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Seligman's early childhood memories of Slupca under Polish-Russian rule--Parents speak Yiddish and German--Singing in synagogue and school chorus--Rebelling against Jewish school teacher--Influenced by Young Socialist Polish Party -- Discussion of Bund General Jewish Labor Union in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia-- Seligman leaves Jewish school and attends progressive school--Expulsion from Jewish Boy Scouts--Organizes a Turnverein--Socialist education--Early days of World War I -- Speaking with Russian prisoners--The Polish national struggle.
Jewish cultural club in Slupca--Seligman writes "The Turnverein Song"--Fighting with Polish Socialist Party--Vladimir Medem, leader of socialist right wing--War over Li thuania--Jozef Pilsudski, then Ignace Jan Paderewski, run Polish government--Russian Revolution polarizes Polish Socialist Party -- Seligman volunteers for Polish army--Decides to leave Poland--Granted passport--Sails to London.
Seligman arrives in Boston--Becomes a millinery worker and joins the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union--Joins Communist Labor Party--0rganizes workers in other shops--The fishermen's union supports a strike in Gloucester--Assigned as full-time union organizer--Settles labor dispute in Wi sconsin--Negotiates for unemployment fund--General secretary of strike committee in support of Sacco-Vanzetti case--Arrested and released by Boston police--General walkout in support of Sacco and Vanzetti--Seligman is given the choice of attending Brookwood Labor School in New York or Trade Union College in England.
Polish socialists' response to Russian Revolution--Talks with Russian prisoners--Life under German occupation--Fight over Vilna-- Jozef Pilsudski, leader of Polish Socialist Party--Seligman becomes disillusioned with Polish socialists--Friends arrested for communist activities and sent to concentration camps--Local 7 of the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union--Gladys Schechter.
First impressions of Brookwood--Brookwood faculty and board members--History and English classes--Immigrant students--Eva Shafran, fellow student and communist--Jasper Deeter and public speaking class--Daily life at Brookwood--Social interactions between black and white students--Seligman is elected president of Brookwood student body--Fellow students Walter Reuther and Vera Bush.
Brookwood comrade Edward Falkowsky--The United Mine Workers of America--Eva Shafran--Josephine Kazer and the United Textile Workers of America--Harry Bellaver--Communist Party meetings at Brookwood--Communist Party classes--Abraham J. Muste--Seligman promotes worker education in unions--Alice Dodge--More on workers education.
Seligman works as a union organizer--Becomes a cutter in the shoe industry--0rganizes shoe workers in Lynn and establishes the National Shoe Workers of America--0rganizes shoe workers in Boston--Meetings with Alice Dodge--Working with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in workers education--Problems with racketeering--Integration of various nationalities in union-- Seligman is threatened by racketeers.
Seligman is warned about interfering in union racketeering--Paul Salvagio and gambling--Organizing in the Midwest--Seligman travels to Los Angeles--Writes to Alice Dodge--Returns to Boston and resigns--Expelled from Communist Party over trade union issue--Seligman writes letter to Stalin appealing his expulsion--Argues for American exceptionalism and is branded a counterrevolutionary.
Seligman moves to Los Angeles--Growth of California shoe industry--Shoe workers' wages in Los Angeles and in Boston--J. W. Bazelle and the labor movement--Seligman becomes a sample cutter at the Fern Shoe Company--Organizes shoe workers--Union changes its name from National Shoe Workers to United Shoe Workers of America--Mike Padgett and formation of the union--Seligman organizes other shop meetings-- Union is recognized as only collective bargaining agent and working conditions are established--Seligman becomes a full-time organizer for the shoe workers.
Progressive members of the AFL in the workers education movement--George Roberts and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)--Bazelle and Central Labor Council meetings--Progressive unions and leaders--Strike at Douglas Aircraft Company--Seligman represents shoe workers in successful meetings with William Henry Joyce, Jr.--Powers Hapgood and the CIO.
Lovestone and the left-wing trade union movement--Seligman1s opposition to dual revolutionary unions and support of AFL unions-- The proposed American labor party--End Poverty in California (EPIC) organization--The New Deal--Union work in Los Angeles--Bazelle1s support of craft unions rather than industrial unions--0pposition to Bazelle--Recruitment of new members into the United Shoe Workers of America--Union arranges jobs for shoe workers from Saint Louis--United Shoe Workers joins the ClO--Support from the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILG) and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union--Isadore Ludsky, Sidney Hillman, and David Dubinsky.
Seligman1 s work as secretary/organizer of the shoe workers union--George Roberts, the ILG, and the formation of the CIO in Los Angeles--The Douglas strike--James Marshall Carter defends the strikers in the Supreme Court--George Wilson and the CIO--Communists assume control of the CIO leadership--Seligman's disagreements with the Communist Party-- Seligman serves on executive committee of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League for the Defense of American Democracy--The Nazi-Soviet pact--Communist criticisms of Seligman as a union leader--Improvements in working conditions in the Los Angeles shoe industry.
Mexican workers in the shoe industry--Wage increases and full employment in the shoe industry--Settling disputes with shop stewards--Wage differentials in the crafts--Explanation of line, from laster to maker-- Opposition to Harry Bridges's appointment as state secretary of the CIO--From trade union leader to arbitrator--The National Labor Relations Board and Town Nylander.
The CIO Executive Committee--Town Nylander and the National Labor Relations Board--The National Board of Arbitrators--The National Labor Relations Act--Seligman goes to work as industrial relations director for Joyce, Inc.-- Comes into contact with the War Labor Board through working at a gas mask factory-- Exemption from military service--Alice Dodge and workers education--Henry Wallace--Work in the liquor industry--CIO expulsions--Lovestone and other leftists eventually become right- wing--Seligman's political opinions after the 1930s--The decline of the American labor movement.