Charles S. Zimmerman
Encyclopedia
Charles Sasha Zimmerman (18961983) was an American
socialist activist and trade union
leader, who was an associate of Jay Lovestone
. Zimmerman had a career spanning five decades as an official of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
. During the early 1970s, Zimmerman and Bayard Rustin
were national Co-Chairmen the Socialist Party of America
and the Social Democrats USA
.
shtetl
of Talna, then part of the Russian empire
. Sasha's father died when he was 7 and his widowed mother opened up a small grocery store and candy shop to support Sasha, his two siblings, and her mother. Sasha was raised in large measure by his grandmother, a very orthodox observer of the Judaic religion
.
Sasha attended Talmud Torah
for three years and had two years of Russian schooling, gaining admission to the Russian gymnasium
, which already had its quota of Jewish students, only after a battle made with the assistance of a local doctor.
At the age of 12, Sasha began transcribing communiques to help a young man he knew who was connected with the revolutionary movement in Odessa
and Kiev
.
Zimmerman later recalled:
Sasha emigrated to the United States in 1913 at the age of 16, where he joined a sister in living with an uncle in New York City
. Sasha had his name changed to Charles Sasha Zimmerman by an official at Ellis Island
upon arrival and he was thereafter known by this new moniker.
Zimmerman first went to work as a retail clerk in a store near his apartment, but the hours of employment made it impossible for the boy to attend night school
. Charles quit and took a job in the burgeoning New York garment industry making knee-pants, a position which allowed him to continue his studies in the evening. Pay for the immigrant workers was low and conditions poor in the New York sweatshop
s. Within a year, the young Zimmerman had helped to form a union local
and had led a three week strike
of his fellows for better wages.
In 1914, Zimmerman found himself laid off his job. He was taken to work by his uncle, a factory foreman in Astoria, where he was taught carpentry
, a job which netted him just $5.80 per week after car fare was paid. After less than a year, Zimmerman again found himself unemployed, and he returned to work in the garment industry, working in a factory in New Jersey
.
(ILGWU), and was elected chairman of his shop within a few weeks.
In 1917, Zimmerman joined the Socialist Party of America
(SPA). He remained active in the radical labor movement for the rest of his life.
Zimmerman joined the Communist Party of America (CPA) at the time of its formation in 1919. In the CPA, Zimmerman was a close associate of Jay Lovestone
, who emerged as Executive Secretary of the organization after the sudden death of C.E. Ruthenberg
in 1926.
From 1923 until 1958, except for one interlude, Zimmerman was prominent in the powerful Local 22 of the ILGWU in New York. Zimmerman was stripped of his position due to his Communist political affiliation in 1925.
During the period in which he was excluded from the ILGWU, Zimmerman was influential in establishing the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, a dual union sponsored by the Communist Party's Trade Union Unity League
(TUUL) and affiliated with the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU). Zimmerman's expulsion from the Communist Party in 1929 led to his expulsion from the NTWIU in 1930, paving his way for a return to ILGWU Local 22 shortly thereafter.
Zimmerman was three times a candidate for elective political office, running in Bronx County for New York State Assembly
in 1925, 1926, and 1928 on the ticket of the Workers (Communist) Party.
Zimmerman was in Moscow
on party business in association with RILU in May 1929 at the time of the decisive showdown between Lovestone and his associates with the Communist International. The Comintern's was at the time attempting to solve the unceasing and bitter factional war in the American Communist Party by equalizing factional strength in the party leadership and reassigning factional leaders Lovestone and Alexander Bittelman
to Comintern work abroad, decisions which the Lovestone majority group deeply resented. Zimmerman soon found himself expelled from the organization along with Lovestone and most of the others in his circle for their defiance of the Comintern's instructions.
Zimmerman joined with Lovestone in establishing the Communist Party (Majority Group), an organization which underwent a series of name changes before eventually emerging as the Independent Labor League of America
in the late 1930s. He was among the initial members of the governing National Council of the CPMG.
In 1933, Zimmerman was asked by the retiring manager of Local 22 to run for his post. The election was held on April 6, 1933, with Zimmerman elected manager by a narrow margin, receiving 396 votes out of 825 cast in a three-way race. Zimmerman remained in this position heading Local 22 of the ILGWU for the next 40 years, retiring only in the early 1970s.
