February 25: On Strike!

Veteran union activist Rose Pesotta arrived in Akron, Ohio on this date in 1936 to give support to Goodyear Rubber workers who were on strike. Active in the anarchist movement and a close friend to Emma Goldman, Pesotta worked for the ILGWU from 1913 until 1944 (she became a vice-president of the union in 1934 and was one of the first women on its executive committee). In 1933, she led a largely Mexican labor force in the Dressmakers General Strike in Los Angeles, which struggled with court injunctions and gangsters. Shortly after the Goodyear strike, Pesotta was again “on loan” as an organizer for the United Auto Workers’ sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan. Pesotta published two memoirs, Bread upon the Waters (1945) and Days of Our Lives (1958), and worked for a short time for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and for the American Trade Union Council for the Histadrut.

“Pesotta brought a charismatic personality, boundless energy, and a unique ability to empathize with the downtrodden to the organizing field.” —Anne Schofield