. Very quickly, my relationshjp with Taub became strained. Along with most concerned people, I had been following the developments on the civil rights front in the fight for voting rights for some time: Freedom Summer 1964, the efforts of CORE, SCLC and SNCC to get blacks registered to vote, the killing of Schwerner, Goodman and Cheney in Mississippi. The long-time campaign for the franchise for black Americans had been building. In January 1965, Dr. King came to Selma. In February, he was jailed, and noted that there are more Negroes in jail with him in Selma than there are on the voting rolls. Repeated attempts by blacks to register were rebuffed. In February, Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot and killed by an Alabama State trooper while participating in a peaceful voting rights demonstration. To give national attention to the struggle, the decision was made to march from Selma to Montgomery. The date set for the march was Sunday March 7, 1965. There were over 600 participants, and people watching on TV saw the brutality of the State Troopers, the local police led by Sheriff Jim Clark, and the mob, as the marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge on what has come to be known as ”Bloody Sunday.” The marchers were attacked with clubs and tear gas. John Lewis received a fractured skull. Troopers on horseback chased the marchers as they tried to escape. Police were beating the people who had retreated, choking from tear gas. A second march was scheduled, to be led by Dr. King, on Tuesday March 9. There were 2,000 marchers, including religious leaders from across the country. However, a restraining order had been issued by a Federal Judge, and Dr. King, afraid that if he violated the order, he would subject the marchers to more violence and arrest, knelt and prayed, and the marchers returned to Selma, avoiding confrontation. That night, three white ministers were attacked by Klansmen in Selma, resulting in the death of Rev. James Reeb. The next two weeks reshaped the country. President Lyndon B. Johnson called a joint session of Congress, delivered his historic speech declaring “we shall overcome,” and introduced the voting rights bill. The Federal Judge ruled that the marchers had the right to march, and the third march started on March 21, with US Army and National Guard protection. Some time in mid-March, the Executive Board of AFSCME was meeting in Wisconsin, together with the union’s senior staff. I was now part of the union’s junior staff, and was left behind. I do not remember the exact date, but while the Board was in Wisconsin, a phone call came from Dr. King to President Wurf. Jerry’s secretary directed the call to me since everyone else in any position of authority was out of the office. It was clear that Dr. King was calling everyone in his Rolodex to get them to come to Montgomery for the culmination of the third march, estimated to be around March 24. Dr. King wanted tens of thousands of people from across the country to be there. I assured him that I would be in touch with President Wurf, and that certainly either President Wurf or someone he would designate, would be present. I called Jerry, and left a message that I had to speak to him about a very urgent matter. He called back at the end of the day, and I explained that Dr. King had called, and that a third Selma to Montgomery march will take place, and that he would like to have tens of thousands of people in Montgomery to join the marchers. I explained that I would like to let Dr. King know that AFSCME will participate. He thought for a moment, and said, of course we will send somebody. Then he said, I’ll bet you would like to go. I said there is nothing more I would like. Jerry then replied, I’ll be sending Elwood. So I did not make it to Montgomery. (Epilogue: Soon after, I started looking for another job, and was fortunate to connect with the US Commission on Civil Rights. Turns out that the Commission, which was created in 1957, gave the denial of voting rights its highest priority. It conducted hearings in 1958 and 1959, throughout the south, and issued reports that affirmed what everybody knew, which helped shape the 1965 voting rights act. I spent the next 21 years with the Commission, dealing with every aspect of civil rights: education, employment, housing, equal justice etc. And here we are in 2015, still struggling with inequities in education, jobs, and housing, and especially the treatment of black men by white officers, and the devious efforts by state legislatures to make voting more difficult for certain groups.) 6-12-15 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Selma, Civil Rights, and Me Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "Prologue: The following is what happens if you think too long about a piece of history that you want to write about." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-06-12 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1955/2015 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SELMA_AND_ME AFSCME Career Civil Rights Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) Labor Movement Politics https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/1634d2e5f9f20d1439d48d54675da2b9.