In 1934, Zimmerman was elected as a national vice-president of the ILGWU. His election to such a prestigious position did not necessarily follow that Zimmerman had left his radical political orientation behind, however. Zimmerman was a bitter critic of the National Recovery Act of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
in the period, regarding it in particular and the New Deal
in general as "a Fascist
idea," and he was outspoken in holding the view, saying as much to a convention of the ILGWU.
In the middle 1930s, with the ultra-radical "Third Period
" at an end in favor of the coalition-building of the "Popular Front
," the official Communists were persuaded to drop their dual union activities and to rejoin the ILGWU. Communist Party loyalists contested the "Lovestoneite" Zimmerman's leadership of Local 22 for a number of years, without success.
As a national leader of the ILGWU, Zimmerman proved a loyal supporter of union head David Dubinsky
, supporting the affiliation of the union to the Congress of Industrial Organizations
in 1935 and backing Dubinsky's decision to withdraw from the CIO in 1938 in order to return to the American Federation of Labor
(AFL), a decision made in the face of particularly bitter opposition from official Communists in the union.
By the end of the 1930s, Zimmerman had come over to lending the Roosevelt Administration and its New Deal policies his full sympathy and support. In January 1939 he sent a telegram to William Green
, president of the American Federation of Labor, accusing "conservative forces in Congress" of "organizing to prevent enactment of new social legislation" and of acting "to worsen the unemployment situation by cutting down WPA appropriations." Zimmerman called for a national conference bringing together representatives of the AFL, the CIO, and the railway brotherhoods as a means of establishing "united labor action" to defend the Rooseveltian policies.
Along with his political allies David Dubinsky and Jay Lovestone, Zimmerman emerged as a prominent anti-communist
"Cold War liberal
" in the years after the conclusion of World War II
. Early in 1946, Zimmerman was dispatched to Europe on behalf of the Jewish Labor Committee
to make a survey of the political situation on the ground there. Zimmerman made his report on his trip in April 1946, detailing his perspective on Scandinavia
, France
, Poland
, and Germany
. Zimmerman was particularly concerned that in the zone of divided Germany controlled by the Soviet Union
, Communist unionists were receiving five times the amount of newsprint allotted to the Socialists, thus making them far better able to advance their views.
In 1958, Zimmerman became the head of the Dress Waistmakers Union. He also served as chairman of the Civil Rights Committee of the AFL-CIO
.
in 1966, which blinded him but did not remove him from active political activity. In 1972, he and Bayard Rustin
were elected co-chairman of the Socialist Party -Democratic Socialist Federation
, and supports its changing its name to Social Democrats, USA.
After his retirement from union work in 1972, Zimmerman continued to live in New York City. He died on June 3, 1983, at the age of 86.
Zimmerman's papers are housed at Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
socialist activist and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
leader, who was an associate of Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
. Zimmerman had a career spanning five decades as an official of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
. During the early 1970s, Zimmerman and Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
were national Co-Chairmen the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
and the Social Democrats USA
Social Democrats USA
Social Democrats, USA was the principal association of U.S. social democrats from 1972–2005.SDUSA was founded in 1972 when the Socialist Party of America renamed itself Social Democrats, USA...
.
Early years
Charles S. Zimmerman was born of ethnic Jewish parents as Alexander Ubsushone in 1896. Alexander, known to family and friends as "Sasha," was born in the UkrainianUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
of Talna, then part of the Russian empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Sasha's father died when he was 7 and his widowed mother opened up a small grocery store and candy shop to support Sasha, his two siblings, and her mother. Sasha was raised in large measure by his grandmother, a very orthodox observer of the Judaic religion
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
.
Sasha attended Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
for three years and had two years of Russian schooling, gaining admission to the Russian gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, which already had its quota of Jewish students, only after a battle made with the assistance of a local doctor.
At the age of 12, Sasha began transcribing communiques to help a young man he knew who was connected with the revolutionary movement in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
and Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
.
Zimmerman later recalled:
Apparently he didn't want his handwriting to be on it... I asked him questions... [He replied that] when you will grow up, you'll understand. But whether I understood or not, it was bound to leave some impression. There was the revolutionary movement in town ... and the kids knew all about it, and there were meetings.
All these things had an effect... At the age of eleven and twelve you were no longer a child.
Sasha emigrated to the United States in 1913 at the age of 16, where he joined a sister in living with an uncle in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Sasha had his name changed to Charles Sasha Zimmerman by an official at Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
upon arrival and he was thereafter known by this new moniker.
