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Kushner, Florence (audio interview #3 of 4)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the third of four interviews conducted with Flo Kushner as part of a project for a women's oral history class at CSULB.
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- 2021-02-02
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- *** File: reffkushner5.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-6:23)... Working at the Stewart Warner plant, Kushner helped organized her department into the UE. She also established a shop club for the communists in the plant. When the war ended, she was fired for allegedly intimidating workers into joining the communist movement. She filed a grievance and her case went to arbitration. During the arbitration, she learned that a member of her communist club was a stool pigeon who testified against communist leaders in the Foley Square Trial. His testimony also was used during her arbitration case. She won the case because she had an impeccable work record and people in her department came forward as character witnesses. This infuriated the company because it caused a work stoppage in the department. In the mean time, the UE was pushed out of the shop. (6:23-9:05)... Kushner's husband joined the army in 1944. When he left, she found it increasingly difficult to support two children on an army allotment and decided to go back to work. She applied for work at Stewart Warner where she had worked on a previous occasion and was rehired. She sent her children to nursery school while she was at work. (9:05-12:54)... Stewart Warner was an anti-union company that thwarted union representation on three occasions before the UE successfully organized the plant during the war. Kushner joined the UE when she returned to work there and quickly became active in the union. She eventually became a steward in her department and was elected to the executive committee of her local. She also joined the bargaining committee and negotiated the union contact with the company. (12:54-16:36)... Stewart Warner continued its anti-union tactics throughout the period the UE was in the plant. The company was notorious for sending in people to run for union offices in order to sabotage the union. The union and the UE continued these struggles, during which a large number of women and of Blacks came forward. Indeed, Kushner claims that the "union developed a slew of class-conscious people." (16:36-21:27)... When the CP changed its name to the CPA under Earl Browder, communists enjoyed a period in which they could be open about their views. Kushner was recognized as a communist at Stewart Warner, and even though she was not immune to red baiting, she consistently won elections on the union slate because she was a good worker and popular in the plant. There were a number of communists in her local and they regularly distributed literature and sold the communist newspaper outside the plant. Although it was against party practice, Kushner organized a club for the communists at the plant. Like the red baiting in the plants, unions also eventually developed strategies to keep communists out of power by establishing clauses forbidding them from assuming leadership roles. (21:27-22:56)... Earl Browder discouraged communists from starting clubs because he believed the war years were a period of "enlightened capitalism" in which socialist and capitalist countries were finally cooperating. Therefore, he thought the party should avoid secretive actions and operate more openly. He also believed that communists would be able to debate and discuss publicly without being attacked from anti-communist thinkers. Any thinking along this line, however, was put to rest when McCarthyism swept the country. (22:56-24:27)... During WWII, the UE was considered a left-wing organization with progressive views on labor and workers' rights. The union supported the fight against Hitler and fascism and worked together with similarly progressive unions in developing the War Labor Board and the NLRB. (24:27-33:09)... Kushner did not lose her job at Stewart Warner when the company began postwar layoffs because she was a shop steward and had seniority. Anti-labor laws, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, targeted communists by establishing clauses excluding them from holding union offices. The law also ushered in union raiding. When the UE refused to sign the Taft-Hartley affidavits, they were not placed on the ballot in the plant election. As a result, the UE lost to the raiding union, the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUEW). When raiding unions could not find valid reasons to criticize their opponents, they resorted to red baiting. Editor's note: the IUEW was originally the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers/AFL, IBEW (33:09-36:42)... After Kushner left Stewart Warner, she went to work in a smaller plant organized by the UE. She took some time off between 1950-51 and when she returned to the work force visited Stewart Warner. She noticed a great deal of hostility between workers in the UE and workers in the IUEW, an atmosphere she attributed directly to the Taft-Hartley Act. During the McCarthy Era, the Taft-Hartley Act was used to dismantle unions with a left-wing perspective. (36:42-39:03)... Even though Kushner won the arbitration case disputing her termination from Stewart Warner, she never went back to work at the plant or pursued back wages because the UE was pushed out of the plant by a raiding union. Her experiences during the arbitration illustrated the true spirit of unionism. (39:03-42:12)... After