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By Root 866 0

on a para-military basis? . . . No! . . . Did we know . . . that it was something new in labor history to be proud to be called a women’s auxiliary? . . . No!” They only knew, Genora emphasized, that they were fighting the world’s largest industrial corporation, and their men needed help. The Emergency Brigade symbolized women’s rights everywhere, she maintained. In 1937, a woman could not serve on juries in most states. Battered women had no one to turn to in their time of troubles. A divorced woman was considered “loose.” Women were expected to be in the kitchen, the laundry, the bedroom, or the nursery. The WEBs changed the world. And Kraus had the temerity to call them “the girls.” According to Genora, he referred to one of the WEBs as “no flapper” but a “good housewife.” But then, Genora added, men never wrote “John Brown No Ladies’ man, was a good auto worker!” [sic].

A friend had recently told her, “History is made by the people who write it” (and she was making labor history that day!). Even historians or professors “taking oral interviews” can “slant the material they obtain, omit or enhance the importance of roles according to their own lights.” For Genora, the truth of this statement was represented by Kraus’s work, not only as the editor of Flint Auto Worker but also as the author of The Many and the Few. Kraus had written women out of the history of the sit-downs, and Genora let him know about it in no uncertain terms.

She mentioned the films and academic interest in the WEBs that had developed in the past decade. Genora and colleagues had been “besieged” with requests for appearances and lectures at universities, colleges, women’s and labor organizations, and ethnic groups. “Women have been thirsty for this news of long ago. Why did it take so long for this history to become known?” It was, she said, because of “PR men” like Kraus who, in 1947, had all the materials at hand when he wrote The Many and the Few. Would it have been too “revolutionary” in historical practice to have included the significance of women in the sit-downs of 19371 Even if it had been, Genora reminded Kraus that his book had been republished in the mid-1980s, and he could have redressed this grievance. “He had a great responsibility to history and was not big enough to fulfill it!”

As she closed her speech, she addressed Kraus directly. “For 50 years I have wanted to tell you, Henry Kraus, as a representative of hundreds of departed pioneers, what an injustice you have done to the women of America and the world. For a quarter of a century you were in Paris [Kraus and his wife, Dorothy, had become permanent residents of France]. But now that you are here you know how some of us have felt for all these years.”26 Audience members felt one way or another about Genora’s speech, or diatribe as some critics called it, but there were no drowsy attendees. She got hearty applause from her followers and even a standing ovation from a few, while her detractors sat in silence.

Apparently, Sol sat between Genora and Kraus at the speaker’s table. When Victor Reuther took the podium after Genora finished, Kraus allegedly leaned over Sol to confront Genora. “I’m going to get even with you,” he is reported to have said. “You already got even with me fifty years ago,” Genora angrily answered, to which Kraus, in kind, said, “I’m going to take care of it by what I write about you in my next book. I’m going to sue you,” presumably for libel and public humiliation, but for reasons known only to him, he never did. Sol tried to listen to Victor Reuther while keeping Kraus and Genora separated. He finally told Kraus, “Will you shut up and sit down?”27 And the disgruntled author fell back into his seat.

Genora was exhausted as she and Sol flew back to Los Angeles, and as Henry and Dorothy Kraus winged their way to Paris. Both parties left behind bitter memories of the fiftieth anniversary, an event that was supposed to have brought peace and joy to all concerned. When Henry got back to his Paris home, he found tons of unanswered mail and other things to do,