Zimmerman first went to work as a retail clerk in a store near his apartment, but the hours of employment made it impossible for the boy to attend night school
Night School
Night School is a school that holds classes in the evening or at night, and is usually intended for continuing and adult learning and to accommodate people who work during the day.Night School may also refer to:...
. Charles quit and took a job in the burgeoning New York garment industry making knee-pants, a position which allowed him to continue his studies in the evening. Pay for the immigrant workers was low and conditions poor in the New York sweatshop
Sweatshop
Sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
s. Within a year, the young Zimmerman had helped to form a union local
Local union
A local union, often shortened to local, in North America, or a union branch in the United Kingdom and other countries is a locally-based trade union organization which forms part of a larger, usually national, union.Local branches are organized to represent the union's members from a particular...
and had led a three week strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
of his fellows for better wages.
In 1914, Zimmerman found himself laid off his job. He was taken to work by his uncle, a factory foreman in Astoria, where he was taught carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, a job which netted him just $5.80 per week after car fare was paid. After less than a year, Zimmerman again found himself unemployed, and he returned to work in the garment industry, working in a factory in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
Political career
In 1916, Zimmerman joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' UnionInternational Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
(ILGWU), and was elected chairman of his shop within a few weeks.
In 1917, Zimmerman joined the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
(SPA). He remained active in the radical labor movement for the rest of his life.
Zimmerman joined the Communist Party of America (CPA) at the time of its formation in 1919. In the CPA, Zimmerman was a close associate of Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
, who emerged as Executive Secretary of the organization after the sudden death of C.E. Ruthenberg
Charles Ruthenberg
Charles Emil Ruthenberg was an American Marxist politician and a founder and long-time head of the Communist Party USA .-Biography:Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882 in Cleveland, Ohio...
in 1926.
From 1923 until 1958, except for one interlude, Zimmerman was prominent in the powerful Local 22 of the ILGWU in New York. Zimmerman was stripped of his position due to his Communist political affiliation in 1925.
During the period in which he was excluded from the ILGWU, Zimmerman was influential in establishing the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union, a dual union sponsored by the Communist Party's Trade Union Unity League
Trade Union Unity League
The Trade Union Unity League was an industrial union umbrella organization of the Communist Party of the United States between 1929 and 1935...
(TUUL) and affiliated with the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU). Zimmerman's expulsion from the Communist Party in 1929 led to his expulsion from the NTWIU in 1930, paving his way for a return to ILGWU Local 22 shortly thereafter.
Zimmerman was three times a candidate for elective political office, running in Bronx County for New York State Assembly
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
in 1925, 1926, and 1928 on the ticket of the Workers (Communist) Party.
Zimmerman was in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
on party business in association with RILU in May 1929 at the time of the decisive showdown between Lovestone and his associates with the Communist International. The Comintern's was at the time attempting to solve the unceasing and bitter factional war in the American Communist Party by equalizing factional strength in the party leadership and reassigning factional leaders Lovestone and Alexander Bittelman
Alexander Bittelman
Alexander "Alex" Bittelman was a Russian-born Jewish-American communist political activist, Marxist theorist , contributed a more complex analysis , and writer. A founding member of the Communist Party of America, Bittelman is best remembered as the chief factional lieutenant of William Z...
to Comintern work abroad, decisions which the Lovestone majority group deeply resented. Zimmerman soon found himself expelled from the organization along with Lovestone and most of the others in his circle for their defiance of the Comintern's instructions.
Zimmerman joined with Lovestone in establishing the Communist Party (Majority Group), an organization which underwent a series of name changes before eventually emerging as the Independent Labor League of America
Independent Labor League of America
The Communist Party of the USA , led by former General Secretary of the Communist Party USA Jay Lovestone, was a small oppositionist Communist movement of the 1930s. The organization emerged from a factional fight in the CPUSA in 1929 and unsuccessfully sought to reintegrate with that organization...
in the late 1930s. He was among the initial members of the governing National Council of the CPMG.
In 1933, Zimmerman was asked by the retiring manager of Local 22 to run for his post. The election was held on April 6, 1933, with Zimmerman elected manager by a narrow margin, receiving 396 votes out of 825 cast in a three-way race. Zimmerman remained in this position heading Local 22 of the ILGWU for the next 40 years, retiring only in the early 1970s.
