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Bertolini (Shapiro), Ethel (audio interview #2 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the second of three interviews conducted with Ethel Bertolini as part of a project in a women's oral history class at CSULB. The interviewer was able to make connections and establish good rapport with the narrator as a result of her earlier participation in the University High School alternative newspaper, The Red Tide in the late 1960s/early 1970s. 11/00/1978
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- *** File: refebertolini3.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-6:53)... Bertolini began organizing for the CP/YCL around 1926, setting up YCL branches in the outlying areas of the party's political sphere of influence. The populations of these areas were not politically active and there was a small number of people in each locale with some exposure to socialism and the communist movement. In addition to speaking on the merits of communism, she became involved in people's grievances like discrimination against Blacks. In many ways, Bertolini was too young and inexperienced to work as a party organizer at that time. However, she joined the cause with zeal and revolutionary enthusiasm, noting: " I had just discovered socialism and Marxism and it was the greatest thing in my life...." She comments that she molded her beliefs to the changing times; otherwise, she notes, if you stand still you "become isolated from the mainstream of American life." Even though Bertolini was expelled from the CP in 1974, she maintains her Marxist ideals towards change. (6:53-9:21)... As Bertolini matured, she became more conscious of the sexist mentality in the CP. She frequently had to deal with people who gave her "the shit work: and took political credit for her accomplishments". Occasionally, she wrote articles criticizing the male chauvinistic tendencies in the party. The party, however, was more concerned about developing itself as a political unit and applying its theoretical and political values to society. Although factional disputes existed in the party, they did not involve gender or racial discrimination because the "YCL and the CP at that time were undoubtedly champions of the rights for minorities and the oppressed people." (9:21-14:41)... While organizing for the CP, Bertolini traveled with a small suitcase and hitchhiked her way to her destinations. Although she was not afraid, hitchhiking was not considered a respectable activity and she notes, "you would get a little razzle and ridicule from the people who picked you up." She describes her experiences hitching a ride with four, young men while on her way to the YCL National Convention in New York. CP funds were generally low and she could rarely afford to stay in a hotel. More often than not, she stayed the night in the private home of a stranger or a comrade. (14:41-19:59)... With the money she earned organizing for the CP/YCL, Bertolini purchased books from the party's bookstore, which was located downstairs from the party headquarters on Division Street. Reading and studying were her main interests until the age of twenty-five when she began dating. One of her favorite periodicals was the International Press Correspondence. When she did not earn enough money to buy books, she would sneak them into her bag. The owner of the store turned a blind eye, knowing youngsters like her were thirsty for knowledge and could not afford to purchase the books they needed. She returned to the bookstore once she was paid and played a cat and mouse game with the owner until he accepted her money. (19:59-23:16)... Bertolini did not earn enough money while she was with the CP/YCL to buy luxury items. For several weeks she admired a blue, silk dress displayed in a store window. She describes the dress, stating that its high neckline and long sleeves were appealing because they would hide the parts of her body about which she was the most self-conscious. The dress cost $17, which was more than she made in a month. While she was working in Gary, Indiana a couple of years later, she saved up enough money to purchase the dress. (23:16-30:04)... Bertolini's first dating experience was with a comrade who worked as a union organizer. Their relationship did not last long because he also was involved with a pretty, middle-class professional, a sharp contrast to Bertolini's political work and tomboyish looks and mannerisms. One of her comrades instructed her on matters of the heart and how to improve her appearance so that she could get a date. She dated her husband for four years and was in her forties when they married. [Editor's note: In the third interview, Bertolini states that her husband was forty-three and she was forty-five when they met]. During their courtship, she went underground to evade McCarthyists. Towards the end of this segment, she requests that the interview move on to the more politically based events of her life, stating that her personal life took a back seat to her political activities. (30:04-36:06)... Bertolini describes her liaison with a Black man "who personified beauty as I understood it in human development." After they saw a movie together, he rented a room for the night so that they could spend time together without dealing with discrimination on the street. She was not offended by this arrangement and greatly appreciated that he "would not have me parade around on the south side as his date." When they entered the rooming house, however, the woman who greeted them looked at Bertolini as if she was a prostitute. Their relationship did not go beyond one or two dates because they had nothing in common besides a sexual attraction towards one another, stating, "it was a meaningless experience." (36:06-37:32)... While organizing a YCL branch in Buffalo, New York in the 1930s, Bertolini pursued a serious relationship with a Black