1926 Passaic Textile Strike - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about the 1926 New Jersey labor stoppage. For the film about the same, see The Passaic Textile Strike (film)

The Passaic Textile Strike (film)

The Passaic Textile Strike is a 1926 American silent film directed by Samuel Russak. The film was produced to raise public awareness and financial support for the 1926 Passaic Textile Strike, which involved over 15,000 New Jersey textile mill workers in a work stoppage lasting more than a year...

The 1926 Passaic Textile Strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey

Passaic, New Jersey

Passaic is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 69,781, maintaining its status as the 15th largest municipality in New Jersey with an increase of 1,920 residents from the 2000 Census population of 67,861...

over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity. Conducted in its initial phase by a "United Front Committee" organized by the Trade Union Educational League

Trade Union Educational League

The Trade Union Educational League was established by William Z. Foster in 1920 as a means of uniting radicals within various trade unions for a common plan of action. The group was subsidized by the Communist International via the Communist Party of America from 1922...

of the Workers (Communist) Party, the strike began on January 25, 1926 and officially ended only on March 1, 1927, when the final mill being picketed signed a contract with the striking workers. It was the first Communist-led work stoppage in the United States. The event was memorialized by a seven reel silent movie

Silent Movie

Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...

intended to generate sympathy and funds for the striking workers.

Prelude to the strike

From the end of the 19th Century, Passaic, New Jersey

Passaic, New Jersey

, located just south of the city of Paterson

Paterson, New Jersey

Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...

, was the heart of an industrial district which included the towns of Lodi

Lodi, New Jersey

Lodi is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 24,136. The borough of Lodi is governed under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law.Lodi owes its name to the Italian city of Lodi...

, Wallington

Wallington, New Jersey

Wallington is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 11,335.Wallington was created as a borough on January 2, 1895 , at the height of the "Boroughitis" fever then sweeping through Bergen County...

, Garfield

Garfield, New Jersey

Garfield is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 30,487.When the area that is now Garfield was first developed in 1873, it was known as East Passaic. In 1881, the community's name was changed to Garfield in honor of...

, and the city of Clifton

Clifton, New Jersey

Clifton is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 84,136. The 2010 population represented an increase of 5,464 residents from its population of 78,672 in the 2000 Census, making it the state's 11th largest...

. While cotton and woolen mills had been constructed in the area as early as the 1860s, it was not until 1889, when Congress increased the rate of tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s on imported worsted wool that the textile industry expanded in any meaningful way.

In the middle part of the 1920s, there were over 16,000 workers employed in the wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

and silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

mills located in and around Passaic, New Jersey

Passaic, New Jersey

. The largest of the mills in the area, the German-owned Botany Worsted Mill, employed 6,400 workers, with three other giant mills employing thousands more. The workers at these facilities were predominantly foreign-born, including among them representatives of 39 nationalities, with immigrants from Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

in particular evidence. Fully half the workforce was female.

Wages of these workers were miserable. A 1926 survey indicated that male workers in the Passaic textile mills averaged wages of from $1,000 to $1,200 per year, while female workers typically earned from $800 to $1,000 per annum. Female workers worked 10 hours a day to earn this sum, with the pace of work rapid and the use of the piecework system prevalent. With an income of approximately $1,400 estimated to be necessary to maintain a basic "American standard of living," many New Jersey factory workers found themselves on the brink of financial disaster.

This was not just a question of creature comforts for many Passaic textile workers, but a matter of life and death. The 1925 report of the New Jersey Department of Health showed a death rate for infants under 1 year of age that was 43% higher than for the rest of the state, 52% higher for children aged 1–5 and 5-9. Sanitary conditions were poor and an exhaustingly long work week in poorly ventilated facilities resulted in a higher than average rate of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

as well as other diseases.

