Individual Labor Activists
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/206696
2024-03-29T07:18:25ZDollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #8 of 8)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/217518
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #8 of 8)
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the eighth and final interview with Genora Dollinger conducted, as usual, in the sunny den room of her home. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the process of the interview, except that Dollinger seemed relieved that we were finishing up the oral history.
4/28/1977
SUBJECT BIO - Genora Johnson Dollinger is best known for her role in forming the Women's Emergency Brigade (of the UAW) during the Flint strike, 1936-7. Born to a relatively prominent and affluent family in Flint, Dollinger developed a heightened sense of women's subjugation as a result of her father's treatment of both his wife and daughters. She became interested in socialism through discussions with Carl Johnson, the father of her future husband, auto worker Kermit Johnson. She married Kermit Johnson over her parents objections, and they had two sons, both of whom were later killed in a car accident. Together with her husband and father-in-law, Dolliinger helped to build the Socialist Party (SP) in Flint, which became one of the organizing avenues for the 1936 strike. After the strike began, frustrated with the traditional roles to which she was initially relegated, Dollinger formed the Women's Emergency Brigade, a militant group of women popularized in the documentary, With Babies and Banners. Dollinger remained active in the UAW following the strike. Later, during the war, and after her marriage to Sol Dollinger, she went to work in Detroit at Briggs Manufacturing. She was badly beaten later, in the postwar years, during the vicious anti-union campaign organized by the manufacturers. While still in Michigan, she became active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), worked for the ACLU, and continued to be involved in the UAW. The Dollingers moved to Los Angeles in 1967, when her third son was fourteen years old. Despite her growing health problems, she remained active in a host of liberal and progressive causes and heaped to form the Community Advisory Councils of the LA Unified School District. In 1977, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Flint strike, Dollinger returned to Michigan and, despite her health problems, led a protest against the slighting of women's role in the strike. After her death in 1995, Sol Dollinger published their jointly authored book, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers Union (Monthly Review Press, 2000), which includes an oral history of Genora by Susan Rosenthal.
TOPICS - line stewards of Department 15; women's attendance at Local meetings; sexual harassment and sexism; work force demographics; structure of steward system and grievance procedures in Local 212; women's attitudes towards the union; UAW campaign against no-strike pledge; wildcat strikes; vice chairman of chief stewards body; public speaking teaching; 1945 retooling and demobilization; firing local leaders; UAW Rank and File Committee to Revoke No-Strike Pledge; Greater Flint Industrial Union Council; and support of no-strike pledge by CP;demobilization and retooling of Detroit plants; postwar layoffs; walk outs; anti-union campaigns; postwar glamorization of housewives and domesticity; beatings of Dollinger and UAW leaders, including Reuther brothers; investigative committee established in Local 212 to investigate beatings; beatings linked to Mafia; termination from Briggs, August 1945; mayoral campaign of UAW candidate Dick Frankenstein and running city council candidates to combat anti-union forces; UAW demands for thirty percent wage increase; Charles Wilson's and GM's call for forty-eight-hour work week and minute wage increase; and work in cotton factory;
2020-09-22T00:00:00ZDollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #7 of 8)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/217517
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #7 of 8)
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This seventh interview conducted, as usual, in the sunny den room of Dollinger's home was very difficult for her. She seems to have blocked her memory of the accident that killed her two children, and became very upset in discussing this period of her life. However, when the focus turned to her political work in Los Angeles, particularly her work in supporting the teachers strike in the late 1960s, she became more spirited.
