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Silver, Sophie (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the first and only interview with Sophie Silver conducted as a project for an oral history class. The quality of this interview is poor, and Silver's voice often sounds muffled. There are several interruptions during the interview. TOPICS - family background; working conditions; attitudes towards the ILGWU; background of the workers in the union; and the Chicago general strike of 1932;1932 general strike in Chicago; internal conflict in the ILGWU; contradiction between her socialist beliefs and union policies; becoming organizer and Business Agent for ILGWU in Los Angeles; working conditions during the Depression; and her attitudes towards WW II; 11/15/1976
- Date
- 2020-04-03
- Resource Type
- Creator
- Campus
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- Notes
- File: lhgwssilver1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-4:40)... No tape introduction. The child of two politically conscious parents, Silver immigrated to the US from the Ukraine in 1913. Her father was politically active in Russia, and her mother was very aware of world events. Both her parents had siblings in Chicago, who corresponded and instructed that the five children learn a trade. Silver's father was opposed to this because he wanted his children to be professionals. Her father immigrated to the US with Silver and two of her siblings, and her mother came with the remaining two children six months later. (4:40-6:16)... When her family immigrated to the US, they stayed with relatives in Chicago. She was eleven years old at the time, but people had a hard time believing this because she looked much older. interruption in tape (6:16-8:01)... Her family lived in the back of a grocery store owned by her relatives. Her father and the children went to work so that they could earn money to reimburse the relatives for paying for their trip to the United States. Silver's first job was at a factory. Although only eleven years old, she registered for work as an eighteen-year-old woman because child labor laws were being enforced at this time. No one questioned her age and for six years she claimed she was eighteen years old. interruption in tape (8:01-10:23)... After completing a day's work, Silver went to night school. This was a very difficult time for her because she managed both of these responsibilities. It was very hard on the family until her mother finally came to the United States. Her mother and the two smaller children stayed at her uncle's farm in Michigan. On Fridays, the family took a boat to visit her mother and returned to Chicago on Sunday evenings to prepare for the next week of work and school. (10:23-13:07)... All of the money she earned was to go directly to her relatives who paid for the family's fare to the United States and their room and board. She recalls an incident when she took her earnings and bought a pair of shoes for $3.50. At the time she was only making $4.50 per week. Her uncle was outraged at this behavior and decided to move to his farm in Michigan, sending Silver's mother back to Chicago. When the family was reunited, her mother insisted that the children go to school. The first piece of furniture the family bought was a piano, which Silver was required to learn how to play in addition to working and going to school. (13:07-15:18)... Shortly after Silver's mother moved to Chicago, she was involved in an accident in the house and was bedridden for more than a year. As a result, her dream that the children go to school full time never materialized and Silver was required to work every day to help support the family. She worked ten hours a day, five and a half days a week, and earned only $4.50 a week. Although these were difficult years, when she thinks back on them, she is not bitter because her mother was very uplifting and believed that her children would receive a good education and fulfill their dreams in the United States. (15:18-18:48)... When she started working in Chicago, she did not work for a union shop. When she was sixteen years old, she went to work for a shop being organized by the ACWA. After about six months, the shop went on strike for half a day for union recognition. She did not start working for full union shops until 1932 and finally joined the ILGWU in 1933. (18:48-20:54)... While working for the ACWA shop, she was approached by the Business Agent, who informed her that the union needed people to manage the shops. She was called into the union office, where she met with Frank Rosenblum, who asked her to work as a Business Agent for the union. However, she declined this position because she did not want to do something she did know how to do, nor did she want someone to train her. Interruption in tape (20:54-24:34)... For a period of time prior to 1932, she did not work and was home raising a child. However, her husband became ill, which required her to return to work. She went to the ACWA and asked for a position. At this time, she recalls that the office was having similar unemployment problems with other workers. However, they advised her to choose any job she wanted, which bothered her because she did not want to take a job from other unemployed workers. She left the union office and went to work at a shop making dresses. She joined a union (Needle Trades Industrial Union?) which she claims was a precursor to the CIO. In 1933, when the general strike was called and Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the NRA, the Industrial Union dissolved and the ILGWU was formed. She remained a member of the ILGWU until 1965 when she retired. Interruption in tape (24:34-28:26)... Working conditions in the shops were worse when she returned to work in 1932 than in the 1920s, mainly because of the Depression. At the time, rank and file movements among the workers and the unions were occurring. By nature, the garment industry was different because it focused on piecework, which meant that whenever the style changed new prices had to be negotiated. At this time, workers were responsible for negotiating new prices with the employers because the unions were still very weak. Her employer allowed her to work under flexible conditions because she had to care for her husband and child. The employer also allowed her to work on preferred garments so that she could earn more money. Prior to the strike, they were getting $1.28 per garment and then the prices were cut to .65 cents. When the call for the general strike came, the garment industry completely shut down and the strike lasted two weeks. After the strike, workers were granted a thirty-five hour work week and time and a half for overtime. (28:26-30:35)... She remembers the general strike as a picnic like atmosphere. Since the entire industry was closed, people gathered in a specific area and there were thousands of people in the streets. She recalls that the workers sang songs and believed that as long as there was no production, employers would be forced to recognize the unions and establish better wages and working conditions. Demographically, she believes that the majority of the workers in Chicago were Polish. The Polish, Blacks, and Jews were unified during the strike because they dominated the shops. end of tape File: lhgwssilver2.mp3 (0:00-1:12)... She recalls that during the general strike in Chicago, there was no violence or police brutality. The main issue for the workers was a thirty-five hour work week and price standards. She does not recall if there were any scabs going to work in the garment shops. (1:12-3:32)... She believes that during the period 1926-32 the ILGWU lost its influence as a result of an internal struggle. She describes this