The affected workers had little recourse to their situation. Despite previous efforts to organize the Passaic millworkers by the Industrial Workers of the World

Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...

and the Workers International Industrial Union in 1912 and the Amalgamated Textile Workers Union in 1919 and 1920, as of 1925 there were no textile unions extant in the area. A conscious effort was made by the mill owners to employ as many different nationalities as possible in their facilities, thereby making the task of labor organization even more difficult.

A majority of the strikers were foreign-born, with the biggest percentage being Poles

Poland

, followed by Italians

Italy

and Hungarians

Hungary

. Despite the divergent nationalities involved, it was judged that, given the limits placed upon new immigration, these foreign-born workers had been more tightly attached to their occupations and "greatly Americanized." Communist union organizer Ben Gitlow observed that these workers "understand English and have acclimated themselves to many of the American customs," cemented together by their American-born children into "one homogeneous whole."

In the fall of 1925, after first applying economic pressure to household budgets by the cutting of work hours, Passaic's largest mill, Botany, implemented a 10% wage cut. This cut was matched at once by all the other mills in the area, save one.

A former Phi Beta Kappa graduate of City College of New York

City College of New York

The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

and Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

, Albert Weisbord

Albert Weisbord

Albert Weisbord was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a small Trotskyist political organization of the 1930s called the Communist League of...

, was already active in the Passaic area as an organizer for the Trade Union Educational League

Trade Union Educational League

(TUEL), the trade union arm of the Workers (Communist) Party

Communist Party USA

The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....

. Weisbord moved into the void, establishing a "United Front Committee of Textile Workers" (UFC) — a de facto union organizing committee for the supposedly "unorganizable" immigrant mill hands. Within about 2 months, the UFC had enrolled about 1,000 workers in its ranks to fight the wage cut at the Botany Worsted Mill.

Outbreak of the strike

On January 21, 1926, a worker speaking out for the United Front Committee was fired from the Botany Worsted Mills for his organizing activity, sparking worker unrest. A committee of 3 was elected by the members of the UFC to meet with the manager of the Botany facility to discuss the firing. This committee was told in no uncertain terms that any individuals known to be members of the UFC would be similarly terminated, a hardline position which further inflamed the situation.

Another meeting of the UFC followed on January 25, at which it was decided to elect a committee of 45 to meet again with management. This time not in supplication for the reinstatement of a fired colleague, but rather to present a set of concrete demands, including establishment of a 44-hour work week, elimination of the 10% pay cut effected in October 1925, initiation of the payment of time-and-a-half

Time-and-a-half

Time-and-a-half is when a worker is paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate. It is usually paid as an incentive to work on a particular day or as government-mandated compensation for having workers work on particular days Time-and-a-half is when a worker (or workers) is paid 1.5 times their usual...

rates for overtime

Overtime

Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...

work, and firm promises that there would be no retaliation by management against union members. Instead of negotiating, the manager of the mill chose to fire the entire committee on the spot. The committee returned to their places at the mill, told their fellow workers what had transpired, and called for them to shut down production. Within an hour, 4,000 Botany workers had walked out and begun to picket at the factory gate, and the Great Passaic Textile Strike was on.

The strike develops

On February 9, 1926, a line of strikers attempted to cross the bridge from Passaic to the neighboring Clifton in an attempt to shut down the Forstmann & Huffman mill in that city. They were met at the bridge by a line of police, who wielded their clubs and turned back the strikers. The effort was repeated the next day and a picket line was established and joined by many workers of the mill. In the face of continued aggressive picketing, the firm was forced to shutter its operations for the duration of the strike on February 23.

The authorities met this expansion of the strike with intensified force. On February 25, the Passaic City Council invoked a Riot Act which had been on the books for more than six decades against the strikers. On March 2 a line of policemen blockaded a street along which a line of pickets was passing. Stopped in their tracks, the police began clubbing the massed strikers and dispersed the crowd with the use of tear gas and firehoses of icy-cold water. Horses and motorcycles were ridden into the crowd. The riotous scene was repeated the next day, this time with newspaper reporters and photographers present to chronicle the mayhem. The authorities took the fight to the press, clubbing cameramen and destroying cameras. Dozens were arrested, including strike leader Albert Weisbord, who was held on $50,000 bail.

