May 1935, 5th Anniversary book, modernist design with IWO fraternal history
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- Title (English):
- May 1935, 5th Anniversary book, modernist design with IWO fraternal history
- Collection:
- International Workers' Order (IWO) and Jewish People's Fraternal Order (JPFO)
- Set:
- Black Jewish Relations
Culture Front
Popular Front Years
Visual
Conferences, Conventions, Meetings
IWO and JPFO Affiliated Publications and Publishing
Exhibit and Collection Highlights
Black Labor, Organizing and Rights - Creator:
- National Executive Committee of the International Workers Order
- Recipient:
- International Workers Order members
- Organization:
- International Workers Order
- Date:
- 1935-05
- Location:
- 80 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York
- ID Number:
- 5276b48f13_01
- File Name:
- 5276b48f13_01.pdf
- Address (creator):
- 80 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York
- Work Type:
- publications (documents)
reports
resolutions (administrative records)
organization files
booklets
membership literature
photographs - Subject:
- resolutions
historical figures
political ideologies and attitudes
national organization
Black Jewish Relations
African Americans- Civil Rights
Political
National Sections
National Groups
Civil Rights
national prejudice
racial prejudice
English (Language)
membership
interracial
communism
membership
lodges
Social Security
Antisemitism
Jewish lodges
Yiddish (language)
race (Concept)
Insurance
Membership- Benefits, Insurance
Black people in the labor movement
Black people
Black people - Employment
Ethnic relations - Description:
- May 1935, 5th Anniversary book, modernist design with the IWO's fraternal history from its 1930 founding with 5,000 Yiddish-speaking members to over 67,000 members by 1935. New "National "societies were invited to join during the Depression, which meant the growth of membership, benefits and assets under insurance. National Section histories explain how pre-existing Hungarian, Slovak and Russian societies joined the IWO followed by Italian, Romanian, Ukranian, Polish, Croatian-Serbian and Spanish-speakers who were organized into Sections. Photos show the medical and dental departments' affordable coverage. Articles by General Secretary Max Bedacht, and Rubin Saltzman, the IWO's founder and head of its Yiddish speaking Jewish Section, explain how the IWO split off from the Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring) in 1930 to promote a "proletarian fraternalism" that provides better benefits and politics at lesser cost. The volume includes an important essay "Fraternalism and the Negro People" by Louise Thompson that outlines the history of commercial companies denying and/or overcharging Blacks for insufficient insurance coverage. Thompson also explains that the IWO does not discriminate or profit from its insurance coverage or rates. Bedacht writes: "[Workers] are able to solve their common problems only by making their solution their common cause. But the unity required for this is prevented by bourgeois teachings of racial, religious, national and other prejudices. As a result, instead of unitedly hating and fighting against the capitalists and capitalism, the workers hate and fight each other because of differences in color of their skin, differences in the country of their birth, differences in their language, or differences in their religion...[the IWO] has in the first five years of its existence built itself from a group of Jewish workers into an international body. Negroes and whites are organized together; many branches and nine national language sections speak different tongues within the Order." Doodles on front cover.
This text uses the term ‘Negro’ to refer to Black people in the context of the concerted efforts made primarily in the 1920s-1940s to fight racial discrimination. While the term ‘Negro’ might be read as pejorative today, the term was then used in a positive regard, including by Black leftists. - Cite As:
- International Workers Order (IWO) Records #5276. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University
- Archival Collection:
- International Workers Order (IWO) Records, 1915-2002 (KCL05276)
- Box:
- 48
- Folder:
- 13
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The copyright status and copyright owners of most of the images in the International Workers Order (IWO) Records Collection (Kheel Center #5276) are unknown. This material was digitized from physical holdings by Cornell University Library in 2016, with funding from an Arts and Sciences Grant to Jonathan Boyarin. Documents include language and representations which comprise the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that Cornell University or its staff endorse or approve of negative representations or stereotypes presented. Cornell is providing access to the materials as a digital aggregate under an assertion of fair use for non-commercial educational use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Cornell would like to learn more about items in the collection and to hear from individuals or institutions that have any additional information as to rights holders. Please contact the Kheel Center at kheel_center@cornell.edu