Today in Labor History January 25, 1926: 16,000 textile workers went on strike in Passaic, N.J. The United Front Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party launched the strike. It was the first Communist-led strike in the U.S. At the time, men earned less than $1,200 per year in Passaic mills, while women were lucky to earn $1,000. Yet it cost $1,400 per year to live there. The IWW had attempted to organize the mills in 1912. Most of the workers were immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. The United Front appealed to the American Federation of Labor for help. However, the AFL refused, saying they’d have nothing to do with Communists. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (IWW organizer) and Mary Heaton Vorse both helped support the strikers. In August, 1926, the United Front relinquished control of the strike to the AFL-affiliated United Textile Workers, who eventually settled with the mill owners on March 1, 1927. Vorse was a journalist and novelist who reported on, while simultaneously participating in, many strikes of the era. She also wrote the novel, “Strike!” about the 1929 Gastonia Textile Strike.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #children #women #novel #communism #journalism #ElizabethGurleyFlynn #IWW #immigrant #union #novel #fiction #books #author #writer #MaryHeatonVorse @bookstadon

Today in Labor History January 25, 1926: 16,000 textile workers went on strike in Passaic, N.J. The United Front Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party launched the strike. It was the first Communist-led strike in the U.S. At the time, men earned less than $1,200 per year in Passaic mills, while women were lucky to earn $1,000. Yet it cost $1,400 per year to live there. The IWW had attempted to organize the mills in 1912. Most of the workers were immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. The United Front appealed to the American Federation of Labor for help. However, the AFL refused, saying they’d have nothing to do with Communists. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (IWW organizer) and Mary Heaton Vorse both helped support the strikers. In August, 1926, the United Front relinquished control of the strike to the AFL-affiliated United Textile Workers, who eventually settled with the mill owners on March 1, 1927. Vorse was a journalist and novelist who reported on, while simultaneously participating in, many strikes of the era. She also wrote the novel, “Strike!” about the 1929 Gastonia Textile Strike.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #strike #children #women #novel #communism #journalism #ElizabethGurleyFlynn #IWW #immigrant #union #novel #fiction #books #author #writer #MaryHeatonVorse @bookstadon