Kushner left Stewart Warner, she went to work for the CP on a full-time basis as the organizational secretary of the Illinois district. During this period, the party was restructured following the dissolution of the CPA and the expulsion of Earl Browder. Shop and community clubs regained momentum and the "fight against capitalism was renewed and reinstituted." Efforts were made to elect a team of leaders from the working-class because the party felt that working-class people made better leaders than intellectuals or professionals who had very little, if any, shop experience. (42:12-43:23)... After Kushner's husband returned from the war at the end of 1945, their relationship began to suffer because of differences related to domestic and family issues. Even though he pressured her to stay home and have another child, she had no intention of leaving her job or decreasing her activities with the UE and the CP. Problems also developed while he was working with her at Stewart Warner because he attempted to influence her decisions and activities with the union. End of tape. *** File: reffkushner6.mp3 (0:00-10:06)... Kushner and her husband developed marital difficulties after he returned from the war. They disagreed on the level of union representation at Stewart Warner. Even though she was an officer in the UE, her husband gave her all kinds of instructions of what she should do. He also openly criticized the leaders of the UE district office, which reflected negatively on her. While these were tangible issues, she believes that the changes in their relationship centered around his expectations that she put everything aside and dedicate herself to domestic responsibilities while he assumed the role as head of household. This was a complete reversal of his pre-war behavior when he shared domestic and family responsibilities with Kushner. They separated long before their divorce in 1958. (10:06-11:29)... When Kushner joined the YCL, she decided that her calling was to work in the plants and become an active organizer in the communist movement. Although she attended college for a short period of time, that was more her mother's dream than her own. (11:29-12:45)... In some ways, Kushner was pampered when she was a young girl, noting that "no sacrifice was too great for my parents." They were in a better position economically by the time she came along and were able to provide her more opportunities, including piano and dancing lessons and sending her to a Hebrew school. They placed great expectations on all of their children to attend college and planned for their educational pursuits. (12:45-14:29)... The curriculum at the Hebrew school Kushner attended was based on a left-wing perspective. Even though there were lessons on the history of Judaism, students were provided with an education that focused more on cultural issue than religion. Lessons focused on developing a working-class consciousness and socialist values. She also learned how to read and write Yiddish. Her parents were atheists and the only person in her family who observed Jewish holidays was her grandmother; however, she was not Orthodox. (14:29-15:44)... Kushner occasionally went to the movies on Sundays and recalls being interested in the serials that were popular during that period. She did not emulate the image of women portrayed in the movies because her attention was focused on the communist movement and political matters instead of romantic notions. (15:44-20:12)... Kushner's mother was a highly-skilled seamstress and she made all of the clothes for her family. Kushner recalls being the best-dressed girl in the neighborhood. She describes the various types of clothing she wore up to WWII when she began wearing pants to work. She occasionally heard derogatory remarks about women wearing pants, but for people working in factories it was an accepted attire for women. (20:12-22:35)... Kushner placed her children in a few different nursery schools when she was working. During the war years, she participated in the drive for government-funded nursery schools and placed her children in a government nursery when she went to work at Stewart Warner. To her recollection, all of the teachers at the nursery schools where she took her children possessed teaching credentials. (22:35-24:14)... As organizational secretary of the CP, Kushner was responsible for managing the party's community, shop, and industrial clubs. In addition to developing programs for these clubs, she informed them of executive board and district committee decisions. (24:14-28:43)... Kushner testified in the Foley Square Trial because her shop club at Stewart Warner was mentioned in testimony during the trial by a member of the club who turned out to be a stool pigeon. The McCarthyism that swept the country destroyed many people's lives and resulted in them having to relocate or go underground to avoid prosecution. Except for top leaders in the CP, the party went underground. Kushner recalls that FBI agents infiltrated the shops and surfaced everywhere in an attempt to extinguish communism in the US. As a result, membership in the CP dramatically decreased. (28:43-33:36)... Although the CP never plotted to overthrow the government, the McCarran and Smith Acts gave authorities "the right to arrest you for teaching and advocating the overthrow of the government, [which] was the whole basis of McCarthyism." Under the Smith Act, people were tracked down, arrested and imprisoned for their political views even after the Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional. In 1961-62, Kushner and her second husband were arrested and indicted for