In Honor of Flint Sit Down Strike Victory 2-11-1937

[ronda hauben]

https://sci.econ.narkive.com/UrFJG5IA/in-celebration-of-
feb-11-1937

Note:
This was posted on Usenet several years ago
Today is Feb 11, 2022
It is the 85th Birthday of the Flint Sit Down Strike
I am reposting this post from the sci.econ.narkive.com
Ronda

sci.econ
In Celebration of Feb 11, 1937

Ronda Hauben16 years ago
Permalink
[Note: In honor of Feb 11, 1937, I want to repost
something I originally
posted a year ago.]

The month of February is a special month for the pioneers
of industrial
unions in the UAW. It was on February 11, 1937 that the
Flint sit down
strikers marched out of the factories that they had
occupied. They had
won an important victory. The auto company, General
Motors, recognized
the workers right to organize a union. In honor of this
victory February
11 is celebrated as White Shirt Day, the day that workers
wear white
shirts.

In honor of this important anniversary in the UAW, here
are some urls
that point to articles that describe the hard efforts both
before,
during and after the Flint Sit down Strike to organize the
UAW.

1) LEST WE FORGET: IN TRIBUTE TO THE PIONEERS
OF THE GREAT FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE


Remember when the `Sit Down' came?
And all the papers laid the claim
Against each Union Member's name?
"SUBVERSIVE!"
from the poem "Subversive"
by Floyd Hoke-Miller*


http://www.ais.org/~jrh/searchlight/lest.we.forget.txt


2) IN CELEBRATION: A PAST TO REMEMBER, A FUTURE TO MOLD
THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE
by Michael Hauben

The conditions in the auto factories were so awful that
workers
had been trying to organize for many years. For example,
the
speed of the assembly line was inhuman; if a worker wanted
to
complain to the foreman, he would be shown the long line
of unemployed
people outside of the plant and told if he didn't like the
conditions
anyone out there would gladly replace him. The worker
would be fired
if there was any indication he was involved in union
activities. The
workers almost sruck against General Motores in 1934.

http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/michael/flint.txt


3) THE STORY OF THE SEARCHLIGHT: The Voice of the
Chevrolet Worker


If the Labor press does not try to give
Labor the whole truth, where will
Labor get it? This, of course, raises
the question: Who is right about
Labor's destiny? Certainly we can't
rely on the capitalist press to tell
us, for it is obvious that their
interest is the opposite of Labor's
interest. But who, from the ranks of
Labor? Let them all speak -- that's
what Free Speech was intended for! Let
them all present their view in a forum.
From that the reader will have a fair
chance to decide.

from the column, "Only More
Democracy Can Save Democracy," The
Searchlight, Oct. 29, 1949.


http://www.ais.org/~jrh/searchlight/sl.1.txt
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/searchlight/sl.2.txt
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/searchlight/sl.3.txt
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/searchlight/sl.4.txt

There is also a printed version of this which included
wonderful
cartoons by the UAW cartoonist Doc Wilson.


Ronda

[Jeffrey Rubard]

Ronda, that was a long time ago. (No, like, I like the Reuthers
but even Rich Trumka isn't really "electrifying" people anymore,
is he?)

[Jeffrey Rubard]

No, really. It's 2022 and there's something else to do.

[Jeffrey Rubard]

Certainly something else than "yet another effort" from nice kids in dangerous directions.