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Audio Recording "Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike."

"Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike."

About this Item

Title

  • "Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike."

Names

  • Costa, Marianna (Narrator)
  • Taylor, David Alan, 1951- (Interviewer)

Created / Published

  • 1994-08-10

Headings

  • -  Interviews
  • -  Italian Americans
  • -  Strikes
  • -  Oral history
  • -  Sound recordings
  • -  Retirees
  • -  Textile industry unions
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  United States -- New Jersey -- Haledon

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Interview with retired dye-house worker and textile union official Marianna Costa at her home in Haledon, New Jersey.
  • -  Summary of audio segment: Marianna worked in shipping department at Arrow Piece Dye Works for a year; she then became involved with the union. First reactions to the strike of 1933: "I didn't understand when the girls in the department I was in said, "We're going to go out." The chanting outside of the window, that's my first recollection. There was chanting outside of our work windows, and a big group of people. I guess they initially started by the Wideman plant. . . . and in Riverside you start in one place and you go down [and] you weave in and out. It's all dye plants. So that if you made your run you would call these people out and they would join in that line. And they'd go to the next plant and there was a bigger line. And the line kept getting bigger and bigger. The crowd instead of being one hundred was two hundred. Two hundred would get three hundred. By the time they got to our plant half the street was just a crowd of people. And they'd say, "Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike. The president said we can. We're tired of this." And I said to the people, "What's going on? I don't understand." They says, "Oh, they're having a strike." And I asked them, "And then do what?" [They said] "Well, then, we'll see what the union does." I said, "And what's the union?" "Oh, that's an organization that will fight for us to get better protection." I didn't even get the full comprehension, but I went with them. I wasn't going to stay alone in the plant. I went with them and we walked from the Riverside section to the Turn Hall, which was quite a walk . . . . And, anyway, when we got there, there were organizers that were trying to establish an organization to speak to the crowd and say "You got to stay out. You have a right to organize. You can do better than what you're getting. And the idea is to be firm, stay together and we'll see what we can do for you."

Medium

  • Analog Audio Cassette

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1995/028: WIP-DT-A011

Source Collection

  • Working in Paterson Project Collection (AFC 1995/028)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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Credit line

Working in Paterson Project collection, 1993-2002 (AFC 1995/028), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Costa, Marianna, and David Alan Taylor. "Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike.". -08-10, 1994. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip000043/.

APA citation style:

Costa, M. & Taylor, D. A. (1994) "Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike.". -08-10. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip000043/.

MLA citation style:

Costa, Marianna, and David Alan Taylor. "Come on out. Join us. We're going to strike.". -08-10, 1994. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afcwip000043/>.