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Articles

The new left and labor: The early years (1960–1963)

Pages 294-321 | Published online: 28 Feb 2007

References

  • Tom Hayden to Reuther Walter P. SDS Papers, 2B 1963 Mar. 29 141, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, WI (Microfilm Edition); Todd Gitlin to Walter P. Reuther, Dec. 20, 1963 and Otha Brown to Todd Gitlin, Dec. 27, 1963, Box 195 Walter P. Reuther Collection, UAW President's Office, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI (henceforth referred to as WPR Collection).
  • Howe , Irving , ed. 1970 . Beyond the New Left 4 – 4 . New York Patricia Cayo Sexton and Brendon Sexton, Blue Collar & Hard Hats (New York, 1971), 18; Irwin Unger, The Movement: A History of the American New Left (New York, 1974).
  • Guarsci , Richard . 1980 . The Theory and Practice of American Marxism, 1957–1960 Lantham, MD Kirpatrick Sale, SDS (New York, 1973); George Vickers, The Formation of the New Left (Lexington, MA, 1975); James P. O'Brien, “The Development of the New Left in the United States, 1960–1965” (unpublished diss., Univ. of Wisconsin, 1971); William Leuchtenburg, A Troubled Feast: American Society Since 1945, rev. ed. (Boston, 1971), 247–248.
  • For a discussion of the relationship between the new left and labor in the mid-1960s, see Levy Peter B. The New Left and Labor: A Misunderstood Relationship Columbia Univ. New York 1986 chapts. 3 and 4 (unpublished diss.
  • See: Miller James Democracy Is In the Streets New York 1987 and Maurice Isserman, If I Had a Hammer (New York, 1987). In addition, Aldon Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (New York, 1984), details the foundations of the modern civil rights movement.
  • Glen John Mathew On the Cutting Edge: A History of Highlander Folk School Vanderbilt 1985 unpublished diss. Aimee I. Horton, “The Highlander Folk School: A History of the Development of Its Major Programs Related to Social Movements in the South, 1932–1961” (unpublished diss., Univ. of Chicago, 1971); Interview with Bob Zellner, Nov. 24, 1987, New York City.
  • Reed , Linda . 1986 . The Southern Conference for Human Welfare and the Southern Christian Education Fund, 1938–1963 , Indiana Univ. . unpublished diss.
  • On the League for Industrial Democracy see the guide to the LID Collection, Tamiment Library, NYU, and Irwin Unger The Movement 51 51 57; SLID Papers, Box 4, Student Activist Collection.
  • SDS Constitution interview with Michael Harrington by Kirpatrick Sale, Oct. 6, 1969, in Oral History Collection, Tamiment Library, NYU; interview with Stanley Aronowitz, June 25, 1986, New York City.
  • Miller 73 – 75 . 127–138; Michael Harrington, Fragments of the Century (New York, 1973), 143–150.
  • For financial information see folder marked: “Union Solicitations, 1954–1965”, Tom Hayden to Walter P. Reuther 2B, SDS Papers 1963 Mar. 29 Irving Bluestone to Tom Hayden, July 9, 1963; Walter P. Reuther to Tom Hayden, July 31, 1963; Irving Bluestone to Todd Gitlin, Mar. 16, 1964; all in Box 523, WPR Collection.
  • Nathaniel Minkoff to George Meany and William Schnitzler Aryeh Neier, memo to Victor Reuther, April 11, 1960 1960 April 28 Nathaniel Minkoff to George Meany, July 19, 1962; Nathaniel Minkoff to Walter P. Reuther, Aug. 27, 1963; all in Box 23, LID Collection. Also see “LID Contributions,” Box 11, LID Collection.
  • Union Solicitations 2B – 2B . SDS Papers.
