The 1926 Passaic textile strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey, over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity. Conducted in its initial phase by a "United Front Committee" organized by the Trade Union Educational League of the Workers (Communist) Party, the strike began on January 25, 1926, and officially ended only on March 1, 1927, when the final mill being picketed signed a contract with the striking workers. It was the first Communist-led work stoppage in the United States. The event was memorialized by a seven-reel silent movie intended to generate sympathy and funds for the striking workers.
History Prelude to the strike From the end of the 19th century, Passaic, New Jersey, located just south of the city of Paterson, was the heart of an industrial district which included the towns of Lodi, Wallington, Garfield, and the city of Clifton.David J. Goldberg, A Tale of Two Cities: Labor Organization and Protest in Paterson, Passic, and Lawrence, 1916-1921. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1989; pg. 46. While cotton and woolen mills had been constructed in the area as early as the 1860s, it was not until 1889, when Congress increased the rate of tariffs on imported worsted wool that the textile industry expanded in any meaningful way.
In the middle part of the 1920s, there were over 16,000 workers employed in the wool and silk mills located in and around Passaic, New Jersey.Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Volume 10: The TUEL, 1925-1929. New York: International Publishers, 1994; pg. 143. The largest of the mills in the area, the German-owned Botany Worsted Mill, employed 6,400 workers, with three other giant mills employing thousands more. The workers at these facilities were predominantly foreign-born, including among them representatives of 39 nationalities, with immigrants from Poland, Italy, Russia, Hungary in particular evidence. Fully half the workforce was female.
Wages of these workers were miserable. A 1926 survey indicated that male workers in the Passaic textile mills averaged wages of from $1,000 to $1,200 per year, while female workers typically earned from $800 to $1,000 per annum. Female workers worked 10 hours a day to earn this sum, with the pace of work rapid and the use of the piecework system prevalent. With an income of approximately $1,400 estimated to be necessary to maintain a basic "American standard of living," many New Jersey factory workers found themselves on the brink of financial disaster.The minimum wage estimate is that of the National Industrial Conference Board, cited in Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 146.
This was not just a question of creature comforts for many Passaic textile workers, but a matter of life and death. The 1925 report of the New Jersey Department of Health showed a death rate for infants under 1 year of age that was 43% higher than for the rest of the state, 52% higher for children aged 1–5 and 5–9.Cited in Albert Weisbord, Passaic: The Story of a Struggle Against Starvation Wages and for the Right to Organize. Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1926; pg. 18. Sanitary conditions were poor and an exhaustingly long work week in poorly ventilated facilities resulted in a higher than average rate of tuberculosis as well as other diseases.
The affected workers had little recourse to their situation. Despite previous efforts to organize the Passaic millworkers by the Industrial Workers of the World and the Workers International Industrial Union in 1912 and the Amalgamated Textile Workers Union in 1919 and 1920, as of 1925 there were no textile unions extant in the area.Weisbord, Passaic, pg. 19. A conscious effort was made by the mill owners to employ as many nationalities as possible in their facilities, thereby making the task of labor organization even more difficult.Weisbord, Passaic, pg. 18.
A majority of the strikers were foreign-born, with the biggest percentage being Poles, followed by Italians and Hungarians.Ben Gitlow, "The Passaic Textile Workers Strike," The Workers Monthly, vol. 5, no. 8 (June 1926), pg. 349. Despite the divergent nationalities involved, it was judged that, given the limits placed upon new immigration, these foreign-born workers had been more tightly attached to their occupations and "greatly Americanized." Communist union organizer Ben Gitlow observed that these workers "understand English and have acclimated themselves to many of the American customs," cemented together by their American-born children into "one homogeneous whole."
In the fall of 1925, after first applying economic pressure to household budgets by the cutting of work hours, Passaic's largest mill, Botany, implemented a 10% wage cut.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 147. This cut was matched at once by all the other mills in the area, save one.
A former Phi Beta Kappa graduate of City College of New York and Harvard Law School, Albert Weisbord, was already active in the Passaic area as an organizer for the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL), the trade union arm of the Workers (Communist) Party. Weisbord moved into the void, establishing a "United Front Committee of Textile Workers" (UFC) — a de facto union organizing committee for the supposedly "unorganizable" immigrant mill hands. Within about 2 months, the UFC had enrolled about 1,000 workers in its ranks to fight the wage cut at the Botany Worsted Mill.Foner, History of the Labor Movement of the United States, vol. 10, pp. 147-148.
