Bob Gladnick
Title
Bob Gladnick
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the bookshelves of the Brookline Public Library and came across a book called 'Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War.'"
Date
2007
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Identifier
BOB_GLADNICK
Text
BOB GLADNICK
A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the bookshelves of the Brookline Public Library and came across a book called "Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War." I immediately checked the index to see if there was any mention of Robert Gladnick, and sure enough, not only was there mention, but he was an important source of information for the author and was quoted at length.
Again, a rush of memory. I was transported back to Cleveland in February 1951 where, as my second ILGWU Training Institute field assignment, I was assigned to work as an organizer with Bob Gladnick. I found him to be slightly weird. He was friendly, and was happy to take me under his wing and show me how you organize. Bob was married and had two small boys, and at the end of the first week that we worked together, he invited me to his house for Friday night dinner. After dinner, he asked me how I liked the meal. I said it was very good. He asked me if I liked the meat. I repeated that it was very good. He asked if I knew what it was. I said no, maybe a chop of some kind. He laughed and said it was pork chops, feeling pretty certain that I didn't eat pork. Some joke.
Every day we would meet at the union office and figure out where we would go that day. In addition to organizing, Bob functioned as a Business Agent for organized garment shops in the Cleveland area and we would visit those shops as well. We did a lot of driving together, and Bob did a lot of talking. His stories were fascinating, but one can sometimes get too much of a good thing, and occasionally I would listen with half an ear, saying uh huh as my mind would wander. It never occurred to me to take notes or keep a record of what he was saying, but what he told me was mind-blowing.
Bob was tall and carried himself with a military bearing. He also had a short moustache—the kind you see in British movies. And he had a strange accent. I couldn’t figure out its origin. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. Not British, not Russian, not Yiddish. When I asked him where he was from, it opened up the floodgates. He told me he was born in Russia and came to the US when he was a kid. Coincidentally, he said he lived in my neighborhood in the Bronx and went to my junior high school, jhs 52. He said he joined the Communist Party (CP) when he was a teen-ager, and was sent to Texas to recruit young people for the CP. He worked with Mexicans and picked up some Spanish. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he returned to New York and went to Spain to fight with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
When I was reading "Comrades and Commisars" and reconnected with Bob, I went to Google to see what information they had. I found a dissertation by Melanie Shell-Weiss on "Southern Unionism and Transnational Organizing in the Mid-Twentieth Century Lingerie Industry." She described the efforts of the ILGWU to organize lingerie workers in Puerto Rico and Florida and prominent in this effort was Robert Gladnick. Her picture of Bob was apparently drawn from his "Biographical Notes, ILGWU Archives, Coll. #5780/177. Box 1, KCCU," and from John Gerassi’s interviews of Bob in the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU. Here it is. It is a beauty:
"Robert Gladnick emerged as a particular visionary. Like the earlier generation of ILGWU leaders, he was an "American by choice." Born in Eastern Europe, Gladnick emigrated to the United States on his own while still in his late teens. He lived first in New York where his political interests lead him to develop a close set of friendships with members of the Communist Party. He became interested in labor organizing. In the 1930s he moved West, accompanied by several friends, to help organize Mexican and Japanese agricultural workers in the Pacific Northwest. He then moved to Texas where he participated in similar campaigns in the state's oil fields. It was an experience that proved critical in that it was both where he learned to speak fluent Spanish, and also impressed upon him the particular challenge facing a highly mobile workforce. Gladnick applied these skills to the Seaman’s strikes of 1936, and co-founded the National Maritime Union. In 1937, he joined the International Brigade in 1937 and fought in the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, one year before the United States formally entered World War II, Gladnick enlisted in the Canadian army where he served until 1946 in Italy, France, Holland and Germany. He then returned to the United States and joined the staff of the ILGWU Upper South Department."
A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the bookshelves of the Brookline Public Library and came across a book called "Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War." I immediately checked the index to see if there was any mention of Robert Gladnick, and sure enough, not only was there mention, but he was an important source of information for the author and was quoted at length.
Again, a rush of memory. I was transported back to Cleveland in February 1951 where, as my second ILGWU Training Institute field assignment, I was assigned to work as an organizer with Bob Gladnick. I found him to be slightly weird. He was friendly, and was happy to take me under his wing and show me how you organize. Bob was married and had two small boys, and at the end of the first week that we worked together, he invited me to his house for Friday night dinner. After dinner, he asked me how I liked the meal. I said it was very good. He asked me if I liked the meat. I repeated that it was very good. He asked if I knew what it was. I said no, maybe a chop of some kind. He laughed and said it was pork chops, feeling pretty certain that I didn't eat pork. Some joke.
Every day we would meet at the union office and figure out where we would go that day. In addition to organizing, Bob functioned as a Business Agent for organized garment shops in the Cleveland area and we would visit those shops as well. We did a lot of driving together, and Bob did a lot of talking. His stories were fascinating, but one can sometimes get too much of a good thing, and occasionally I would listen with half an ear, saying uh huh as my mind would wander. It never occurred to me to take notes or keep a record of what he was saying, but what he told me was mind-blowing.
Bob was tall and carried himself with a military bearing. He also had a short moustache—the kind you see in British movies. And he had a strange accent. I couldn’t figure out its origin. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. Not British, not Russian, not Yiddish. When I asked him where he was from, it opened up the floodgates. He told me he was born in Russia and came to the US when he was a kid. Coincidentally, he said he lived in my neighborhood in the Bronx and went to my junior high school, jhs 52. He said he joined the Communist Party (CP) when he was a teen-ager, and was sent to Texas to recruit young people for the CP. He worked with Mexicans and picked up some Spanish. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he returned to New York and went to Spain to fight with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
When I was reading "Comrades and Commisars" and reconnected with Bob, I went to Google to see what information they had. I found a dissertation by Melanie Shell-Weiss on "Southern Unionism and Transnational Organizing in the Mid-Twentieth Century Lingerie Industry." She described the efforts of the ILGWU to organize lingerie workers in Puerto Rico and Florida and prominent in this effort was Robert Gladnick. Her picture of Bob was apparently drawn from his "Biographical Notes, ILGWU Archives, Coll. #5780/177. Box 1, KCCU," and from John Gerassi’s interviews of Bob in the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU. Here it is. It is a beauty:
"Robert Gladnick emerged as a particular visionary. Like the earlier generation of ILGWU leaders, he was an "American by choice." Born in Eastern Europe, Gladnick emigrated to the United States on his own while still in his late teens. He lived first in New York where his political interests lead him to develop a close set of friendships with members of the Communist Party. He became interested in labor organizing. In the 1930s he moved West, accompanied by several friends, to help organize Mexican and Japanese agricultural workers in the Pacific Northwest. He then moved to Texas where he participated in similar campaigns in the state's oil fields. It was an experience that proved critical in that it was both where he learned to speak fluent Spanish, and also impressed upon him the particular challenge facing a highly mobile workforce. Gladnick applied these skills to the Seaman’s strikes of 1936, and co-founded the National Maritime Union. In 1937, he joined the International Brigade in 1937 and fought in the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, one year before the United States formally entered World War II, Gladnick enlisted in the Canadian army where he served until 1946 in Italy, France, Holland and Germany. He then returned to the United States and joined the staff of the ILGWU Upper South Department."
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Bob Gladnick,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 29, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/49.