as a moral fight, in which the people who organized the workers and the union were socialists and wanted economic issues addressed. She believes that the 1932 general strike brought the union back into favor. (3:32-5:36)... In 1933, she recalls a struggle erupting in the union when David Dubinsky requested that in addition to being president, he act as the general secretary of the union. This was the most powerful position in the union, since this person controlled the finances. She believes that Dubinsky gradually changed and became more conservative when the ILGWU and the ACWA joined the CIO. (5:36-6:47)... In her opinion, the differences between the ACWA and the ILGWU are much more than the composition of its membership. She believes that the ACWA is made up of mostly male workers, while the ILGWU is made up mostly of women employed in the garment industry. Under the leadership first of Sidney Hillman and then Frank Rosenblum, the ACWA was much more focused on progress than the ILGWU. (6:47-8:39)... She believes that the New Deal and the NRA changed working conditions. In general, Franklin D. Roosevelt set a mandate that workers have a right to organize. In addition, the New Deal provided for renovations within industry and the unions. Interruption in tape (8:39-13:26)... In 1932, she joined the Industrial Union (?) which became the ILGWU in 1933 [It is not clear if here she is talking about the Needle Trades Industrial Union or about a group organizing the CIO, which the ILGWU joined following the formation of the CIO.] At this time, the union needed leaders in its ranks. She developed a reputation for being a militant worker because she advocated that workers communicate and negotiate with employers to maintain conditions on the basis of the union contract. She recalls that the manager of Local 100 offered to pay her expenses to study at the University of Chicago and the opportunity to supervise all of the shops she could organize if she stopped advocating her principles to the workers. She rejected this offer. (13:26-15:19)... She recalls that she often struggled with the leadership of the union because of her political beliefs. In Chicago, the union put her trial in an attempt to deny her membership to the union for reading socialist material. At the time she subscribed to The Worker. Her defense was that she had a right to read what she wanted and the union was not successful in denying her membership. Many of her fellow workers did not support her political ideals, but they did support her efforts to maintain conditions within the shop. (15:19-19:05)... In 1941, she left Chicago and moved to New York, where her brother was involved in union activities. She moved to Los Angeles in 1946 and worked as an officer of the union there. She recalls that industry in Los Angeles after WWII was increasing dramatically and there was an influx of people wanting to work in the factories and shops. She was offered the job of Business Agent for the ILGWU in Los Angeles. However, she did not stay in this position for very long because she did not know how to speak Spanish and it was not possible to serve the workers with this language barrier. She resigned her position on the condition that a Spanish-speaking Business Agent be hired in her place. She believes that the first Spanish-speaking, woman Business Agent in Los Angeles was Angelita Torres [Note: Consult interview with Anita Castro, who names Torres, but who preceded her as the first Spanish-speaking woman Business Agent.] Silver then went to work for the union as an organizer, which was not a paid position at the time. She worked on the organizing committee until she retired. (19:05-21:56)... When her husband died, she moved in with her parents. She worked thirty-five hours a week and then participated in other social struggles, such as opposing the war and fascism, and she also helped families who were socioeconomically deprived. interruption in tape (21:56-27:22)... During the Depression, conditions in the shops and the labor movement were very poor. People were suffering from unemployment and were unable to maintain their payments on their homes, etc. She recalls reading the daily paper in Chicago, which listed the evictions of hundreds of people. [Note: the audio quality in this section is very poor and it is difficult to hear what Silver is saying because of a muffling distortion in the interview.] She recalls that during the Depression, there were incidences of police brutality on the south side of Chicago. For instance, three Black people were shot by the police because of eviction struggles. At this time, people united in solidarity to protest these actions and mourn the loss of these people. She recalls that 11,000 people attended the funerals for the people killed. She describes the various policies and programs instituted during the Roosevelt administration that were instrumental in getting people back on their feet. However, she admits that this did not end the struggles taking place in society. She also discusses how WWII catapulted people into industries to work for the war effort. She believes that changes in the country, the labor force, and the economy really began to take shape during this period. However, she did not support the war, but believes that this is an example to learn from so that conditions are not so poor it takes a war to get the nation out of economic despair. (27:22-29:00)... During WWII, the union went all out in support of the war effort. She believes that great sacrifices were made by the workers during the war, while the manufacturers continued to make a profit. She contends that people sacrificed a lot to beat fascism throughout the world. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Sophie Silver became active in the labor movement when she was sixteen years old while she was working at Hart, Shafner and Marx in Chicago. Although she was only a teen-ager, following a series of strikes, she was offered a position of Business Agent for the ACWA - a position she declined. Following a period when she did not work out of the home, she returned to the work force in 1932, learning how to be a dress operator. Aware of the internal political struggle in the union, she joined forces with those involved in the Trade Union Unity League at the same time that she joined the ILGWU, Local 100. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1946, she became an officer of the union and briefly worked as a Business Agent. She quit after a short period of time, realizing that she could not represent the large number of Spanish speaking workers adequately. [Note: she claims that Angelita Torres, who was hired in her place, became the first Spanish speaking Business Agent for the ILGWU in Los Angeles, though it seems that Anita Catro had been hired before then.] Silver remained active as a union militant until her retirement in 1965. This interview with her was conducted as part of a student project in an oral history class at CSULB. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the first and only interview with Sophie Silver conducted as a project for an oral history class. The quality of this interview is poor, and Silver's voice often sounds muffled. There are several interruptions during the interview. TOPICS - family background; working conditions; attitudes towards the ILGWU; background of the workers in the union; and the Chicago general strike of 1932;1932 general strike in Chicago; internal conflict in the ILGWU; contradiction between her socialist beliefs and union policies; becoming organizer and Business Agent for ILGWU in Los Angeles; working conditions during the Depression; and her attitudes towards WW II;
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