Episode 3: Sit Down!

Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/cio-organize-podcast-sit-down-strikes/ On the third episode of Organize the Unorganized, we examine the three initial major victories of the CIO in rubber, auto, and steel. We begin by recounting the story of the “first CIO strike” at the Goodyear complex in Akron, Ohio, a victorious strike that put the CIO on the map. We then turn to the great General Motors strike in the winter of 1937, perhaps the most iconic confrontation of the period and generally recognized as the CIO’s transformational victory. We end briefly on the steel organizing campaign, whose success was drawn in part from the threatening militancy of the CIO. Guests in order of appearance: Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center; Daniel Nelson, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Akron; Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at UC-Santa Barbara; Erik Loomis, Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island; Jeremy Brecher, Labor Historian; Steve Fraser, Labor Historian; Ahmed White, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado-Boulder; Melvyn Dubofsky, Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at Binghamton University Clips, in order of appearance: “UAW Presents… SITDOWN,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GdDupP8m6g (1:58, 10:32, 20:40, 21:57); John L. Lewis, “Industrial Democracy Speech, WEAF,” John L. Lewis Papers, 1879-1969, Wisconsin Historical Society, 493A/39 (8:29); Genora Johnson Dollinger, Audio Interview with Sherna Berger Gluck, https://csulb-dspace.calstate.edu/handle/10211.3/217512 (11:40, 14:16, 16:11) Quotes, in order of appearance: Art Preis, Labor’s Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the CIO, 1936-55 (New York: Pathfinder, 1964), pp. 101-102 (12:20) Songs, in order of appearance: The Manhattan Chorus sings Maurice Sugar's "Sit Down." Recorded in April, 1937, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVrxruRTtDA (7:52); Mary McCaslin, “Join the CIO,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgKWT6r8-h0 (16:40) Theme music by Drake Tyler. Quote music is Martin Tallstrom’s cover of “Freight Train,” used here with permission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9LEUMgBkX8.