  • Jack Conway to Dear Friend 2B, SDS Papers 1963 Nov. 9 Otha Brown to Todd Gitlin, Dec. 27, 1963; Todd Gitlin to Walter P. Reuther, Dec. 20, 1963; Rennie Davis to Irving Bluestone, Jan. 25, 1964; Irving Bluestone to Rennie Davis, Feb. 11, 1964; all in Box 523, WPR Collection. Todd Gitlin to Paul Booth, Oct. 28, 1963, Box 1, Paul Booth Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW); Lee Webb to Ralph Helstein, Sept. 16, 1963, Box 180, United Packinghouse Workers of America Papers, SHSW (henceforth UPWA Papers).
  • Tom Hayden to Todd Gitlin Box 11, SDS Collection, Tamiment Library, NYU, Irving Bluestone to Todd Gitlin, Mar. 16, 1964 1963 Aug. 2 Rennie Davis to Walter P. Reuther, May 17, 1964; Todd Gitlin to Walter P. Reuther, May 14, 1964; Irving Bluestone to Walter P. Reuther, June 18, 1963; Irving Bluestone to Larry Gettlinger, Feb. 5, 1965, Box 523, WPR Collection.
  • Meier , August and Rudwick , Elliot . 1973 . CORE 82 – 82 . New York and 149; James Farmer, Lay Bare the Heart (New York, 1985), chapts. 15–17. “Labor Unions,” V:I; “Financial Records, 31, Dec., 1954- 9 April 1965,” V:141; Marvin Rich to Jacob Claiman, Aug. 20, 1963, V:141; Marvin Rich to AFSCME local 382, April 24, 1963, V:142; James Farmer to Walter P. Reuther, Feb. 3, 1965; James Farmer to Walter P. Reuther, Feb. 27, 1962, I:83; all in CORE Papers, Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change, Atlanta, Georgia (Microfilm Edition). Walter P. Reuther to James Farmer, Jan. 17, 1962, Box 488, WPR Collection; James Farmer to Arnold Zander, April 4, 1961; President's Office, AFSCME Papers, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State Univ.
  • Zinn , Howard . 1964 . The New Abolitionists Boston chapt. 1. Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening (Cambridge, MA, 1981), 71.
  • James Forman, telegram to Ralph Helstein, n.d., Box 174, James Forman, telegram to Ralph Helstein Box 169, G. R. Hathaway, memo to R. Helstein, July 5, 1962 1962 Mar. 10 James Forman to R. Helstein Sept. 4, 1962, both in Box 170, Jim Dombrowski to All Lenders, Oct. 1, 1965, Box 186; Myles Horton to R. Helstein, Aug. 10, 1962, Box 170 and Myles Horton to R. Helstein, May 28, 1964, Box 183; Bayard Rustin to Chairman UPWA, c/o R. Helstein, Mar. 27, 1963, Box 401, UPWA Papers. “Bull Scholarship Awarded,” Packinghouse Worker, June 1963.
  • I thank Ron Greele and Brett Eynon for helping me see some of these personal connections; Irving Bluestone to Victor Reuther UAW Intl. Affairs Division, Victor Reuther and Lew Carliner Papers, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State Univ. (henceforth referred to as V. Reuther and L. Carliner Papers) 1963 Sept. 9 Mildred Jeffrey to Walter P. Reuther, June 25, 1965; Mildred Jeffrey to Walter P. Reuther, Dec. 22, 1962; Mildred Jeffrey to Irving Bluestone, April 23, 1965; all in Box 54, WPR Collection.
  • Minutes to NEC Meeting Box 7, SLID Papers 1962 Aug. 31–Sept. 2
  • William Haber to Al Haber both in SLID Papers, Box 4 1961 April 24 on William Haber see, Who's Who In America (Chicago, 1960), Vol. 31, 1181. Al Haber, “Students and Labor,” SDS Papers; SDS, “Newsletter #2,” Box 7, SLID Papers. Al Haber to Larry Rogin, Oct. 10, 1960, Box 5, SLID Papers; Al Haber to Lew Carliner, Oct. 9, 1963, Box 17, V. Reuther and L. Carliner Papers.
