Jewish Radicals: A Documentary Reader

37. The Aims of Workers’ Education (1926)

194 | 37 The Aims of Workers’ Education (1926) International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union In 1916, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union launched a national education program that placed it at the forefront of workers’ education in the United States. By 1922, the union’s education department spent more than $17,000 annually on classes and lectures for its members. In New York City, the union offered an array of courses in English, Russian , Yiddish, and eventually other languages. The ILGWU’s Unity Centers provided courses for lower-level students, while its Worker’s University catered to the most serious learners. Its curriculum included courses in literature, drama, poetry, trade-union policies, psychology, and political and social history . More than seventy-six hundred men and women attended classes at the Worker’s University in the year 1922–1923. The following statement of purpose and sampling of classes appeared in a brochure published by the ILGWU in 1927. The function of Workers’ Education is to assist in the all-important task of making our world a better place for all. The truth is clear that it is the mission of the workers themselves to abolish the inequalities and injustices which they suffer, and that they can accomplish this only through organization . But it is equally clear that economic strength is much more effective if directed by intelligent, well informed, clear thinking men and women. The purpose of the educational activities of the I.L.G.W.U. is to provide the Labor Movement with such men and women. The courses arranged by the Educational Department are designed to give the members of the Union those facts of the social sciences which may serve as a basis for sound conclusions , may help create true social and spiritual values, and may help train them for active and successful participation in the Labor Movement, as leaders and workers. The Aims of Workers’ Education | 195 With this in view, our International organized an Educational Department in 1917 and the 1925 Convention authorized an annual appropriation of $17,500 for the following two years. The members of our union who attend the lectures and courses, learn a great deal about matters connected with their industry, their organization and the Labor Movement. They learn some of the psychologic laws which govern the relations between human beings. They are inspired by the literature which deals with the life, hopes and sorrows of other men and women. But even more important, they learn how workers struggled for many years to get some joy and happiness out of their miserable existence . They learn how unity and solidarity helped their fellow workers overcome persecution and oppression and to succeed finally in winning the improved conditions which prevail today and in raising society to a higher level. A Sampling of Courses at the ILGWU’s Workers’ University Course No. 1. The Place of Workers in History—A. J. Muste.1 One of the leaders of the British workers’ education remarked some time ago, “History should be the back-bone of the course in all workers’ colleges.” This would suggest that some workers at least have found a means to read the record of the past, and make it useful in their life and struggles today. Such will be the aim of this course: to survey the past and present life of human beings, especially workers, in our own land and on the other side of the earth, and to see how from it we of today may gain a richer life and more intelligent methods for waging our struggle to attain the goal of all history— the emancipation of the workers. Course No. 6. Economic Problems of the Working Woman—Theresa Wolfson.2 In the organized labor movement the question of women in industry, as a special problem, has often been raised. Two points of view are often expressed. One claims that the interests of men and women workers are identical. The other accepts the fact that women workers are a more or less temporary factor, and therefore, should not be considered. Both these attitudes have seriously handicapped the work of organizing women workers. A discussion of these problems in the light of experience, as they affect the position of women in industry and in trade unions, will do much toward 196 | Life of the Mind clarifying a number of issues much befogged by old social and economic prejudices. Course No...