In 1934, Zimmerman was elected as a national vice-president of the ILGWU. His election to such a prestigious position did not necessarily follow that Zimmerman had left his radical political orientation behind, however. Zimmerman was a bitter critic of the National Recovery Act of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
in the period, regarding it in particular and the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
in general as "a Fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
idea," and he was outspoken in holding the view, saying as much to a convention of the ILGWU.
In the middle 1930s, with the ultra-radical "Third Period
Third Period
The Third Period is a ideological concept adopted by the Communist International at its 6th World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928....
" at an end in favor of the coalition-building of the "Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
," the official Communists were persuaded to drop their dual union activities and to rejoin the ILGWU. Communist Party loyalists contested the "Lovestoneite" Zimmerman's leadership of Local 22 for a number of years, without success.
As a national leader of the ILGWU, Zimmerman proved a loyal supporter of union head David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky was an American labor leader...
, supporting the affiliation of the union to the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
in 1935 and backing Dubinsky's decision to withdraw from the CIO in 1938 in order to return to the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL), a decision made in the face of particularly bitter opposition from official Communists in the union.
By the end of the 1930s, Zimmerman had come over to lending the Roosevelt Administration and its New Deal policies his full sympathy and support. In January 1939 he sent a telegram to William Green
William Green (labor leader)
William Green was an American trade union leader. Green is best remembered for serving as the President of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952.-Early years:...
, president of the American Federation of Labor, accusing "conservative forces in Congress" of "organizing to prevent enactment of new social legislation" and of acting "to worsen the unemployment situation by cutting down WPA appropriations." Zimmerman called for a national conference bringing together representatives of the AFL, the CIO, and the railway brotherhoods as a means of establishing "united labor action" to defend the Rooseveltian policies.
Along with his political allies David Dubinsky and Jay Lovestone, Zimmerman emerged as a prominent anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
"Cold War liberal
Cold War liberal
Cold-War liberal was a term used most commonly in the United States during the Second Cold War, which began at the end of World War II. The term was used describe liberal politicians and labor union leaders who supported democracy and equality: They supported the growth of labor unions, the civil...
" in the years after the conclusion of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Early in 1946, Zimmerman was dispatched to Europe on behalf of the Jewish Labor Committee
Jewish Labor Committee
The Jewish Labor Committee is an American secular Jewish organization dedicated to promoting labor union interests in Jewish communities, and Jewish interests within unions. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with local/regional offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago...
to make a survey of the political situation on the ground there. Zimmerman made his report on his trip in April 1946, detailing his perspective on Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, 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...
, and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Zimmerman was particularly concerned that in the zone of divided Germany controlled by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Communist unionists were receiving five times the amount of newsprint allotted to the Socialists, thus making them far better able to advance their views.
In 1958, Zimmerman became the head of the Dress Waistmakers Union. He also served as chairman of the Civil Rights Committee of the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
.
Death and legacy
Charles S. Zimmerman suffered a strokeStroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in 1966, which blinded him but did not remove him from active political activity. In 1972, he and Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
were elected co-chairman of the Socialist Party -Democratic Socialist Federation
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, and supports its changing its name to Social Democrats, USA.
After his retirement from union work in 1972, Zimmerman continued to live in New York City. He died on June 3, 1983, at the age of 86.
Zimmerman's papers are housed at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
.
Publications
- American labor faces the future; the problems of trade unionism in the light of the San Francisco general strike. New York, Dressmakers union local 22, I.L.G.W.U. 1934
- The labor movement and the NRA: the standpoint of progressive unionism. New York, Dressmakers union local 22, I.L.G.W.U. 1934
- Our Union at work; Summary report of the executive board of Dressmakers Union, Local 22, I.L.G.W.U., for the year April 1933 to April 1934 New York, Dressmakers union local 22, I.L.G.W.U. 1934
- Report on the medical administration of sick benefits to Dressmakers' Union Local 22 of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union for the year 1935. New York, Dressmakers union local 22, I.L.G.W.U. 1936
- Probable effect of the war on the New York women's garment industry and some recommendations: report by a special committee of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. New York: Jewish Labor Committee 1942
- In freedom 's cause. Report Antidiscrimination department Jewish Labor Committee [of the] 1957 Biennial Convention, Atlantic City, N.J. New York: Jewish Labor Committee 1957
External links
- "Guide to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Charles S. Zimmerman papers, 1919-1958 (bulk 1920-1945)." Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library. Collection Number: 5780/014. Retrieved October 26, 2009.