comrade who was the head of the CP branch there and for whom she worked as an assistant. During their relationship, she looked upon him as her husband. They split up when she found out that he was involved with another woman with whom he had a child. She learned that he was a stool pigeon for the government after he testified against her when she was arrested on a deportation order in 1952. (37:32-40:22)... Bertolini's comrades were neither promiscuous nor sexually rigid. They did not conform to the mainstream morals regarding sexuality and the notion that a woman was supposed to save herself for marriage. She didn't really notice promiscuity or the frequent changing of partners and romantic liaisons, which she attributes to her own prudish nature about sex. While no one discussed these matters openly, her comrades felt free to express themselves sexually with one another, which "led to extremely deep friendships and dedications." Couples often traveled together on organizing drives, many of which raised families together whether or not they were married. (40:22-41:34)... Bertolini never personally used birth control before she married, but depended on the men she was with whom she was sexually active to use condoms. She reiterates that these matters were peripheral to her political activities and do not stand out in her mind as anything memorable. End of tape. *** File: refebertolini4.mp3 (0:00-2:02)... In 1933, the CP/YCL chose her to go abroad for study because of her contributions to the party and her effectiveness in organizing young people. She spent over a year in the Soviet Union traveling as far as the Soviet-Chinese border. After she left Russia, she spent several months traveling through various parts of Europe. She recalls spending her twenty-fifth birthday with comrades in Asiatic Russia. She returned to the states some time in 1936, indicating that she spent a total of two years in Europe. (2:02-8:03)... When she returned from Europe in 1936, the CP sent Bertolini to Gary, Indiana to assist the branch leader. When he left, she was placed in charge of the branch. During her four years there, the steelworkers union was formed. The CP was integral in organizing the communist forces in the city in support of the union and the "Steelworkers Organizing Committee knew that if they were going to get the union on the map they had to get the CP to work with them." During the campaign, she wrote articles and distributed leaflets for the union. When union organizers were unsuccessful in signing workers, she distributed application cards to her comrades in the steel mills and they were effective in organizing the work force into the union. The CP also introduced Black workers to unionism and helped break down racial prejudices among Whites. Once the union was organized, she was offered an organizing position, which she turned down after consulting with CP leaders. She continued to organize workers for the union, but was not paid for her efforts and did not attend any union meetings. (8:03-14:12)... Bertolini notes that in the 1930s, unemployed communists were more likely to openly express their affiliation with the party, making clear that they were adherents of the Soviet Union, "the socialist motherland." She believes that their failure to acknowledge the problems occurring in Russia in the late 1930s isolated them and made it difficult to recruit a large following in the US. During the 1930s, the party regularly called meetings and organized Unemployed Councils, as well as distributed the Daily World. The employed, however, had a tendency to conceal their party affiliation. These people distributed communist literature in secret and rarely revealed themselves as communists when they joined a union. She digresses regarding the reasons why communists were accepted by steelworkers during the period they organized their union. (14:12-16:35)... She was called Red Stevens by her comrades because of her hair color. During the period she helped organize the steelworkers union, she was the only woman from the CP. Women who joined the auxiliary groups were militants who showed their support for the steelworkers by participating in strikes, guarding gates to keep out scabs, and supplying picketers with food. However, the men held onto their traditional views towards women. Even though she was the opposite of a man's image of a woman because she was a chain smoker and visited taverns to collect CP dues, they accepted and trusted her. (16:35-18:47)... Bertolini was not critical of John L. Lewis's decision to disassociate the steelworkers union from the communists after the union was organized. She notes that they were prepared for it and that the party used Lewis also for the purposes of spreading Marxism among the steelworkers. It worked both ways. She believes that it would have been very difficult to bring workers into the CP without getting involved in their labor struggles. Like many people in the party, she anticipated that Lewis would try to break up their collaboration because he was a reactionary. (18:47-22:36)... By 1940, Bertolini had been arrested at least twenty-five times. When the war broke out and the Alien and Sedition Acts were imposed, the CP asked that all non-citizens in the party apply for citizenship so as not to jeopardize the party's standing as a legitimate anti-war organization. However, she was denied citizenship because of her arrest record, at which time the CP asked her to leave Gary, Indiana and arranged for her to go into hiding. She traveled around the country doing odd jobs like waitressing and domestic work. The most difficult years of her underground experience occurred between 1951-56 when she was hiding from the McCarthyists. She later wrote a novel entitled, When the Storm Broke, detailing her experiences during this period. (22:36-27:22)... In 1940, Bertolini went to work in the New York office