4/19/1977
SUBJECT BIO - Genora Johnson Dollinger is best known for her role in forming the Women's Emergency Brigade (of the UAW) during the Flint strike, 1936-7. Born to a relatively prominent and affluent family in Flint, Dollinger developed a heightened sense of women's subjugation as a result of her father's treatment of both his wife and daughters. She became interested in socialism through discussions with Carl Johnson, the father of her future husband, auto worker Kermit Johnson. She married Kermit Johnson over her parents objections, and they had two sons, both of whom were later killed in a car accident. Together with her husband and father-in-law, Dolliinger helped to build the Socialist Party (SP) in Flint, which became one of the organizing avenues for the 1936 strike. After the strike began, frustrated with the traditional roles to which she was initially relegated, Dollinger formed the Women's Emergency Brigade, a militant group of women popularized in the documentary, With Babies and Banners. Dollinger remained active in the UAW following the strike. Later, during the war, and after her marriage to Sol Dollinger, she went to work in Detroit at Briggs Manufacturing. She was badly beaten later, in the postwar years, during the vicious anti-union campaign organized by the manufacturers. While still in Michigan, she became active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), worked for the ACLU, and continued to be involved in the UAW. The Dollingers moved to Los Angeles in 1967, when her third son was fourteen years old. Despite her growing health problems, she remained active in a host of liberal and progressive causes and heaped to form the Community Advisory Councils of the LA Unified School District. In 1977, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Flint strike, Dollinger returned to Michigan and, despite her health problems, led a protest against the slighting of women's role in the strike. After her death in 1995, Sol Dollinger published their jointly authored book, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers Union (Monthly Review Press, 2000), which includes an oral history of Genora by Susan Rosenthal.
TOPICS - Michigan Commonwealth Federation; postwar layoffs of women; status of UAW during postwar period; distancing herself from the union and moving towards community groups; chauvinism and sexism in the UAW; NAACP activism; NAACP Saturday night socials; SWP and NAACP cooperation; developing current events class in Unitarian Church; senatorial campaign in 1948; and attitude towards SWP leadership;senatorial campaign; SWP responsibilities; expulsion from SWP; Sol Dollinger's health problems and work history; work in real estate sales; job at Chevrolet local credit union; American Socialist; decision to have another child; move to Detroit; activities and work with ACLU; Women for Peace; Alice Herz's self-immolation protest of Vietnam War; disillusionment with ACLU; and decision to move to Los Angeles;Sol Dollinger's transfer to Los Angeles; activities with Wilshire chapter of ACLU; development of Community Advisory Council at Los Angeles High School; 1968 teachers strike; son's high-school activities and participation in student march during teachers strike; organizing ecology club and ecology course at Los Angeles High School; Crenshaw Women's Center; SWP at Crenshaw Women's Center; views on ERA, women's rights, and women's accomplishments; working with BSEIU and AFSCME workers; typing Mexican American newsletter for county workers in Flint; work with Mexican American community in Los Angeles; reflections about her life and union activities; and gender discrimination;
2020-09-22T00:00:00ZDollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #6 of 8)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/217516
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #6 of 8)
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This sixth interview with Genora Dollinger took place in the sunny den of her home almost three months after the previous interview. In the interim, she had attended the 40th anniversary of the strike in Michigan. In response to the slighting of women's role during the celebration, she joined with others to organize a protest. This activity seemed to exacerbate her heart condition, and although she seemed to be in more fragile health, her anger about the celebration was palpable.
4/1/1977
SUBJECT BIO - Genora Johnson Dollinger is best known for her role in forming the Women's Emergency Brigade (of the UAW) during the Flint strike, 1936-7. Born to a relatively prominent and affluent family in Flint, Dollinger developed a heightened sense of women's subjugation as a result of her father's treatment of both his wife and daughters. She became interested in socialism through discussions with Carl Johnson, the father of her future husband, auto worker Kermit Johnson. She married Kermit Johnson over her parents objections, and they had two sons, both of whom were later killed in a car accident. Together with her husband and father-in-law, Dolliinger helped to build the Socialist Party (SP) in Flint, which became one of the organizing avenues for the 1936 strike. After the strike began, frustrated with the traditional roles to which she was initially relegated, Dollinger formed the Women's Emergency Brigade, a militant group of women popularized in the documentary, With Babies and Banners. Dollinger remained active in the UAW following the strike. Later, during the war, and after her marriage to Sol Dollinger, she went to work in Detroit at Briggs Manufacturing. She was badly beaten later, in the postwar years, during the vicious anti-union campaign organized by the manufacturers. While still in Michigan, she became active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), worked for the ACLU, and continued to be involved in the UAW. The Dollingers moved to Los Angeles in 1967, when her third son was fourteen years old. Despite her growing health problems, she remained active in a host of liberal and progressive causes and heaped to form the Community Advisory Councils of the LA Unified School District. In 1977, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Flint strike, Dollinger returned to Michigan and, despite her health problems, led a protest against the slighting of women's role in the strike. After her death in 1995, Sol Dollinger published their jointly authored book, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers Union (Monthly Review Press, 2000), which includes an oral history of Genora by Susan Rosenthal.