  • Farmer , James . Lay Bare the Heart chapt. 15; Inge Powell Bell, CORE and the Strategy of Nonviolence (New York, 1968), 101 and 181; A. Meier and E. Rudwick, CORE, 6, 23, 82.
  • Russell Lasley and Charles Fischer to Sterling Stuckey Sterling Stuckey to Harold [sic] Lasley and Charles Fischer, Feb. 10, 1961 1961 Feb. 7 Russell Lasley to Whom It May Concern, June 20, 1961; “Tent City: Home of the Brave;” James Forman, “Memo,” Aug. 8, 1961; all in Box 395, UPWA Papers; interview with Charles Fischer, Jan. 27, 1987, UPWA Oral History Project, SHSW; James Forman, The Making of a Black Revolutionary (New York, 1972), 130–137.
  • Charles McDew to R. Helstein R. Helstein to Charles McDew, Dec. 2, 1961 1961 Nov. 21 James Forman to R. Helstein, Mar. 10, 1962, Box 160; R. Helstein to Don Smith, Feb. 20, 1962; Russell Lasley, “UPWA Fund for Democracy Drive,” all in Box 398; James Forman to R. Helstein, Sept. 4, 1962, Box 170; “A Suggested Program of Support for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,” Box 180, UPWA Papers.
  • R. Helstein to Don Smith Box 396 1962 Feb. 20 Herman Walker to James Forman, April 22, 1963, and UPWA Local 88, “Leaflet: To Support Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,” May 8, 1963, both in Box 401; “Chicago Locals Send Help in Fight for Ballot Right,” Packinghouse Worker, March 1963; “District 3 Boost Per Capita Tax to Mount Big Organizing Drive,” and “District 7 Convention,” Packinghouse Worker, April 1963; “District 1 Convention,” and “About a Journey to Jackson,” Packinghouse Worker, May 1963; “The View From the Eastern Shore,” Packinghouse Worker, June 1963; “District 6 Cheers 20th Birthday,” Packinghouse Worker, April 1964; “How the Union Came to Town in Troubled Cambridge, Maryland,” Packinghouse Worker, May 1964. Interview with Harry Alston, Jan. 27, 1986, UPWA Oral History Project.
  • Benson , H.W. 1960 . Intellectuals and the Lonely Union Reformers . Liberation , 4 ( 2 ) : 14 – 14 . Robert Wolfe, “Intellectuals and Social Change,” Studies on the Left, 3, no. 2 (1962), 64.
  • 1964 . The Triple Revolution . Liberation , April
  • SDS Membership Bulletin Jan.–Feb. 1962 No. 3 C. Clark Kissenger, “The BRUNS Strike: A Case Study in Student Participation in Labor,” 2B, SDS Papers. A. Meier, CORE, 109–111.
  • Wipe Out Job Bias, Labor Asks AFL-CIO News March 1961 1 1 4 “Nation's No. 1 Problem: Denial of Civil Rights: Text of AFL-CIO Executive Council Resolution,” AFL-CIO News, Nov. 23, 1963, 1. “Editorial: Don't Shush the Good Fight,” The Dispatcher, July 12, 1963, 2; “Labor Must Join the Fight for Jobs and Freedom,” UE News, Sept. 9, 1963. Michael Munk, “Southern Labor Leaders Play It Safe,” Guardian, Sept. 19, 1963, 4; “The March,” Guardian, Sept. 5, 1963, 2.
  • Meier , A. CORE 109 – 111 .
  • Aug. 1961 . “ Freedom Riders Describe Ordeal ” . In UAW Solidarity Aug. , “Freedom Riders Detail Mob Violence in South,” AFL-CIO News, June 16, 1962; “Shuttlesworth at UE Convention,” UE News, May 20, 1963; “Abernathy Stirs Delegates With Message of Freedom,” UE News, Sept. 23, 1963.