The strikers paused for a day before making their next effort, this time donning steel helmets and passing triumphantly through the police line as cameramen documented the scene from the safe confines of armored cars and via an airplane overhead.

The strikers next turned their attention to the United Piece Dye Works of Lodi, located three miles from Passaic. This large factory was also shut down under the pressure of picketing workers on March 9. The original strike of 4,000 Botany workers had grown to 15,000 of the estimated 17,000 textile workers in the area.

Mass meetings of the strikers were held daily and picket lines continued without interruption. A governing strike committee containing representatives from each striking mill, as well as delegates from participating ethnic groups, met each morning at 9 am. Key organizers were provided by the Workers (Communist) Party and included, in addition to Albert Weisbord, New York garment worker Lena Chernenko and Jack Stachel

Jack Stachel

Jacob Abraham "Jack" Stachel was an American Communist functionary who was a top official in the Communist Party from the middle 1920s until his death in the middle 1960s...

of the Trade Union Educational League. A regular Textile Strike Bulletin was produced by the strike's publicity director, Mary Heaton Vorse

Mary Heaton Vorse

Mary Heaton Vorse or Mary Heaton Vorse O'Brien was an American journalist, labor activist, and novelist. Vorse was outspoken and active in peace and social justice causes, such as women's suffrage, civil rights, pacifism , socialism, child labor, infant mortality, labor disputes, and affordable...

.

Borrowing a page from the successful 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike by sending away children of striking workers to the homes of sympathizers in New York City. This simultaneously reduced the maintenance cost of the strike and served as a vehicle to garner publicity and support for the work stoppage.

A more innovative attempt to garner public sympathy and financial support came in the form of a motion picture shot to aid the strikers' cause. Entitled simply The Passaic Textile Strike

The Passaic Textile Strike (film)

, the 7-reel film was directed by Samuel Russak and produced by Communist Party functionary Alfred Wagenknecht

Alfred Wagenknecht

Alfred Wagenknecht was an American Marxist activist and political functionary. He is best remembered for having played a critical role in the establishment of the American Communist Party in 1919 as a leader of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party...

, making use of funds provided by International Workers Aid, an adjunct of the Communist International.
In April Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas

Norman Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

and Communist Robert W. Dunn

Robert W. Dunn

Robert Williams "Bob" Dunn was an American political activist and economic researcher. Dunn was an active member of the American Civil Liberties Union from its creation, serving on that group's National Committee from 1923 and on its Board of Directors from 1933 to 1941...

, members of the National Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union

The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...

(ACLU), challenged the virtual imposition of martial law

Martial law

Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...

by Bergen County's sheriff, by speaking to strikers there. Thomas and Dunn were arrested with two others for violation of the New Jersey "Riot Act" and held under $10,000 bond, providing an opportunity for the ACLU to begin legal action and to obtain an injunction

Injunction

An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...

against the sheriff for his alleged violation of civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

. The courage of Thomas, Dunn, and their fellows was followed by others, including Reverend John Haynes Holmes

John Haynes Holmes

John Haynes Holmes was a prominent Unitarian minister and pacifist, noted for his anti-war activism.-Early years:John Haynes Holmes was born in Philadelphia on November 29, 1879. He studied at Harvard, graduating in 1902, and Harvard Divinity School, which he graduated in 1904. He was then called...

and constitutional scholar Arthur Garfield Hays

Arthur Garfield Hays

Arthur Garfield Hays was a lawyer born in Rochester, New York. His father and mother, both of German descent, belonged to prospering families in the clothing manufacturing industry...

, who likewise came to Passaic in defiance of the authorities to exercise their constitutional rights.

