Episode 2: Powerful Personalities

Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/cio-organize-podcast-hillman-lewis On the second episode of Organized the Unorganized, we kick things off with an account of the institutional formation of the CIO, and then get to the organization’s key personalities. John L. Lewis, the founding president of and driving force behind the CIO, unsurprisingly gets a fair amount of time, and we focus in particular on the reasons for his bold leadership at this decisive moment in history. We also introduce Sidney Hillman, the only other real center of power in the organization besides Lewis in the early CIO, as well as some of the key organizers of the CIO, most of whom hailed from the United Mine Workers of America. Guests, in order of appearance: Melvyn Dubofsky, Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at Binghamton University; Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History at UC-Santa Barbara; Jeremy Brecher, Labor Historian; Erik Loomis, Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island; Steve Fraser, Labor Historian; Lisabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies at Harvard University; Ahmed White, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado-Boulder; Robert Cherny, Professor Emeritus of History at San Francisco State University; Dorothy Sue Cobble, Distinguished Professor Emerita of History and Labor Studies at Rutgers University Clips, in order of appearance: John L Lewis, “The Future of Organized Labor” speech, November 28, 1935, in the “John L. Lewis papers, 1879-1969,” Wisconsin Historical Society, 493A/9 (0:00, 19:42); Mike Wallace, “John L. Lewis,” Biography, https://youtu.be/2fwAr3_oHKg?si=cJwo8qZpFAQ0WX0R (8:01); Sidney Hillman, "America's Town meeting -- WJZ & Network - June 14, 1935 -- Mr. Sidney Hillman," Box 1, Folder 2, Sidney and Bessie Hillman Recording Discs, 1935, Collection Number 6225 AV, https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL06225av.html (26:58); “UAW Audiovisual Collection: 1955 Documentary on the CIO,” Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University Quotes, in order of appearance: William Z. Foster, Misleaders of Labor, p. 133, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b5111691&seq=139; Robert Zieger, The CIO: 1935-1955, p. 25; Melvyn Dubofsky and Warren van Tine, John L. Lewis: A Biography, p. 163; Walter Reuther and James Carey, introduction to John Brophy, A Miner’s Life: An Autobiography, https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Miner_s_Life/LD_tAAAAMAAJ?hl=en Songs, in order of appearance: George Jones, “This is what the union has done,” George Korson Bituminous Songs Collection, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197194/; Sarah Ogan Gunning, “I'm Goin' to Organize, Baby Mine (part 1),” The Lomax Kentucky Recordings, https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/212; Pete Seeger, “Which Side Are You On?”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XEnTxlBuGo Theme music by Drake Tyler. Quote music is Martin Tallstrom’s cover of “Freight Train,” used here with permission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9LEUMgBkX8.