  • Detroit Firemen Denounce Alabama ‘Hose Tactics’ AFL-CIO News May 1963 2 2 18 “San Francisco Answers Birmingham: Inspiring March for Freedom,” The Dispatcher, May 31, 1963. Walter P. Reuther, “The Cause of Freedom Is On Trial,” UAW Solidarity, June 1963, 16; “One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for All,” UAW Solidarity, July, 1963, 3–4. “Birmingham Seen as Proof of Need for Rights Law,” AFL-CIO News, May 18, 1963, 1.
  • Oates , Stephen B. 1982 . Let the Trumpet Sound 215 – 215 . New York 240 and 253; David L. Lewis, King, 200, 210–211; B. J. Widdick, Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1972), p. 157; “Freedom Now,” UAW Solidarity, June 1963; “125,000 Walk Quietly to Record Rights Plea,” Detroit Free Press, June 24, 1963, 1–3.
  • Kahn , Tom . 1963 . The Power of the March . Dissent , 10 : 315 – 320 . Anne Hedgmen, The Trumpet Sounds: A Memoir of Negro Leadership (New York, 1964), 167–169; “Marchers Master Plan,” March on Washington, 1963, Vertical File, Schomberg Center, New York Public Library; Committee for Emancipation March for Jobs, “Call for March,” in Richard Parrish Papers, 1950–1975, Schomberg Center, New York Public Library; A. Philip Randolph, letter to James Farmer, Mar. 26, 1963; “Minutes of the NAC CORE,” Mar. 29, 1963; “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: 1st Plan of Operation;” all A:I, CORE Papers. Philip Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Worker (New York, 1971), 346–350; “Unions Join Rights Assembly,” AFL-CIO News, Aug. 31, 1963, 1. Dorris Saunders, ed., The Day They Marched; Josephine Schwartz, ed., “Songs for March on Washington,” V:113, CORE Papers.
  • Shades of the Labor Movement of Old The Dispatcher Sept. 1963 2 2 6 Jay Garnet, “Muslim, Socialist, Nationalist, SNCC Views Heard in Chicago,” Militant, Sept. 16, 1963; “SNCC Head Calls for New Protests,” Student Voice, Oct. 1963; Bayard Rustin, “Memo to the Chairmen of the March on Washington,” Sept. 27, 1963, A:I, CORE Papers; interview with Bob Zellner, Nov. 24, 1987, New York City.
  • Leaflet: Conference on the Civil Rights Revolution Box 400; “Call to Civil Rights and Legislation Conference,” Box 466; “Transcript of Civil Rights and Legislative Conference,” Sept. 23, 1963, Box 526; R. Helstein to J. Farmer, Oct. 4, 1963, Box 174, UPWA Papers; “UPWA's Legislation and Civil Rights Conference,” Packinghouse Worker, Oct. 1963.
  • Al Haber to Lew Carliner Lew Carliner to Sandra Hayden, Aug. 29, 1963 1963 Oct. 9 James Forman to Lew Carliner, June 25, 1963; Lew Carliner to William Mahoney, July 19, 1963; William Mahoney to Lew Carliner, Oct. 23, 1963; all in Box 17, Victor Reuther and Lewis Carliner Collection; William Mahoney to Tom Kahn, Oct. 29, 1963; Tom Kahn to Jack Conway, Dec. 10, 1963; Tom Kahn to Stanley Aronowitz, Dec. 10, 1963; all in Box 7, Student Activist Collection. “Notes On SNCC Conference,” n.d., C:I:114, SNCC Papers; “Over 300 Attend SNCC Conference,” Student Voice, Dec. 9, 1963.
  • Mahoney William Report on Meeting With Union Leaders Dec. 1963 12 C:III, SNCC Papers. Walter Tillow to Lew Carliner, Dec. 6, 1963; Lew Carliner to Pat Greathouse, Dec. 9, 1963; Lew Carliner to Douglas Fraser, Dec. 15, 1963; all in Box 17, Victor Reuther and Lewis Carliner Collection; Lew Carliner to Bill Dodds, May 4, 1963; Marv Rich to Lew Carliner, May 15, 1963, Box 9, Victor Reuther and Lewis Carliner Collection.