Strike support

The strikers were supported through the establishment of four relief stores and two soup kitchens, operated by the strikers and their sympathizers with Alfred Wagenknecht in charge of the operation. Local bakers supplied bread, shoemakers repaired footwear of strikers without charge, barbers donated shaves and haircuts, and other unions, such as the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union contributed a wide array of foodstuffs. A playground was constructed for the children of strikers, some of whom were also sent off to summer camps. The strikers' General Relief Committee tried to raise funds by issuing and selling a heavily illustrated, poignant photographic survey of the strike entitled "Hell in New Jersey."

The American Federation of Labor takes over

Despite the series of successful strike actions and public relations victories, the Passaic labor stoppage dragged on interminably, with no end in sight. As early as March 28, 1926, strike leader Albert Weisbord had appealed to the American Federation of Labor's Executive Council for help. This appeal was rejected summarily by William Green

William Green

William Green may refer to:*S. William Green , former U.S. congressman from New York*William Ellis Green , Australian cartoonist*William Green , American football player...

of the AF of L, who declared that his organization would have nothing to do with any "Communist-dominated United Front Committee."

Locked in a stalemate with management with no end in sight, the Communists were uncertain how to proceed. After a period of debate, the Communists and the leadership of their TUEL adjunct made the determination that "it would be incorrect to let the issue of communism stand in the way of a settlement," even though this position would mean that Weisbord and the rest of the party's leadership would as a result be removed to pave the way for an agreement. On August 12, 1926, a committee elected by the strikers met with officials of the AF of L-affiliated United Textile Workers of America and reached agreement that the union should take over the strike, replacing Weisbord and the United Front Committee. The Passaic strikers were accepted as Local 1603 of the UTW.

After the transition from the Communist-led United Front Committee to the United Textile Workers in September, relief funds for the strikers began to dry up and morale started to drop. The strike continued to wind along into the fall, however, with the UTW entering into direct negotiations with factory management.

The first break in the Passaic strike came on November 12, 1926, when the Passaic Worsted Company signed an agreement with the union. On December 12, Botany Mills and its subsidiary, Garfield Worsted Mills, settled with the strikers. A series of negotiated settlements followed, with the final mill settling coming on March 1, 1927.

And so the great battle came to a close.

Aftermath and legacy

The relationship between the United Textile Workers and their Passaic local remained an uneasy one. The Communists charged that an agreement was made between the International office of the United Textile Workers of America and Botany Mills agreeing that "the active and militant workers, and all those that may look 'Red,' must not go back into the mills." The situation was further muddied by an economic downturn in the textile industry which left many of the former strikers unemployed. Of those rehired, it was alleged that many were promptly laid off and then rehired into another department at a lower rate of pay.

This simmering acrimony between the union's headquarters and its active members in New Jersey finally erupted in 1928, when the UTW expelled the entire Passaic local for its support of the ongoing Communist-led strike of textile workers in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The Passaic Textile Strike of 1926 is remembered as one of the seminal events in American labor history in the decade of the 1920s. The historical memory of the event has been enhanced due to its immortalization in film. Five of the seven reels of the film The Passaic Textile Strike have survived, with reels 5 and 7 missing. In 2006, graduate students in New York University's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program discovered the missing reel 5 while processing films belonging to the Communist Party USA's collection. Reel 5 was subsequently meticulously reprinted and preserved by Colorlab and the Library of Congress.

Facilities affected

According to contemporary sources, the following mills were affected in the 1926 Passaic strike:

Botany Consolidated Mills. — woolen mill
Dundee Textile. — silk mill
Forstman and Huffman Mills, Clifton. — woolen mill
Garfield Worsted Mills. — woolen mill
Gera Mills. — woolen mill
National Silk Dyeing Plant, East Paterson. — dye plant
New Jersey Spinning Company. — woolen mill
Passaic Worsted Spinning. — woolen mill
United Piece Dye Works, Lodi. — dye plant

External links

"Prelude" to The Passaic Textile Strike. Internet Archive.org —first 18 minutes of the 1926 film of the strike.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Prelude to the strike

Outbreak of the strike

The strike develops

Strike support

The American Federation of Labor takes over

Aftermath and legacy

Facilities affected

Further reading

External links