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Stern (Todes), Charlotte (audio interview #5 of 7)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the fifth of seven interviews with Charlotte Todes Stern, conducted in her Columbia University apartment by Ros Baxandall for the Feminist History Research Project. Stern was a friend of Baxandall's parents and because she and the interviewer shared a similar world, they maintained good rapport and enjoyed each other's company. The interviewer noted that she found this session a bit chaotic. Although she couldn't quite put her finger on the problem, she surmised that both she and the narrator were easily sidetracked. She also felt that as she was getting to know Stern, she felt freer with her and tended to interrupt too much. 6/6/1976
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- 2021-01-27
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- *** File: refcstern12.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (3:00-9:49)... In December 1941, Stern became the welfare director of the Local 6 Hotel Workers Union, helping workers on an individual basis and teaching them about their health and safety rights. It was a very diverse union and included a wide range of employment positions and skill levels, people of different ethnicities, and a large number of women. (9:49-13:17)... Stern's responsibility as welfare director of the Hotel Workers Union involved working with members on an individual level. The union provided an attorney to accompany workers filing for workers compensation, and was very active when it came time to negotiate new contracts. Until the welfare department was introduced, the union did very little to assist with members' personal problems. (13:17-18:09)... Stern worked with a diverse set of people, including Charles Collins, a Black labor activist; Don Tillman, a Columbia College dropout; and Tony Lopez, a Spanish recruiter; as well as many women activists. The union became known as one of the largest and most progressive unions. She worked with it for nine years, but was not welfare director during the entire time. (18:09-23:13)... Stern became the union's War Services and Educational director in 1943. There was disagreement within the union about supporting the war effort. Many union members had relatives serving in the military. There was an increased level of tolerance of the Soviet Union when it took on the brunt of fighting. Although many people in the union knew that Stern was a communist, they were indifferent to her views. (23:13-31:43)... During Stern's time with the hotel union, women workers were largely segregated from men in the hotels. Many inexperienced Black women came into the job market during the war, but they were quick to embrace the unions. The women were not allowed in certain positions, such as bar tending. Men and women received equal pay, but wages were incredibly low. The union helped fund war assistance organizations such as the Red Cross. After the war ended, the national AFL body issued directives to fire the replacement workers. (31:44-36:41)... Stern's hotel union established various committees to help with war efforts, such as blood donations, war relief, and soldier support. These activities were organized in addition to the regular union and workers' rights campaigns. Because Stern was so busy with union activities, her husband took on the majority of family responsibilities. (36:41-41:55)... After Stern's father entered a nursing home, her mother helped to care for her daughter, Mira. In her early life, Mira saw little of Stern; when she was older, she would visit Stern at the union halls and watch her teach. She enjoyed her mother's union lectures and was proud of her parents' activism. Although she attended a progressive school, teachers and other students at times felt she was too radical. End of tape. *** File: refcstern13.mp3 (0:00-7:06)... Stern notes that she used her family name, Todes, throughout the 1930s. At wars end, the hotel laborers had less of a problem with being displaced by returning servicemen because the hotels were especially prosperous during the postwar period. Most of the workers and local organizers wanted the union to fight for a variety of issues, but union officials chose only to press for fringe benefits. Many union leaders were moving away from a radical viewpoint to what Stern characterized as a more "respectable left." (7:06-13:09)... In 1945, Stern began serving on the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, a group involved in assisting refugees of the Spanish Civil War. She had attended no more than three meetings before she began to be watched by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Other unions and organizations were also wary of her and reluctant to hire her because of her communist associations. (13:09-19:48)... When she was working with the Labor Defender in 1930, Stern was asked to go to a public park in Yonkers to join a protest against a ban on public speakers. Those who tried to speak were arrested, and the police began to use physical restraints to repress the protesters. Stern was charged but the case was settled without her notice. Later, her daughter Mira found an article about the incident in the newspaper. (19:48-24:34)... After WWII, Stern was primarily concerned with education. She gave lectures on union issues at the Workers School and also spoke in support of the CP. Her husband became even less involved with the party because he had more opportunities available in the scholarly world. (24:34-33:48)... Although Stern was very busy as an activist and organizer in both the union and CP, she did not have great confidence in party politics and debate. Many other members had political ambitions beyond the Communist party. When the party began to decline, many of these members left for other organizations. (33:48-37:54)... Even though some unions were wary of communists, Stern was able to find work because of her strong work ethic and the respect she had among her peers. Anti-communist groups were able to chip away at the CP's support by intimidating the more mainstream and peripheral party members. After the party members had been divided, the more loyal core participants were targeted. End of tape.
- 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 - Hotel Workers, Local 6; union work; war years; African American women; family life; family roles; and daughter;WWII; Hotel Workers Union; Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee; HUAC; McCarthyism; CP organizing; Workers School; political activism; husband; anti-communism; and decline of the CP;
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