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=D82KSrM311UxIvx6NIcQIN4yPifoiaWhg3NO-FzbneBPNWUg86h%7EDa5mzKPuSMcCdvlATPVVRWkIhBWjbTWv9TWFY0rldvlkk6TSOIiIJE7uy5A06iwtX6p5q9aCVXyMIwSwxrv7syUDh6ABEGNitKSiUTs5udptVG2nElVHAqkNWauFNl96ptyHJ2x989lW3ZOFIvK3SNepjUWcC5uPkOu335QewWxZXuTqZFR3dRbxZbq%7EAolbJYOQ%7EFpPFyWgNKlfxzcEwSB263j3Vo5qjZLSsfISoN6KqcbYCphE1hXVAVthVR1JoNQJ4Box7%7E2D5MNdciXm2nQh48AZr1G2Lw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM a00a1a11ae1ce24b92743005cd6cc2d8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document MEETINGS It seems as if I have been going to meetings all my life. My first memory of meetings is in junior high school. I was a member of the debating club and on the staff of our literary magazine, and we held meetings. My mother told me about her union meetings before she was married, and she also attended union meetings and PTA meetings when I was in elementary school. There were club meetings in high school and college. Meetings were where business was conducted. Without meetings, where officers reported to the membership, and members expressed their views, and voted on motions, it would be a dictatorship. Meetings served different purposes. They may ostensibly be called to inform or get input, or make decisions, but they may degenerate into rubber stamping the leader’s decisions. There are all kinds of meetings: leadership meetings, (boards, officers etc), mass meetings, meetings of people with similar interests to share ideas, opinions, activities) (book clubs, bridge clubs, In one of my favorite songs, “Talking Union” there is the line: “…pass out a leaflet and calling a meeting.” I have been both the caller and the callee. Certainly, being the caller is the more challenging job. You put together the agenda, you notify the potential attendees, you may have to make arrangements for a place for the meeting, and see to it that everything is all set. A woman once told me that her husband treats every meeting notice as if it was a subpoena. Just like a lawyer who should never ask a question without knowing what the answer will be, you should never call a meeting without know what you want the outcome to be. My “arc of meeting.” The neophyte attender. In awe of whoever is presiding. I listen carefully, say nothing, take notes, am respectful of everyone who speaks, confused by Roberts Rules of Conduct. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Meetings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "It seems as if I have been going to meetings all my life." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MEETINGS_3 Career Fragment Labor Movement Mother https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/bea7532a4046bc20f804bd5e2a7e9575.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=kyLvfjvy8CeszuErMBw%7Eabs0u50z7Z72Rx960FkpCPtvhhW1QyofqOV8Mb8JbUkAQK8KhXrX0eRFrTwSK-IbgWBtdIpW61BprBHxdrX67eBY-OuuxKxVMfQXtxxGW6SwFTvH7dqarY-ZJWzlrbsFwB3-wwwcHTrMCELE4YdXhTXGOXz8hLjhY0mcqqesKqsFJJ1Jcr3Byu6jbnqTtjA1zpYeO%7E4LBScLRw1%7E6aFTUDuIwZ0v2MK%7ECNVK6VqNI4mE92SrbKCD2bhw%7EHVNwDCvUZZPxhK4IRNU6u6WQFiro5hpkh4V5yDyLSks%7EaUO911eBcGYyr0Hm-qa1hBHf0wQRg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 29161e613d78440aa32fbf8c7c7299c8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document KOLOT PROJECT JLC As we begin the Hebrew year 5776, it got me to thinking about 1776. True, there is no connection between the two, but it seems as if there should be, both ending in 776. It was on July 4, 1776 that a remarkable group with courage and vision came together and created the United States of America. They represented 13 colonies, and they met in Independence Hall in Philadelphia to speak out against injustice. Another remarkable group came together in New York’s Central Plaza in February 1934 to speak out against injustice. They did not represent 13 colonies. They represented three needle trades unions: The International Ladies Garment Workers, The Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, and the Workmen’s Circle, the Jewish Labor Bund, the Forward Association, and the United Hebrew Trades. They created the Jewish Labor Committee. The equivalent of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were Baruch Charney Vladeck of the Forward, David Dubinsky of the ILGWU, and Benjamin Gebiner of the Workmen’s Circle. More than 1,000 delegates came together to make the American public, and especially the American trade union movement, aware of the injustices and the suppression of freedom growing in Nazi Germany, and threatening the rest of the world. They were sounding the alarm about Nazism, anti-Semitism, racism, and the destruction of democratic institutions. The Jewish Labor Committee was to be their vehicle for spreading the word. The JLC had links to scores of labor and anti-fascist organizations throughout Europe, and attempted to publicize the threat that Hitler posed. Vladeck addressed the 1934 AF of L convention. The JLC created a news service informing the Jewish and labor communities of the growing threat. It organized mass meetings and initiated a boycott of Nazi goods. With the help of the AF of L, more than 1,000 visas were obtained for Jewish, labor and Socialist leaders who would have otherwise been killed by the Nazis. Through the rest of the 1930s and 1940s, it assisted anti-Nazi forces, especially the Polish underground. After World War II, the JLC continued its overseas work, organizing shipments of food and clothing to survivors in displaced persons camps, and initiated a “child adoption program” where local unions and Workmen’s Circle branches raised money earmarked for