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had organized the Kelsey Hayes Plant in Detroit and from this action derived his authority as a union leader)87 still adamantly opposed the scheme, again without saying specifically why, and he told Kermit that if the strike failed, it would be Kermit’s fault.88 Kermit and Roy Reuther (Walter’s brother) were charged now with taking the plan to the strike committee for its members’ approval, which they got in quick order. One wonders how the plan could have been discussed in so many meetings, committees, and letters (from Genora in Flint to Thomas in New York and back) without some kind of leak about their true intentions. It was the Socialist wing of the UAW who presented this plan, and their meetings were so small that infiltration by the police and company spies was minimal. The union people as a whole knew that company infiltrators were in their midst and apparently claimed in meetings that Plant Nine was targeted. The union deliberately leaked information to a corporate “spy” at a meeting that discussed only Plant Nine. “Nothing was mentioned about Plant Four.”89 That is apparently why Kermit’s plans were never fully discussed at most meetings; it was only in secret sessions that Plant Four was mentioned in the context of Plant Nine. “We wanted GM to put all its guards on Plant 9 and leave Plant 4 free to be taken.”90

On February 1, at the shift change around 3 P.M., the action started. Genora and her EBs appeared just outside the gates, wearing their red berets and red armbands. They were equipped with clubs of various sizes. When the police—who had been gathered at Plant Nine for some days, expecting an attack—saw them coming they formed a ring in front of the plant. The police pulled their guns and Genora ordered her followers to lift their clubs in defiance. Company officials quickly shut off the heat in Plant Nine. Suddenly Genora heard breaking glass and looked around to see Tom Kasy, a prominent auto worker, with blood all over his face and his head out a window, screaming, “They’re gassing us in here!”91 Immediately Genora and her entire brigade—about 100 of them—ran for the plant, pushing policemen aside, and began to knock out all the windows to let in air for the besieged men. Things cooled off for a little while, and company authorities apparently thought the incident had ended with a GM victory. Only Genora knew that the real action was taking place a half-mile away, down the hill, at Plant Four. She ordered all but five of the EBs to go back to headquarters at the Pengelly Building.

A group of union men, led by striker Ed Cronk, stormed Plant Four.92 The union men at Plant Four got into a big fight with nonunionists and some of the foremen. The police had not yet caught on to the ruse; most of them were still at Plant Nine. William Carney, a union organizer from Ohio, called to Genora from inside the plant: “Hold that gate! Whatever you do, don’t let the police get through that gate!”93 The six EBs locked hands and threw themselves over the gate to the main entrance of Plant Four. The police arrived quickly, realizing now that Plant Nine was a diversion. They asked the ladies to leave; when they said no, the police wanted forcibly to evict them. “Over our dead bodies,” Genora called out.94 She said that they themselves probably had relatives inside that plant, and were they willing to put them in harm’s way? In return, two or three of the policemen told Genora that GM was the “lifeblood” of Flint, furnishing livelihoods to large numbers of its citizens. Genora told them that she and her followers had a special name for the policemen: scissorbills, to denote any person “too dumb” to know that the union was for their benefit.95 This dialogue was intended as a delay tactic to buy enough time for the entire EB to arrive on the scene.

And they did. A telephone call to Pengelly alerted the EB to the developing situation, and they marched down the hill, carrying a huge American flag in the belief that police would not fire on Old Glory (they were correct) and singing “Solidarity Forever.” Genora instructed