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How Unemployment Compensation Was Won

By VVAW

The following interview was made with a veteran fighter, a garment worker in New York City. As a young worker in the 1930's he took part in some of the major battles for unionization and unemployment insurance. Today, after 40 years in the struggle, he is still active in building the workers movement as a member of the United Workers Organization of New York New Jersey.

The Interview was first printed in UWOC News, the national publication of the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee. With chapters in major cities around the country, UWOC is fighting to organize the unemployment under the slogan, "Employed/Unemployed; Same Crisis, Same Fight." Like the Unemployed Councils of the 30's, they march under the banner "We Won't Scab and We Won't Starve." For more information about UWOC or to get copies of their publications, write UWOC, P.O. Box 17449, Chicago, IL 60617.

VVAW works closely with UWOC around the country. With unemployment among vets even higher than among non-vets, VVAW, like UWOC, raises the demand Jobs or Income Now. The struggle of vets for jobs was also part of the battles described in the interview. Not only were many veterans involved in the hunger marches talked about in the interview, but the demand for unemployment compensation was one of the major demands of the Bonus March in 1932 when 25,000 veterans and their families turned to Washington DC into a vets encampment.

Question: What were conditions like during the Great Depression?

Answer: There was no such thing as unemployment compensation at that time. People were faced with being thrown out of their homes. And the question of where the next mean was coming from became a life and death issue. Soup lines were set up by the Federal government, by carious charities, and by the Salvation Army. The government gave away cases of apples that unemployed workers would try to sell for five cents a piece. Banks were closing all over the place and people's life savings were wiped out over night. Shanty-towns sprang up all over the place to provide bleak shelter for those who had been evicted. All the while President Hoover was saying recovery is just around the corner and that the solution was to put more money into big business. This jerk had to honor of giving the shanty-towns named after him. They were called the Hoovervilles.

Q: What was it like trying to find work during those times?

A: we wore out our shoes looking for work. With one nickel in our pockets to get us through the day, we couldn't afford train-fare, but had to save our nickel for that one thin meal. The hiring halls were packed with workers hoping desperately to be one of the lucky ones to get a job. We would go to shape-up at 4 o'clock in the morning looking for a day's work. Sometimes you had to pay the stewards a $3 bribe for the privilege of working. During those times I could never find a job that lasted for more than a few months. In the face of all these problems people were beginning to move.

Q: Could you go into that some more?

A: At first people were kind of in a state of shock from what was going on. The depression hit like some kind of natural disaster that you couldn't do anything about, but do your best to get over. But pretty soon the anger and hatred of the workers began pouring out and people began fighting. In these fights the Unemployed Councils played a key role.

Q: What was the day to day work of the Unemployed Councils? How did they build the struggle?

A: As far as the Councils were concerned, their job consisted of organizing workers on a block by block basis. One of the major struggles was against evictions. Where a family was getting evicted because they couldn't pay the rent, the Council organized workers to fight the marshalls and the police. The marshalls would try to move the furniture out and the workers would block them and move it back. There were thousands of bloody battles in the streets. The Councils would gather food for families that had none. They organized entertainment and cultural and educational activities. In this way the Unemployed Councils formed broad alliances with the people and with other organizations, like senor citizens clubs, church groups and labor unions. When the time came for a demonstration, the Councils could put out the call and thousands or workers would come out.

Q: Is this the way unemployed workers came together to fight for their demands?

A: The main way. All across the country the Unemployed Councils were an active force. In 1930 here in New York City for example, 110,000 workers jammed Union Square to Demand unemployment insurance, jobs a union wages and an end to child labor, and health and retirement benefits. The demonstration was mercilessly attacked by 25,000 cops, beating and trampling anyone they could get their hands on. It was clear that the same people who had thrown us out of work were now deathly afraid of us. In 1934 the Councils brought workers from all over the country to Washington DC. This was a real disciplined Hunger March that moved from town to town and kept picketing up the support of broad masses of working people.

Q: How were the workers able to build the fight in the face of all these attacks?

A: From these kind of actions millions of workers were learning who were their friends and who were their enemies. The AFL came out in the early 30's saying that the demand for relief was Un-American and that the Unemployed Councils were a communist conspiracy. The Councils and the CP did a lot of education to counter these attacks. Leaflets and pamphlets answered questions like: Who's responsible for the economic crisis? Why are all the banks closed? What side are the politicians on? Why are the police attacking us? Millions of workers saw that the real danger wasn't with the Unemployed Councils or the CP, which stood side by side with the workers in their struggles, but the capitalist system that threw one-quarter of the work force out of work and allowed thousands to starve or freeze to death, while brutally attacking any struggle to fight these conditions. The '30's was a time when workers of this country, employed and unemployed alike, rose up and fought the capitalists tooth and nail for a decent life and a decent future.