Child of the Sit-Downs_ The Revolutionary Life of Genora Dollinger - Carlton Jackson [91]
The party printed thousands of letters to be distributed to UAW locals around the country to urge them to support Commoner. Genora, one of the signatories of this letter, labeled herself as “Organizer.” The letter campaign helped because many labor members gave Commoner their vote in 1980. Nevertheless, the Citizens Party came nowhere close to winning; it collected less than 3 percent of the total vote. Genora and Sol both knew that the Citizens Party did not stand a chance, but they worked on principle rather than expediency. After all, Genora had not collected many votes when she ran for the Senate in 1948 and the House in 1950. Yet her and Sol’s affiliation with the SWP and the SUA (discussed in chapter 4) existed not for getting votes but for finding a conduit through which to express their economic, social, and political ideologies. Therefore they exuberantly endorsed Commoner and his party and would have done so again in the future if they had had the opportunity.
As the 1980s opened, Genora, for the most part, was a happy woman. Feminism became, at last, recognized and appreciated; even male historians seemed intent on correcting past omissions and inaccuracies. Her health problems continued: arthritis, heart (three pacemakers altogether), and then Meniere’s syndrome, an inner ear condition that caused sudden spells of vertigo. Nevertheless, she coped, fully savoring the arrival of a new day of reform. She remained widely admired throughout the country and continued to receive correspondence from individuals in the countries she and Sol had visited, primarily Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. She cherished the encomia, but none more than the one she received from her old friend and WEB comrade in arms, Nellie Besson, who told Genora that “all my life you have been my model. Everything that I do is as close to you as I can get.”67 This letter, plus all the others, was a fine way, Genora thought, to start out the 1980s, the last full decade of her life.
Eight Tuxedo Unionism
United Automobile Workers officials, particularly Larry Jones at Local 659 in Flint, wanted “historical status” for GM plants numbers one, two, and especially four, as the actions there gave the 1937 victory to the union. State and national approvals arrived in early 1980, and Genora received an invitation to participate in the gala events marking the occasion, the highlight of which would be the unveiling of bronze plaques at each of the three plants. UAW president, Douglas Fraser, wanted to emphasize the importance of this July 17, 1980, event by having the entire UAW board present, along with the mayor of Flint and the governor of Michigan. Not one of the speaking celebrities was to be from among the Flint pioneers of 1937. Genora was invited to unveil the bronze markers at the three plants but would not be among the platform guests. “But even this small token [unveiling the markers],” Genora snorted, “is awarded providing that I pay $379.00 air fare for the privilege!” She did not attend and called the affair an example of labor-capitalist cohesion that she could not countenance. (She was busy at this time promoting the fortunes of Barry Commoner’s Citizens Party.) She was happy, along with Larry Jones, that workers would now be able to walk by these historic markers and read something of their past history, “But I can’t help but resent that our union has produced such slimy worms who sit on our top councils.”1 It could very well have been this attitude that caused the officials not to ask her to speak in the first place.
The themes of tuxedo unionism, feminism, and the overall condition of the industrial world absorbed Genora’s attention