11/28 - Radical Movie Night - 1934 Electric Auto-Lite Strike

[Orlando Sepulveda]

Radical Movie Night with the ISO! First in a series! 1934 Electric Auto-Lite Strike             The story of the Toledo general strike Saturday, November 28th, 8pm at Decima Musa, 1901 South Loomis (pilsen)   In 1934, three strikes, in San Francisco, Toledo and Minneapolis – all fought out almost simultaneously – turned the tide in favor of workers during the Great Depression. Each strike showed in practice that with solidarity workers can win, no matter how well-armed and well-funded the bosses’ side is. Socialists played a key role in all three strikes.   The Toledo strike broke out in April, beginning from a position of weakness. Fewer than half the workers joined the strike at the Auto-Lite auto parts plant, making it easy for the company to hire strikebreakers to keep the plant running. But socialists from a small organization called the American Workers Party, led by A.J. Muste, built a solidarity movement that won the strike. Through the Lucas County Unemployed League, they managed to convince thousands of unemployed workers that their own interests lay not in stealing the strikers’ jobs, but in helping the union to win its strike.   Mass pickets of unemployed supporters, swelling at times to 10,000, helped the strikers to take the offensive. Armed with bricks and stones, they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with strikebreakers and the 900 National Guardsmen who were ordered in to break the strike. Even after the troops fired into the crowd, the pickets did not disperse. After 85 local unions pledged to call a general strike in sympathy, the company finally backed down, granting union recognition and a wage increase, and agreeing to rehire all strikers. Join us to watch this inspiring documentary about class struggle in the USA.   Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization, www.socialistworker.org