individual children in Europe. In 1944, the JLC began its educational programs focusing on ending discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism in the workplace and throughout American society. By the 1950s, it had established Labor Committees for Civil Rights in more than a dozen cities, as part of the JLC’s regional offices. I joined the national staff of the JLC in 1956, after having been an ILGWU organizer. Over the next six years, I learned its history, and met, and worked with the legendary people carrying on the work begun in 1934. Vladeck was gone, but Dubinsky (my former boss) and Gebiner were still around. Lazar Epstein maintained overseas contacts, Zalman Lichtenstein, brought thousands of children and funders together. The Executive Secretary was Jacob Pat, assisted by Benjamin Tabachinsky, both were leaders of the Jewish Labor Bund who made it out of Poland in 1938. I was hired by Manny Muravchik, Director of the “Anti-Discrimination Division,” to be national field secretary, maintaining contact with our regional offices, including Julius Bernstein, the New England Regional director. I edited “Labor Reports” our monthly news service to the labor press, prepared educational materials, taught at union summer schools, and addressed union conventions, and attened meetings of the National Community Relations Advisory Council (now the Jewish Council on Public Affairs--JCPA). We were recognized in the Jewish community relations field as the bridge between the organized labor movement and the organized Jewish community. We were the voice of labor to the Jewish community, and the voice of the Jewish community to labor. We transmitted the concerns of one to the other. In part, it is because of the JLC that labor has no better friend among American ethnic and religious communities than the Jews, and American Jewry has no better friend among non-Jewish organizations than organized labor. The JLC has been around for more than 80 years. Our membership and leadership have changed. In the early days, we claimed that we were speaking for 500,000 Jewish trade unionists, and both our membership and leadership spoke Yiddish. It is no longer the case. However, we are still committed, as were the founding fathers of both the USA and the JLC, to fighting injustice. The fight continues. Jacob Schlitt 9-16-15 Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kolot Project JLC Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "As we begin the Hebrew year 5776, it got me to thinking about 1776." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-09-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1934/2015 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KOLOT_PROJECT_JLC ILGWU Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) Jobs Labor Movement Politics Worker's Circle https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/6ae87f855b79eb84b741f7b72d10a0af.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=WkWIopB1Vk2iTIuDP474CQfjHe8jcKo7KoEU9l7vLL7t72TZZB0odmMmbB1uzdsYdLw8gAQKaCu%7EpKEzsoqoYNtXRoRlTvED%7EmhMl%7EnY58wIjM3UMjQsu1%7EmhYFx3oZWDPWNkxMnVRlcE4p4eS1Vh7NqUmQ3ATa1pP3kvjovjgrcnjtJj7YjfYnN71nAy9JslgqRaBfQRXH5z7nqrDyWJk9mhRk0GODKNB83R5XyfqTViMlZEUtQyuuaZ%7Enw6YYRchNq0JlG7mnCqKvsaH2sftN3fbzhNa6tCXE4rkr4PaJdIzsPtSiX6dxQ3JAoNqfKp0j9NFxKMqKuwBC%7EJjxGXA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 06f1e0b05f510f2ec423d63a96647b7d Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS I have been committed to equal rights for all for as long as I can remember. I have been an active advocate for minority rights, women’s rights, gay rights (now called LGBT rights), immigrant rights (also called undocumented rights), prisoner’s rights, rights of the disabled, the youth the elderly, etc. etc. When I advocated for labor, I had forbidden thoughts about unions, their tactics and democracy. When I advocated for civil rights, I had forbidden thoughts about inequities in some of the solutions put forward to end discrimination. When I advocated for women’s rights, I had forbidden thoughts about some of the arguments put forward to demonstrate the sexism that women endured. Unions tended to be narrowly focused. Preserve the job of its members, even if the industry is producing products harmful to both society, and in an environment harmful to its members. In its commitment to protect its members, it may be protecting some who do not deserve to be protected. Perhaps the charge of corruption and nepotism is correct in a few cases. Women rightly demand a rightful place in our history books. But since sexism goes way back, women were not in a position to take leadership in government, or business, or religion, or science, or unions. What we see more of these days, is a revision of the history books, bringing the overlooked women to the fore. In government, Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Queen Elizabeth (the Virgin Queen) and Queen Victoria, and in the US: Dolly Madison, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt. In my unions, Clara Lemlich, Rose Schneiderman, Rose Pesotta, Bessie Hillman, Joyce Miller. I keep my thoughts to myself. Articulate them and you give ammunition to the enemy. They will jump at anything you might say that will confirm their racist, anti-union, sexist or anti gay position. Yes. Some unions were gangster-controlled. The mafia or its equivalent, had a hand in some locals of the Teamsters or the Longshoremen. Some were Communist dominated. Some were less than democratic. The officers saw their union as their candy store. