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Stern (Todes), Charlotte (audio interview #7 of 7)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the seventh and final interview with Charlotte Todes Stern, conducted in her Columbia University apartment by Ros Baxandall for the Feminist History Research Project. There is a problem with the audio towards the end of the first tape side. Following this interview, the narrator and interviewer stayed in contact and the relationship was important to both. 6/13/1977
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- 2021-01-27
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- SUBJECT BIO - Todes Stern was a radical activist for most her life, beginning with her introduction to YPSL (Young People's Socialist League) during her college years. Much her of activism focused on the labor movement and her membership in the Communist party. The daughter of Jewish immigrant parents, Stern was raised in East Boston. Her mother was obsessed with their her daughter obtaining a good education and Stern spent her high school years at Girl's Latin School before attending Radcliffe College. After Stern graduated from college in 1917, she was employed as a social worker with the Federation of Jewish Charities in Boston, where she worked on housing and welfare issues. In 1923, Stern became a staff member of the Workers Health Bureau (WHB) and when she returned from a two year sojourn in Europe with her husband two years later, she became their Organizing Secretary. She traveled around the US organizing on behalf of the WHB until 1927, when she moved to Seattle with her husband. There, she became the secretary of the International Labor Defense. Her work in the lumber camps during this period resulted in writing Labor and Lumber , published in 1932 under her family name, Charlotte Todes. During the 1930s, when the Sterns moved back to New York, she joined the Community party. In a short autobiographical sketch, Stern notes that her career in the CP was almost entirely devoted to organizing the unorganized. She worked, especially, with the Food Workers Organizing Committee and became the Educational Director when the workers succeeded in establishing a union. In 1945, the president of the union appointed Stern to the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. Later, called before HUAC, Stern, along with others on the committee, refused to turn over their records. In 1947 she was found guilty of Contempt of Congress and in 1950 served a three month sentence. With the politically repressive climate and fear that permeated the labor movement, Stern decided to retool and began working in the medical field. In 1956, at about the time that her husband died, she was fired from her job as a medical researcher as a result of FBI intervention. Eventually Stern found work as a journalist on a medical newspaper, where she remained until her retirement in 1971. Proud of her political history, Stern was very interested in making her oral history accessible. As a result, arrangements were made for the Tamiment Library at NYU to transcribe her oral history. Her edited transcript is on deposit there. TOPICS - personal life; widowhood; daughter; and medical journalism career;retirement; post-retirement political activities; WILPF; feminism and women's liberation movement, attitudes; personal reflections; political reflections; and communist beliefs;
- *** File: refcstern18.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-5:04)... In 1956, Bernhard Stern passed away. In the five years prior to his death, they lived in a house on Long Island. Their daughter was in England and was getting a divorce. Stern had worked in a physicians lab, but was fired after undergoing a background check. She became very lonely. (5:04-11:36)... Note: there is problem with the audio in this segment. Stern decided to seek a career in medicine and found a job as a medical researcher and later a medical journalist. She wrote a weekly column, "In Consultation," which later became a semi-weekly feature. The column was highly successful and she worked with the publication for thirteen years, retiring in 1971. End of tape. *** File: refcstern19.mp3 (0:00-5:20)... After Stern's husband, Bernhard, died, she did not consider remarriage. Once she began her career in the medical field, she left her labor and union activism behind. After retirement, her organizational activity was largely limited to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), an anti-war group. In the 1960s and afterwards, Stern felt that there was more acceptance of socialism and communism, in contrast to the demonization during the first half of the century. (5:20-8:27)... After Bernhard's death, Stern began to assemble his papers with the purpose of publishing a book. and received many donations in support of goal. She established a scholarship in Bernhard's name at the American Institute of Marxist Studies. The first award was scheduled for November 1977. (8:27-15:27)... Stern observed the revival of the women's rights movement during the 1960s, but did not appreciate that it was dominated by and focused largely on middle class women and did not include the working class. At times throughout her life, Stern felt conflicted about what she wanted to do. After retirement, she traveled to many countries she had never visited before. (15:27-24:24)... Although Stern discontinued her activism and the organization, Stern maintained her beliefs and support of communism. She also believed that the US would eventually move toward communism, though not through violent revolution. End of Tape.
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