Tool & Die Strike – 1939

On CAN TV Chicago Cable TV Channel 19:
Thurs., Jan. 8, 9:30 pm
Fri., Jan. 9, 4:30 pm
Thurs., Jan. 15, 9:30 pm
Fri., Jan. 16, 4:30 pm

"Tool and Die Strike–1939” is a rescued documentary made, we presume, by the U.A.W.C.I.O. in that year, and which has not been seen by the general public for many years...probably 70 years since it was made. This is an extraordinary and priceless glimpse into events erased from memory--at least as far as the visual scenes are concerned. A number of years ago a friend of Labor Beat, researcher of old film footage, and documentary maker Denns Mueller [The Assassination of JFK; Framed: The Story of Geronimo Pratt; John Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisitions, etc.], discovered this film while poking around in the National Archives. He asked the modern-day UAW if they had heard of it, and they hadn't. But Dennis made a copy of it for us.

Possibly the reason why it had been forgotten for many decades since the Great Depression was because it describes certain factional battles within the UAW in 1939, frictions which later the UAW may have wanted to hide away in the "attic", or the National Archives as the case might be.

In any event, the situation at the beginning of the strike, described briefly in our presentation by labor historian Martin Glaberman, is that there arose a split within the UAW, with one faction going with the AFL, and the other with the CIO. The company took advantage of this confusion and abrogated its contract with the UAW, declaring that it didn't know any more who the bargaining agent was. The U.A.W.C.I.O. had no choice but to strike to reestablish its contract. Through the course of this strike the film presents a remarkable range of creative strategies which the union develops: flying squads (using cars filled with picketers to quickly plug up holes in the picket line); liaisons with the farmers who supply them with food; plans to run labor candidates for the Detroit City Council; food kitchens and ladies' auxiliaries (keep in mind the cultural context of 1939); refusing to allow the company to remove machine tooling equipment from the factory; and so forth.

This film would be fascinating under any circumstances, but today, under the conditions of our national economic crisis, it has added resonance. First of all, it shows the courage and sacrifices of the auto workers who gave so much backbone to the working class, and reminds us today of how important still are the UAW and the gains it won. The film is also a vivid reminder of what the Great Depression of the 1930s was -- as we face today another Great Depression. All the fog of consumerism and centrist corporatism is blown away, leaving the raw basics: jackbooted police and mounted company cops; pro-company newspapers and governments; the factory, the means of production of wealth; the workers' solidarity on the picket lines and in the community. Here is the bedrock of society laid bare before us, without illusions. -Larry Duncan

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