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Forbidden Thoughts Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource I have been committed to equal rights for all for as long as I can remember. (Fragment) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context FORBIDDEN_THOUGHTS Confessions Fragment Labor Movement Politics https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/71642/archive/files/8207aa1f11f703234af396bdbf8c0ffe.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=jLsgsRtwH0uf2yqwtPK7Jlwyd7k2Y6mwgp1dP-pyIsLqHsc%7EE4Bf3eehNmkrQ8oGb8WZemCBry9PqArmzLytVQvTN7P1gX3fhlMBqY4-M6KdikRfmcKuzQrSIRRg6M7bYF7K6qFcs%7ElBdVZoxIvBuhC4dGsDPDg4xwAekk6Pa-i06rb9Gmmg1sZPwr3-dftJxX-mr-z9L0uN31g22bnHc7lmacV1ECUkqURZyUUDbkb82BnDNGsWylwA7Vz9xUYfH2UgAaYjkc2HYY45njn-koXXPDgk7zQ64Eed1UqSSxhFgxYK3vVQatqy1xFrqklq04V80j0m0M%7EXJ0nWf85UIg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 497ea4c82a0e9831b158f31ff649de68 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Autobiographical writing Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document For a lot of years—say from before the turn of the century (the 20th) until the 1960s—there was a group of remarkable Jewish labor leaders leading what was known as the Jewish unions. (The same unions had a large Italian membership and Italian locals with able leaders like Luigi Antonini.) The most prominent were David Dubinsky of the ILGWU and Sidney Hillman of the ACWA. There were scores of others, and Dubinsky was followed by Stolberg and Chaikin, and Hillman by Potofsky and Sheinkman. The Hatters had Alex Rose, the Furriers had---etc. There had also been Jewish labor leaders who led unions that did not have a large Jewish membership, the best example being Samuel Gompers. The fact is, that the “Jewish” unions stopped being Jewish during the 1940s. The old-timers were retiring, and they were being replaced by black and Hispanic workers in the large metropolitan areas—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Los Angeles etc. And when the garment shops ran away from the Northern metropolitan areas to rural areas and the South, the workers were mostly WASPS, white and mostly Protestant, like Norma Rae. Interestingly, the organizers who followed and attempted to organize those runaway shops were mostly Jewish. And the union officials in the large metropolitan areas were mostly Jewish. So for a while, the Jewish leadership and staff of the once Jewish unions, now consisting of urban minorities and rural whites, remained in place. As an aside, a Jewish staff member of the NAACP led the attack on the ILGWU claiming that its black members were denied leadership positions. Over the next decade, the garment factories which ran away from the metropolitan garment centers to rural America and the South, ran to Latin America and Asia, and the garment unions faded away. But then there was a reemergence of Jewish labor leaders, among the teachers and public employees. Some of the children of Jewish workers, finished college and went to work for a wide variety of trade unions. I grew up aware of, and proud of, Dubinsky and Hillman. When I had the opportunity, I became one of those Jewish organizers, starting out trying to organize non-Jewish garment workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Then non-Jewish alteration workers and shipping clerks in New York. Yes, and all of the locals and districts for which I worked were headed by Jewish officials: Pennsylvania—Sol Greene; Ohio—Nicholas Kirtzman, Local 38—Isidore Sorkin, and Local 99--Shelley Appleton. When I left the ILGWU in 1956, I went to work for the Jewish Labor Committee, getting to know hundreds of Jewish labor leaders. Many were the legendary pioneers who created powerful unions. Politically, they were socialists who received their early training and point of view in Eastern Europe from the Jewish Labor Bund, which they adapted to the American scene. I also had the pleasure of working with the next generation of Jewish labor leaders: Charles Cogen and Al Shanker of the Teachers (AFT), and Jerry Wurf of the Public Employees (AFSCME). In 1962, I left the JLC to serve as the Education Director of the Amalgamated Laundry Workers Joint Board, headed by Louis Simon. He was Jewish, but had no connection with the Bundists. In fact, as far as I know, he had no connection with any Jewish organization. He became the manager of the Laundry Workers because he was a laundry driver, and a rank and file leader. Simon had a remarkable sense of self-preservation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data application/msword Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Untitled Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jacob Schlitt Description An account of the resource "For a lot of years—say from before the turn of the century (the 20th) until the 1960s—there was a group of remarkable Jewish labor leaders leading what was known as the Jewish unions." (Fragment) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-04 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource en Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context For_a_lot_of_years—say_from_before_the_turn_of_the_century AFSCME ILGWU Jewish Identity Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) Labor Movement