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August, Rebecca Beck (audio interview #2 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This second interview with Rebecca August, conducted in her room at the Jewish Home for the Aged, suffered from even more background noise than during the first interview. In addition to the constant hum of the traffic on the nearby freeway, there were several points in the interview when airplanes almost drowned out the sound. TOPICS - family background; work experiences in London; organizing workers in Chicago; relationship with Jane Addams; organizing a women's branch of the Workmen's Circle; experiences in anarchist and socialist circles; views on marriage and free love;anarchism and free love; nursing school; first marriage; 1910 labor strike and rent strikes in Chicago; organizing in Chicago; women's status; 2/6/1973
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- 2020-04-02
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- File: lhgwraugust3.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:10)... Tape introduction (2:10-6:51)... She started working in London as a buttonhole maker at the age of twelve. There were other children working in the shops who were both younger and older than her. Workers typically started work at 7:00 a.m. and were given a short tea break. She made approximately .75 cents a week. The foremen expected the female workers to have sexual intercourse with them. When she was twelve or thirteen the foremen asked her stay after work, at which time he asked her to "lay" with him. When she refused, he fired her. (6:51-10:11)... In London, she and her father supported the family because her other siblings were too young to work. They lived in a small flat and her mother became ill because of the poor living conditions. Her mother became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. At the age of nine, education officials forced August to go to school. She attended kindergarten and stayed in school until the third grade, when she was twelve, at which time her father took her out of school and she went to work. (10:11-12:40)... The shops in London were lit by gas lamps and the working conditions were poor. Relatives in the US encouraged her father to immigrate. In 1904, she and her brother immigrated to the United States. They were in New York for a short period of time and then went to Chicago. (12:40-17:46)... In London, she was not conscious of any union activities. When she arrived in Chicago and started working at Hart, Schaffner and Marx she heard about unionism. She was making approximately $20 a week because she worked long hours and was a fast worker. She believes that prices were cut when the employer learned that women were earning good wages. When she talked to the other women about protesting these price cuts, she and her father were fired. She was then blacklisted from other shops. (17:46-25:15)... When she came to Chicago, she met Jane Addams, who asked August to organize workers for the Jewish Trade Union League. At the time, there was not a union organized for her trade. She was not involved with the ILGWU and the ACWU was not formed until 1915. In 1906, she confronted a scab during a strike, at which time the scab hit her over the head with a purse. August was arrested and received stitches for her injuries. She stayed in jail overnight and received a jury trial, but the case was dismissed. She generally picketed in the mornings before she went to work. When she was arrested, she was actually picketing during a strike for the United Garment Workers. (25:15-28:49)... She became involved in her first strike because people she worked with asked her if she would participate in the picket line. She attempted to organize workers at new shops, but when the employer found out about her activities, she was fired. She recalls an incident in the 1930s when she had a copy of the Advance under her work station. When one of the workers found the paper, she reported it to the foremen and August was fired. In Chicago, she mainly worked with men. There were women working in the shops with her and they did all of the finishing work. [Note: the audio quality in this segment is poor due to background noise.] (28:49-33:03)... When she left Chicago in 1910, the United Garment Workers was the only union recognized by the shops. Addams was helping others to organize the ACWA. August became associated with Addams because Hull House was located in the neighborhood where August lived. Addams was instrumental in cleaning up the city and helping the children in the neighborhood. She asked August to talk to the workers, specifically the bakers and the cigarmakers and convince the women to go out on strike for better working conditions. (33:03-39:55)... In 1908, she organized a Women's Branch of the Workmen's Circle. At the time, there were many rebellious, young, and independent Jewish women who came to the US to escape the Czar. When the Workmen's Circle was formed in 1900, only the wives of Jewish husbands could join. As a result, August decided to form a Women's Branch with the assistance of Addams. The purpose of the branch was to discuss problems, books, etc. It was a social outlet for the single, working women in the city. Addams spoke to the women at first meeting, which included only fourteen women. They received a charter from the Workmen's Circle, and August became the secretary of the group. [Note: the audio quality is poor in this segment due to background noise.] When she left Chicago, she did not stay in contact with the women in the Women's Branch; she attempted to organize Women's Branches both in Seattle and in Los Angeles. (39:55-44:18)... In Chicago, she was associated with the Socialist Party, but then believes they became too mild and reactionary for her tastes. She then became active in anarchist circles. She recalled attending lectures held by Emma Goodman and Alexander Berkman. There were quite a number of women involved in anarchist politics. She did not agree with the marital and sexual beliefs advocated by the anarchists; she equated free love with promiscuity. However, she did believe that if two people loved each other, they should live together. The anarchists became involved in the rent strikes in Chicago, which were led by Ben Reitman. He