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Working in Paterson
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Item Title
"My place is with you guys."
Author/Creator
Interviewer: Taylor, David Alan, 1951-
Created/Published
August 04, 1994
Notes
Interview with Sol Stetin, former president of the Amalgamated Textile Workers Union, conducted at the American Labor Museum Botto House National Landmark on August 4, 1994.
I got a job and [my new boss] put me in the shipping room. And then one time a strike breaks out. All the men walk out of the plant. And the super comes to me and says, "Listen, this has nothing to do with you. You're in the shipping room and the shipping room's not involved in the strike, just the production workers. So I didn't go out. . . . And they went out at twelve o'clock and I remember the word went around they were going to meet again at night. But it didn't affect me, so I didn't go out. Five o'clock I went home. . . . And in those days, at night, you'd hang around the candy store. You'd listen to Father Coughlin, the fascist. You remember, you heard about Father Coughlin? And they had a radio, I don't think we even had a radio in those days. And I see one of the fellows . . . and [he said], "I hear there's a strike on at your place." And I said, "Yes, but it has nothing to do with me." Well, when he got through with me he had me convinced that I had done a terrible, terrible thing. That very night, I ran across the bridge, I waited for the bus. I knew where the meeting was going to take place: 612 River Street, the Kallin Ballroom. I ran up those stairs and I asked for the floor and I apologized: "My place is with you guys." . . . To make a long story short, the next day I'm on the picket line.
Subjects
Interviews
Labor unions
Oral history
Polish Americans
Retirees
Sound recordings
Labor leaders
Strikes
Textile industry
Ethnography
Interviews
United States--New Jersey--Haledon
Botto House National Landmark
The American Labor Museum
Object Type
Related Names
Narrator: Stetin, Sol
Medium
Analog Audio Cassette
Language
English
Call Number
AFC 1995/028: WIP-DT-A011; B: 00:05:19
Reproduction Number
AFC 1995/028: WIP-DT-A011
Part of
Working in Paterson Folklife Project
Repository
Library of Congress, Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital ID
afcwip dta00107
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcwip.dta00107