California State University, Long Beach

Individual Labor Activists

 
 

This series is comprised of several individuals who were active in the labor movement and/or were participants in historic moments in labor history. In contrast to those included in the other labor history series, they are the sole narrators about the particular union(s) in which they were active and/or events in which they participated. They include: Genora Johnson Dollinger, the founder of the Women's Emergency Brigade during the 1936-7 auto workers strike in Flint, Michigan; Elinor Glenn, a leading organizer of public employees in Los Angeles starting in the 1940s and SEIU leader; Mary Thomas (O'neal), an eyewitness to the massacre during the Ludlow, Colorado strike of 1914; and Stan Weir, an activist and rank and file organizer among auto workers and longshoreman, and founder of Singlejack Books. The lengthy interview with another labor activist, Charlotte Todes Stern, is included instead in the Women's History/Reformers and Radicals series, along with a shorter interview with Grace McDonald about the Workers Health Bureau with which Stern was affiliated.

Recent Submissions

  • Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #8 of 8) 
    Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer (2020-09-22)
    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, ...
  • Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #7 of 8) 
    Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer (2020-09-22)
    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, ...
  • Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #6 of 8) 
    Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer (2020-09-22)
    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 ...
  • Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #5 of 8) 
    Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer (2020-09-22)
    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
  • Dollinger, Genora (Johnson) (audio interview #4 of 8) 
    Dollinger, Genora (Johnson); Berger Gluck, Sherna, interviewer (2020-09-22)
    INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the fourth of eight interviews conducted with Genora Dollinger in the sunny den of her home. By this time, we had established a warm and friendly relationship. During the interview, her ...