propositioned her one day and when she refused to go to a hotel with him, he asked her why she did not believe in free love. She did not consider free love as the liberty to have sexual intercourse with a person of her choice, but the liberty to cohabitate and share a meaningful, romantic relationship that was not necessarily bound by marriage. end of tape File: lhgwraugust4.mp3 (0:00-4:34)... [Note: the audio quality in this segment is poor as a result of background noise.] In 1908, while working in a tailor shop, she decided to enroll in a nursing school. She did not pay for her school tuition and was accepted to the program because someone she knew was a member of the school staff. She went to the school for six months, working twelve hours a day. She cared for people in the hospitals and when there was an emergency, she was called to the hospital to observe the procedures. She lived in a dormitory near the hospital. Beginning around 1906, her activism with Addams and Hull House became minimal, and she became more active in socialist and anarchist circles. (4:34-6:59)... She met her first husband in Chicago. He worked in a tailor shop and was active in anarchist social circles and with the IWW. When her father discovered the two hugging each other one day, he threw August out of the house and she moved in with a friend. Her husband moved to Seattle and she followed him a short time later. In Seattle, she worked for a tailor shop and then became pregnant with her first child. She moved to Alaska in 1911 because her husband wanted to make a home for the child and believed that there were more opportunities in Alaska. (6:59-11:31)... She believes she was involved in the 1910 strike in Chicago before she left for Seattle. She recalls that they picketed in the snow along the street where most of the factories were located. She also participated in the strike when the workers walked out of Hart, Schaffner and Marx and she recalls that Addams also participated in this strike. She believes that during this strike, the picketers were hosed down by the police and when they walked home ice crystals formed from the dripping water on their clothes. This strike involved all of the women from the dressmaking and tailoring shops in the city. In addition to these strikes, she recalls participating in the rent strikes in Chicago, which were led by Ben Reitman. During these protests, several people were arrested. (11:31-17:20)... In Chicago, she sold papers for the Socialist Party on the street. She left the socialists because they became too mild about helping the workers. Some of the women in the Workmen's Circle were socialists and some believed in free love. Most of the people who believed in free love were promiscuous, but many considered free love as loving one person forever. The Workmen's Circle was interested in organizing workers for the good of themselves and for the labor movement. All of the members were workers and they did not allow business people to join the group. Today, however, the organization includes business people. (17:20-22:04)... When she arrived in Seattle, she went to work for a tailor shop. She had a difficult time keeping a steady job because employers typically fired her when they found out she was trying to organize a shop. There was a tailor's union in Seattle and she often went to women's homes to talk to them about unionism. When she organized workers, the men supported her efforts and were in favor of unionization. [Note: the audio quality in this segment is poor due to background noise.] (22:04-24:35)... Her brother was the only other person in her family who was active and interested in organizing for the union. He later became involved with the ACWA, but was not active in socialist or anarchist circles. She was the rebel of the family. (24:35-28:25)... Through her involvement with the ACWA, she met Sidney Hillman. In 1905, she worked with Bessie Abramovitz in the shops before she Abramovitz Sidney Hillman. The men in the shops did not want the women talking about unionism. August digresses and talks about her association with Addams and how Addams affected her life. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Rebecca August was a lifelong labor activist, beginning with her years in Chicago in 1906-1910. She worked closely with Jane Addams and helped to organize the Hebrew Trade Council. She was involved with the Workmen's Circle, and was instrumental in the formation of a Women's Branch (Ladies Branch #3). When she moved to Seattle in 1910, she became active in the IWW and continued to help organize workers in various industries. She eventually became active in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) when she moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s. Later, on her retirement, she was instrumental in founding the Retired Members Club. At the time of the interviews, August was living in the Jewish Home for the Aged in Boyle Heights and was still busy organizing, fighting for an increase in the monthly allowance of the residents there. Although she walked with a cane and was somewhat bent over, she seemed quite healthy and her spirits were very good. It was apparent that what kept her going was her own sense of the role she played in various events throughout her life and frequently referred to the honors and recognition she received. Because her room was on the second floor, almost parallel with the freeway, the sound of traffic on the freeway some four blocks away is ever present. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This second interview with Rebecca August, conducted in her room at the Jewish Home for the Aged, suffered from even more background noise than during the first interview. In addition to the constant hum of the traffic on the nearby freeway, there were several points in the interview when airplanes almost drowned out the sound. TOPICS - family background; work experiences in London; organizing workers in Chicago; relationship with Jane Addams; organizing a women's branch of the Workmen's Circle; experiences in anarchist and socialist circles; views on marriage and free love;anarchism and free love; nursing school; first marriage; 1910 labor strike and rent strikes in Chicago; organizing in Chicago; women's status;
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