Outbreak of the strike On January 21, 1926, a worker speaking out for the United Front Committee was fired from the Botany Worsted Mills for his organizing activity, sparking worker unrest.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 148. A committee of 3 was elected by the members of the UFC to meet with the manager of the Botany facility to discuss the firing. This committee was told in no uncertain terms that any individuals known to be members of the UFC would be similarly terminated, a hardline position which further inflamed the situation.
Another meeting of the UFC followed on January 25, at which it was decided to elect a committee of 45 to meet again with management. This time not in supplication for the reinstatement of a fired colleague, but rather to present a set of concrete demands, including establishment of a 44-hour work week,Labor Research Department of the Rand School of Social Science, Solon DeLeon and Nathan Fine (eds.), The American Labor Year Book, 1927. New York: Vanguard Press, 1927; pp. 107-107. elimination of the 10% pay cut effected in October 1925, initiation of the payment of time-and-a-half rates for overtime work, and firm promises that there would be no retaliation by management against union members. Instead of negotiating, the manager of the mill chose to fire the entire committee on the spot. The committee returned to their places at the mill, told their fellow workers what had transpired, and called for them to shut down production. Within an hour, 4,000 Botany workers had walked out and begun to picket at the factory gate, and the strike was on.
The strike develops On February 9, 1926, a line of strikers attempted to cross the bridge from Passaic to the neighboring Garfield in an attempt to shut down the Forstmann & Huffman mill in that city.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 149. They were met at the bridge by a line of police, who wielded their clubs and turned back the strikers. The effort was repeated the next day and a picket line was established and joined by many workers of the mill. In the face of continued aggressive picketing, the firm was forced to shutter its operations for the duration of the strike on February 23.
The authorities met this expansion of the strike with intensified force. On February 25, the Passaic City Council invoked a Riot Act which had been on the books for more than six decades against the strikers.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 153. On March 2, a line of policemen blockaded a street along which a line of pickets was passing. Stopped in their tracks, the police began clubbing the massed strikers and dispersed the crowd with the use of tear gas and firehoses of icy-cold water. Horses and motorcycles were ridden into the crowd.Ben Gitlow, "The Passaic Textile Workers Strike," pg. 348. The riotous scene was repeated the next day, this time with newspaper reporters and photographers present to chronicle the mayhem. The authorities took the fight to the press, clubbing cameramen and destroying cameras. Dozens were arrested, including strike leader Albert Weisbord, who was held on $50,000 bail.
The strikers paused for a day before making their next effort, this time donning steel helmets and passing triumphantly through the police line as cameramen documented the scene from the safe confines of armored cars and via an airplane overhead.
The strikers next turned their attention to the United Piece Dye Works of Lodi, located three miles from Passaic. This large factory was also shut down under the pressure of picketing workers on March 9. The original strike of 4,000 Botany workers had grown to 15,000 of the estimated 17,000 textile workers in the area.
Mass meetings of the strikers were held daily and picket lines continued without interruption.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 150. A governing strike committee containing representatives from each striking mill, as well as delegates from participating ethnic groups, met each morning at 9 am. Key organizers were provided by the Workers (Communist) Party and included, in addition to Albert Weisbord, New York, garment worker Lena Chernenko and Jack Stachel of the Trade Union Educational League.
Borrowing a page from the successful 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike by sending away children of striking workers to the homes of sympathizers in New York City.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 151. This simultaneously reduced the maintenance cost of the strike and served as a vehicle to garner publicity and support for the work stoppage.
A more innovative attempt to garner public sympathy and financial support came in the form of a motion picture shot to aid the strikers' cause. Entitled simply The Passaic Textile Strike, the 7-reel film was directed by Samuel Russak and produced by Communist Party functionary Alfred Wagenknecht, making use of funds provided by International Workers Aid, an adjunct of the Communist International.The relationship of the film to International Workers Aid was not disguised, with the name of the organization and its logo featured prominently in the titles at the front of the film. See: The Passaic Textile Strike: Prologue. Video available from archive.org. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
In April Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas and Communist Robert W. Dunn, members of the National Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), challenged the virtual imposition of martial law by Bergen County's sheriff, by speaking to strikers there. Thomas and Dunn were arrested with two others for violation of the New Jersey "Riot Act" and held under $10,000 bond, providing an opportunity for the ACLU to begin legal action and to obtain an injunction against the sheriff for his alleged violation of civil rights.Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 10, pg. 154. The courage of Thomas, Dunn, and their fellows was followed by others, including Reverend John Haynes Holmes and constitutional scholar Arthur Garfield Hays, who likewise came to Passaic in defiance of the authorities to exercise their constitutional rights.
Strike support