their communist activities in Chicago. At that time, the laws were being overturned and their case was dismissed before it reached the courts. Arrests continued based on provisions in the laws that required leaders of the CP to sign statements and turn over membership lists. When they refused, they were held in contempt of court. In many of these cases, the defendants plead the 5th Amendment to avoid testifying. (33:36-36:20)... Kushner met her second husband, Sam, during WWII when they were active in the UE and the CP together. Her first husband was jealous of their friendship. She describes their relationship as an "open secret," stating they began a love affair before she and her husband separated. Sam was also married when they began seeing each other. In 1961, they moved to Los Angeles. Because of problems involving Sam's former wife, he and Kushner married in Mexico and then made it official in the US when they were married in the Unitarian Church some time later. (36:20-40:38)... Upon settling in Los Angeles, Sam Kushner went to work for the People's World, managing the Los Angeles Bureau. Kushner did not pursue job opportunities in the electronics industry because it was still under heavy surveillance and she didn't think she would be able to get work. Instead, she began doing office work. Kushner's first clerical job was at Occidental College. Within a short time, she noticed that she was being followed. Six weeks later, she was fired from Occidental when she was uncovered as a communist. A year and a half later, she and Sam were indicted in violation of the Smith Act. After she was fired from Occidental, Kushner answered an advertisement at Day & Night Motor Parts and was hired to do accounts receivables and customer service for $65/week. During her fourteen years on the job, her political activities/views never bothered her employer. (40:38-43:20)... The entire time Kushner worked for the CP in Chicago she was followed by FBI agents. This continued for a short time even after she moved to Los Angeles in 1961. During the McCarthy period, the CP's fears that fascism was developing in America resulted in the party sending many of its members going underground. She was underground for approximately a year between 1950-51. During this period, her family was continually harassed by FBI agents in an attempt to determine her whereabouts. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Flo Kushner was a communist organizer starting with her teen years when she joined the Young Pioneers and later in YCL and CP. She was the youngest of three children born into a family of socialist believers. Despite their beliefs, they fled Russia following the 1905 revolution as a result of the ensuing pogroms. Although Kushner recalled living in pretty squalid conditions in the tenements of New York as a child, by the time she was a little older, the family had moved to the Bronx. This is where she received her radical political education - from the street meetings in the neighborhood and from joining her mother on the ILGWU picket lines. She joined the Young Pioneers when she was twelve. Despite her mother's aspirations for her to attend college, after two years Kushner dropped out of Hunter College and joined her sister in Chicago. Following in her sister's footsteps, she went to work at Armour Packing Company to organize the workers, and later began to work in radio manufacturing. Kushner married in 1934 when she was seventeen. Her husband was also active in YCL/CP and both worked in radio manufacturing. She continued to work on an off until after the birth of her second child in 1942, when she stayed home for two years. After her husband went into the military, she went to work in a war manufacturing plant and became an active organizer for the UE. In the late 1940s/early 1950, Kushner became the CP organizational secretary for the the Illinois district until she was sent underground by the party in 1950-1951. After her divorce in 1958, she moved to Los Angeles with her new husband, Sam Kushner, who worked for the People's World. She gave up on trying to get factory jobs and instead went into white collar work. Although she scaled back her activities in the CP, Kushner was active in the peace and freedom movement, farm workers and Chicano movements in the 1970s. The interview with Kushner was conducted as a student project for a women's oral history class at CSULB. TOPICS - shop steward @ Stewart Warner; red baiting and anti-union tactics; childcare arrangements while she was working; positions in the UE; changes in the CP/CPA under Earl Browder's leadership; organizing communist club at Stewart Warner; UE activities during WWII; Taft-Hartley Act and CP; union raiding and adoption of union affidavits under Taft-Hartley Act; battle between UE and IUEW; organizational secretary for CP; restructure of CP following Browder's expulsion; and postwar marital difficulties;marital difficulties; gender roles; family life; family background; parent's expectations for her future; curriculum and cultural programs in Hebrew school; religion; social life; clothing styles and attire; childcare during WWII; duties as organizational secretary of the CP; testifying in the Foley Square Trial; McCarthyism and period of underground activities of CP; impact of McCarran and Smith Acts on CP; arrest in 1961-62 in violation of Smith Act; meeting second husband; move to Los Angeles; red baiting and FBI harassment; husband's work history with the People's World; Kushner's work history in Los Angeles; and losing her job at Occidental College for being a communist;
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