Child of the Sit-Downs_ The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger - Carlton Jackson [62]
She stayed in New York a few weeks and then she and Sol, together in Flint, at least for a time, threw themselves into the activities of the Michigan SWP. Despite her recent protestations to the contrary, Genora always wanted to be the center of attention, but during these accelerated actions in the SWP, she found—to her bemusement, even amusement, and some chagrin—that the FBI had begun to take an interest in her. She told Sol that apparently some of his New York letters to her had been opened, and she immediately suspected the FBI. They needed, she said, a “foolproof” way of sealing envelopes because she didn’t believe in “making it easy” for “our friends in the FBI.”29 Genora was aware that the FBI knew of her letter to Sol that lauded India’s prime minister Jawharwal Nehru for his attack on Western powers for their “imperialist” practices against Asia, particularly China. “From the depths of Asia comes this powerful roar,” she told her husband. “The British Commonwealth knows what this means,” she proclaimed, “and so does Wall Street, even tho [sic] they must be a little dazed at the audacity [of India’s attack on Western policy toward China].”30 She also knew that the FBI had gotten wind of a speech in which she asserted that the world would eventually come under Communist domination and that there was unrest among workingpeople, who would be in control of the world in the near future. The example of the British government in the postwar period, Genora thought, showed the futility of the Stalinist approach to Socialism. “Gradual socialism was impossible,” she believed. Only immediate worldwide revolutions would bring the political results she and her colleagues wanted.31
In the summer of 1951, Genora attended a SWP rally at the New Kensington Recreation area in Milford, Michigan, dutifully reported on by an FBI informant. She joined her colleagues in celebrating the successful subscription drive for The Militant, the official newspaper of the SWP. Genora asked her followers to compare themselves to the leaders of the first American Revolution. It had not been a “mass uprising of all people wanting the same thing,” she argued, “but was led by a group of prepared leaders.” SWP members must prepare themselves for upcoming ordeals that would “lead the workers in a successful fight against capitalism.”32
The strength and vitality of the SWP in Michigan remained minimal throughout the early 1950s, as demonstrated by Genora’s failed campaigns in the Senate and House races. Then, in early 1952, the SWP’s executive committee of the Flint branch dissolved, presumably because of widespread inactivity, and Sol and Genora resurrected it. They became the executive board and made all the decisions affecting the party in Flint. The couple was to issue all public statements “without the consent of the general membership.” The FBI gleefully pointed out that Genora was “one of three publicly acknowledged members of the SWP in Michigan,” as was Sol, while the third was unnamed.33 (It must be kept in mind that although Genora and Sol were aware of FBI surveillance in the 1950s, it was not until much later, through the Freedom of Information Act, that they secured and reviewed their records.)
Another troublesome event occurred in 1952 when Sol himself contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to Genesee County Sanitorium, where he stayed for nine months. He was home, however, for an event that elated them both and helped to ease the depression Genora had suffered since Denny’s death: their son, Ronald, was born on April 24, 1952, and he quickly became their pride and joy. They affectionately called him “Ronnie Hossenfeffer” (slang for “Bunny”?) presumably after a German fairy tale character.
When Sol returned to the sanitorium, Genora wrote to him, describing Ronnie’s progress (by his first year, he had a vocabulary