of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE). Because the union preferred that their organizers come up from the ranks, they asked her to get a job at a metal shop to prepare her. At the time, the company was slowly introducing women into the factory and sexism was widespread. The men in the shop tried to sabotage her by smashing tomatoes on her machinery and tripping her while she walked through the factory. She befriended a man in the tool and dye area who asked her to be his assistant and taught her many skills, as well as protected her from the men in the shop. After obtaining several promotions, the UE took her out of the shop and hired her as a full-time organizer. She continued her communist activities and refused to leave the party. There were twelve communists on the UE staff. She remained a member of the CP until she was expelled in 1974. (27:22-32:34)... While working for the UE, Bertolini developed a social services department, for which the union received $10,000 in city funds. The department provided referrals to families suffering from the work and domestic pressures of the war. She also organized blood and war bond drives to aid the war effort and collaborated with various community groups in order to establish a united front "to relieve the pressure among the workers in the shop." Besides her, the staff of the social services department consisted of two social workers. During this period, more and more women moved into production work and were faced with discrimination in terms of poor jobs and slow promotions, but "at least the doors were open for women to get into industry." (32:34-33:58)... Bertolini's activities during the war period were dominated by her responsibilities in the UE and her work organizing blood and war bond drives in New York. At one point during the war, she mobilized workers from eighteen shops to give blood. (33:58-39:05)... While Bertolini worked for the UE, she sent some of her earnings to her parents in Chicago. When she visited them, her mother tried to give her back this money but she refused to accept it. Her father continued his work as a cigar maker. He established a regular clientele, which included several accounts with delicatessens in the Chicago area. Whenever she visited her parents, she helped them roll cigars. Her parents admired both Bertolini and her sister for their dedication to the communist movement. They concealed their daughters' activities when necessary and did not reveal to anyone when Bertolini visited the Soviet Union in the 1930s. She digresses regarding the time her father visited her in jail. Her sister is still a member of the CP and actually voted for Bertolini's expulsion from the party in 1974. (39:05-43:47)... Bertolini was arrested twenty-nine times, usually serving sentences of no more than two weeks to a month. She was arrested and served three months in New York County penitentiary following a demonstration at the city council for the purposes of obtaining milk money for unemployed families. She recalls this period fondly, stating that the forty women in jail ate in the officers' kitchen while male prisoners ate in the regular cafeteria. She worked in the sewing department and taught other prisoners how to operate a sewing machine. Her main activity, however, was reading and studying socialist works. Smoking was prohibited and although women secretly smoked, she gave up the habit while in prison because she wanted to set a good example for the party by obeying the rules. (43:47-44:42)... When she joined the YCL in 1924-25, she was in the same branch as her sister. After her sister married, however, she and her new husband left the branch and traveled around the country organizing for the party. Bertolini left the Chicago branch a short time later and she and her sister never belonged to the same branch again. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Ethel Shapiro-Bertolini was a longtime organizer for the Community party, from the time she joined the YCL in 1926 until the late 1960s. Although she diminished her activities in the party in 1967, she remained a member until she was expelled in 1974. Born in the Ukraine, Shapiro-Bertolini's family escaped the scourges of the pogroms as a result of their warm relationships with their Gentile neighbors. Although they welcomed the Russian Revolution, believing that it would end the abuses they faced., they immigrated to the US. Shapiro-Bertolini became a YCL/CP organizer in 1926 and continued this political work until she went underground at the party's orders in 1951. She married another party activist after this, and resumed her work in the party. She greatly diminished her activities in the later 1960s in order to write. She published one novel in 1971, and in the later 1970s published a book of letters with prisoners (Through the Wall: Prison Correspondence). The interview was conducted as a project in a women's oral history class by Susie Bright. As a result of her earlier participation on the high school newspaper, The Red Tide, the interviewer was able to establish a relationship with Bertolini. [Editor's note: Bertolini was not consistent in her use of her last name, at times hyphenating it.] TOPICS - CP/YCL organizing; political beliefs; male chauvinism and sexism in the CP; life as an organizer; reading habits; dating and sex; interracial dating; free love and romantic relationships in the CP; and birth control;studying in USSR, 1933-36; CP organizing in Gary, Indiana; steelworkers organizing; John L; Lewis; Unemployed Councils; women's participation in steelworkers' strike; wartime alien acts and denial of citizenship; underground life; clerical work with UE; machine shop work during the war; sexism and gender discrimination; UE Social Services department; wartime activities; family relationships; and arrests and three-month prison sentence in New York penitentiary;
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