TOPICS - conflicts around the 40th anniversary celebration of 1937 strike; speaking engagement at anniversary celebration at Fisher Body Plant No; 2 local; sexism and gender discrimination in the UAW; organizing women for demonstration against Flint anniversary celebration; collaboration with CLUW and NOW; television broadcast featuring women opposed to their exclusion from the anniversary celebration in Flint; women's demonstration at Flint celebration; heart difficulties during demonstration;controversy surrounding 40th anniversary celebration in Flint ; organizing a demonstration; regrets about her speech; Victor Reuther; plans to discuss future anniversary celebrations and women's status in the union during May 1977 UAW National Convention; status of women in the UAW and the plants; gender discrimination; lack of affirmative action in the plants; television interview with emergency brigade women, CLUW and NOW; physical health; and likelihood of a women's caucus forming in Flint;
2020-09-22T00:00:00ZDollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #5 of 8)
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/217514
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #5 of 8)
Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This fifth interview with Genora Dollinger was conducted after almost a four month hiatus, during which she suffered some health setbacks.
1/20/1977
SUBJECT BIO - Genora Johnson Dollinger is best known for her role in forming the Women's Emergency Brigade (of the UAW) during the Flint strike, 1936-7. Born to a relatively prominent and affluent family in Flint, Dollinger developed a heightened sense of women's subjugation as a result of her father's treatment of both his wife and daughters. She became interested in socialism through discussions with Carl Johnson, the father of her future husband, auto worker Kermit Johnson. She married Kermit Johnson over her parents objections, and they had two sons, both of whom were later killed in a car accident. Together with her husband and father-in-law, Dolliinger helped to build the Socialist Party (SP) in Flint, which became one of the organizing avenues for the 1936 strike. After the strike began, frustrated with the traditional roles to which she was initially relegated, Dollinger formed the Women's Emergency Brigade, a militant group of women popularized in the documentary, With Babies and Banners. Dollinger remained active in the UAW following the strike. Later, during the war, and after her marriage to Sol Dollinger, she went to work in Detroit at Briggs Manufacturing. She was badly beaten later, in the postwar years, during the vicious anti-union campaign organized by the manufacturers. While still in Michigan, she became active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), worked for the ACLU, and continued to be involved in the UAW. The Dollingers moved to Los Angeles in 1967, when her third son was fourteen years old. Despite her growing health problems, she remained active in a host of liberal and progressive causes and heaped to form the Community Advisory Councils of the LA Unified School District. In 1977, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Flint strike, Dollinger returned to Michigan and, despite her health problems, led a protest against the slighting of women's role in the strike. After her death in 1995, Sol Dollinger published their jointly authored book, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers Union (Monthly Review Press, 2000), which includes an oral history of Genora by Susan Rosenthal.
TOPICS - WPA training program; defense job at Bud Wheel; attitude of men towards women in production jobs; working conditions; effects of work on physical condition; UAW Local 306; women's attitudes towards unionism; SWP meetings with Bud Wheel workers; being blacklisted and losing job at Bud Wheel; applying for work at Briggs Manufacturing; Briggs, Local 212; drill press production work; promotion to inspection; sexism and sexual harassment in Department 15; termination from Briggs and support walkout; election to chief steward of Department 15 after reinstatement; and hours and working conditions;description of Department 15; wages; housing; chief steward position; grievances; sexism and sexual harassment; counseling women as part of steward role; stool pigeons in Department 15; work force demographics; lesbian relationships; steward structure and relationships; child care issues; men's attitudes towards women in production jobs; women's economic independence; Local 212 political caucuses; racism and chauvinism in Local 212; segregation in the plant; stewards caucuses; role in initiating plant-wide strike; and second dismissal from Briggs;arbitration over termination; racism among women; department meetings; veterans in Department 15; Education Committee, Local 212; SWP activities; anti-war stance of militants in Local; class consciousness; educating women in Department 15 about war; and expectations for women in postwar period;
2020-09-22T00:00:00Z