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By Root 929 0

following her 1984 trip to Europe, Genora was fairly homebound. By early 1985 she was taking drugs for TB, Clinoril for arthritis, Alupent inhaler for asthma (her lung capacity, said her doctors, was only 20 to 25 percent normal), Tambocor for an irregular heartbeat, and Lanoxin and Cardizem to help her pacemaker keep things normal in her atrial chambers. Her upper esophagus was one-half flaccid, and she developed a hiatal hernia. The only organ that seemed not to bother her was her liver.16 Did these maladies put a stop to Genora’s revolutionary lifestyle and career? Emphatically, no. She maintained a stream of correspondence on the major issues of the day with individuals around the country. To her congressman, Henry A. Waxman, she lamented the Reagan administration’s forays into Central America, specifically Honduras, El Salvador, and especially Nicaragua. Waxman wrote back that “this is Vietnam all over again!”17 She strongly supported the flight attendants in their 1986 strike against Trans World Airlines (TWA) and became a fan of TV talk-show host Phil Donahue, lauding his defense of the stewardesses in their dispute with TWA.18 She rejoiced that a pro–abortion rights rally in Los Angeles brought out 30,000 people, including Mayor Thomas Bradley.19 She strongly opposed the U.S. bombing of Tripoli, Libya, and was disappointed when polls showed that 70 percent of Americans supported this action. In other countries, however, a similar percentage denounced the bombings.20 The nuclear explosion in Kiev unsettled Genora, as it did most Americans. The various political organizations to which she adhered over the years had always spoken about the need for ironclad nuclear regulations, and the Ukraine incident proved—at least to her—the points she had made for years.21

The big event in 1986 she looked forward to, and the one she kept urging her doctors to get her in shape for, was the starting celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the UAW victory against GM during the sit-downs. Looking toward the August meeting, she wrote in her diary and also a notebook as early as March that “Larry Jones called to tell me I must not forget the 50th anniversary of the pioneers. . . . I am to be the main speaker.”22 As if she could forget. She was flattered by Jones’s invitation and implied such in her notebook entries. To Jones, however, she was strident. Undoubtedly remembering the difficulty of trying to get recognized by Don Ellis during the fortieth anniversary gala, she told Jones, “If it [the fiftieth anniversary] is going to be another put-down of the women who participated in the winning of the ’37 sitdown strike we women can be better prepared.” Thousands of people throughout the country and the world had now learned how tough it had been to deal with industrial powers prior to unionization.23

The fiftieth anniversary celebrations included numerous events spread out over a few months. In late 1985, for example, about fifty young women, all members of the UAW, staged a red beret march in Flint. They arranged for two special touring cars, with Nellie Besson in the front car to head the procession. Genora received an invitation but could not attend. “If I had the names of these wonderfully independent union women I would list them all with deep gratitude. I plan to be in Flint this summer to meet them.” This event, Genora wrote, was a huge “bright spot” in union affairs of the mid-1980s. Just about everything else, however, was drab. The celebrations, Genora again complained, were jointly arranged by GM vice president Alfred Warren and UAW president Owen Bieber. GM “fought us every step of the way . . . [and hired] thugs, goons, and Pinkerton spies who were beating the heads of men trying to organize a union. These professional goons trapped union men in alleys, cars or beer gardens, beating them badly, breaking their arms and jaws. . . . With no unemployment insurance, no money, no food and welfare, several were evicted from their homes.”24 And now, fifty years later, GM sought to cash in on a commemoration and celebration