  • Chafe , William . 1983 . Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina and the Black Struggle for Freedom 67 – 67 . New York David Danzig, “The Meaning of the Negro Strategy,” Commentary, Feb. 1964, 44–46; Robert S. McElvaine, “Claude Ramsay, Organized Labor, and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, 1959–1966,” in Merle E. Reed, Leslie Hough and Gary Fink, eds., Southern Workers and Trade Unions, 1880–1975 (Westport, CT, 1981), 109–142.
  • Munk Michael Southern Labor Leaders Play It Safe Guardian Sept. 1963 19 4; William Mahoney, “Report on Meeting with Union Leaders,” Dec. 12, 1963, C:I, SNCC Papers; interview with Stanley Aronowitz, June 25, 1986, New York City. Hazel Erskine, “The Polls: Race Relations,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 26 (1962), 137–148; Mildred Schwartz, Trends in White Attitudes Toward Negroes; William Brink and Louis Harris, The Negro Revolution; Richard Hamilton, Class & Politics in the United States; George Gallup, Gallup Poll Index.
  • Anderson , Jervis . 1972 . A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait 20 – 20 . New York Philip S. Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 21 and 22; Ray Marshall, “The Negro and the AFL-CIO,” in A. Meier, John Bracey Jr. and Elliot Rudwick, eds., Black Workers and Organized Labor, (Belmont, MA; 1971), 209–222. “Constitution of the NALC,” Richard Parrish Papers, Schomberg Center; Saul Miller, “AFL-CIO Performance Cited in Fighting Discrimination,” AFL-CIO News, Oct. 21, 1961, 3. Herbert Hill, “NAACP Report: Racism Within Organized Labor,” A:I, CORE Papers. “NAACP Urged to Shun Split with Labor Allies,” AFL-CIO News, Oct. 20, 1962.
  • Meier , A. and Rudwick , E. CORE 196 – 200 . and 227–237; Michael Munk, “Negroes' Protests in the North Center on Lack of Jobs,” Guardian, June 20, 1963; Nat Henthoff, The New Equality (New York, 1964), chapt. 7.
  • Robinson , Archie . 1981 . George Meany and His Times New York chapt. 13; “End of Voting Curbs Backed by AFL-CIO: Rights Plan Advocated,” AFL-CIO News, Mar. 24, 1962, 1; “Labor Urges Action to Halt Job Bias: Congress Pressed on FEP Law,” AFL-CIO News, May 11, 1963. “Bias Remedy Lies in Reform, Not Destruction,” AFL-CIO News, Nov. 17, 1962, 12; “Randolph Urges Strengthening Historic Negro-Labor Alliance,” AFL-CIO News, Nov. 23, 1963, 15; Randolph later told an interviewer that if he could do it over again, he would have tried to have avoided the debate with Meany, even though he insisted his charges had been valid, “The Reminiscences of A. Philip Randolph,” Oral History, Columbia University, New York, 1973; (Press Release), “NALC Shifts from Strategy of Attack to Alliance With Labor,” Jan. 11, 1966, Richard Parrish Papers; “Bias Charge Killed, ILGWU Vindicated,” AFL-CIO News, May 25, 1963, 4; “Let Us Move Together, Meany Urges NAACP,” AFL-CIO News, July 13, 1963, 8; “Labor for Civil Rights,” Justice, Aug. 1, 1963.
  • Munk , Michael . June 1963 . “ Negroes' Protests in the North Center on Lack of Jobs ” . In Guardian June , 20
  • SDS . “ Port Huron Statement ” . In SDS Papers “Special Feature on U.S. Policy Toward Cuba,” New University Thought, 1, no. 4 (1961); “Join Labor to Fight Reds,” AFL-CIO News, April 29, 1961, 1–2; “Labor Pledges President Unstinting Support,” AFL-CIO News, Aug. 12, 1961, 1; “U.S. Labor Pledges Support to Halt Soviet Aggression,” AFL-CIO News, Oct. 27, 1967, 1; “AFL-CIO Backs U.S. On Cuba,” AFL-CIO News, Nov. 17, 1962, 1. Ronald Radosh, “American Labor and the Root Commission to Russia,” Studies on the Left, 3, no. 2 (1962), 34–47; “Editors Disagree on Cuba,” Liberation, 6, no. 1 (1961), 3–4; Sidney Lens, “Notes at Random,” Liberation, 7, no. 5–6 (1962), p. 12; Sumner Rosen, “Labor and the Politics of Peace,” Liberation, 7, no. 5–6 (1962), 31; “Dancing to Kennedy's War Tune: Congress, Press and Labor Dutifully Mount Bandwagon,” Guardian, Nov. 5, 1962, 5.
  • Lens , Sidney . 1962 . Notes at Random . Liberation , 7 ( 5–6 ) : 12 – 12 . Sumner Rosen, “Labor and the Politics of Peace,” Liberation, 7, no. 5–6 (1962), 31–35; Dave Dellinger, “Labor Action for Peace,” Liberation, 7, no. 9 (1962), 27. Nat Henthoff, Peace Agitator: The Story of A. J. Muste (New York, 1979); Sidney Lens, Unrepentent Radical: An American Activist's Account of Five Turbulent Decades (Boston, 1980). J. P. O'Brien, “The Development of the New Left,” chapt. 5; Lawrence Wittner, Rebels Against the War (New York, 1969), chapt. 10 and epilogue; Memo to Leo Kramer files, June 23, 1959, Box 44, President's Office, AFSCME Collection. Todd Gitlin, The Sixties (New York, 1987), 85–94; Maurice Isserman, If I Had A Hammer, 194–202.
  • Sale 116 – 119 . Joseph Conlin, The Troubles: A Jaundiced Glance Back at the Movement of the 1960s (New York, 1982); Lawrence Lader, Power on the Left: American Radical Movements Since 1946 (New York, 1979), 172.
  • Charles McDew to Ralph Helstein A:I, SNCC Papers 1963 Nov. 21 SDS, “Port Huron Statement,” SDS Papers.
  • 1963 . Trade Union Leadership Council: Experiment in Community . New University Thought , 3 ( 2 ) : 34 – 41 . B. J. Widdick, Detroit, 154–161; James H. Geschwender, Class, Race and Worker Insurgency (Cambridge, MA, 1977), 54–55.
  • An Introduction to the Freedom School Project n.d.; Peter Schnaufer to Elmer Wells, Feb. 10, 1964; Charles Coogen to AFT Civil Rights Committee, June 30, 1966, Box 5, President's Department, AFT Collection; “Introduction,” Richard Parrish Papers. “Union Teachers Are Active in Mississippi: Civil Rights Schools,” American Teacher, Summer, 1964; “Adopt a Mississippi Freedom School,” American Teacher, Summer, 1964. There is also some information on the Prince Edwards County Freedom Schools in the Norma Becker Papers, SHSW.
  • Cochran , Bert , ed. 1959 . American Labor in Midpassage New York gives a sense of the mood of the labor movement and activists on the verge of the 1960s.
  • Coleman Vernon T. Labor Power and Social Equality: UAW Politics and Black Workers, 1960–1980 UCLA 1984 unpublished diss. provides an even more subtle theory on labor support for civil rights.
  • Irving Bluestone to Lew Carliner Irving Bluestone, memo to Walter P. Reuther, Jan. 8, 1963, Box 523, WRP Collection 1962 July 17
  • Irving Bluestone, memo to Lew Carliner Box 523, WPR Collection 1963 Jan. 8 Nathaniel Minkoff to George Meany and Wm. Schnitzler, April 28, 1960; Aryeh Neier, memo to Victor Reuther, April 11, 1960; Tom Hayden to Walter P. Reuther, Mar. 29, 1963, Box 11, SDS Collection, Tamiment Library.
  • Unger , Irwin . The Movement chapt. 3

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