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| name = Anne Burlak Timpson |
| name = Anne Burlak Timpson |
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| birth_name = Anne Burlak |
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Revision as of 16:01, 28 September 2021
Anne Burlak Timpson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anne Burlak May 24, 1911 Slatington, PA, U.S. |
| Died | July 9, 2002 (aged 91) East Longmeadow, MA, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Arthur E. Timpson (m. 1939) |
| Children | Kathryn Ann Timpson; William Michael Timpson |
Anne Burlak Timpson (May 24, 1911 – July 9, 2002) was an early twentieth-century leader in labor organizing and leftist political movements. Largely known for her work in New England, Burlak's passion and staunch Communism earned her the nicknames of the "Red Flame,"[1] the "girl striker,"[1] "Seditious Anne,"[2] and the "Hunger March Queen."[2]
Early Life[edit]
Born in Slatington, Pennsylvania, Anne Burlak was the daughter of Harry and Anastasia Smigel Burlak, who came to the United States as immigrants from Tsarist Russia (from the area now comprising Ukraine.)[3] The eldest of six children, Burlak left school at age 14 to join the labor force to support her family.[3] As was common practice for children whose families needed the income, Burlak lied about her age in order to work at a textile mill in Bethlehem.[2]
Introduced to left-wing ideas early in life by her father, who worked for Bethlehem Steel,[2] Burlak joined the Young Communist League at the age of 15 or 16.[3] Inspired by her father's struggle for fair wages[2] and work hours as well as by the union organizers like Ella Reeve Bloor, whom she met in 1925,[2] Burlak tried to organize her fellow workers into a union and was subsequently fired.[3]
In 1929, Burlak, her father, and her brother[2] were arrested for sedition and on suspicion of spreading Communist ideas.[3] Reportedly, Burlak decided that "I might as well join the Communist Party and learn more about it."[3] Burlak was blacklisted following her arrest, and unable to find work; Harry Burlak was also terminated from his job at Bethlehem Steel.[2] Harry and the rest of the Burlak family later relocated to the Soviet Union.[2]
Career[edit]
At seventeen, Burlak had been a delegate to the inaugural National Textile Workers Union convention. After the charges of sedition against her were dropped, she became a labor organizer for the National Textile Workers Union, working full-time for ten dollars a week.[3] At age 21, Burlak became the first American woman elected to the role of National Secretary of the NWTU.[3]
Georgia
Burlak gained her first major experience with labor-management conflicts trying to organize workers across lines of race and ethnicity in the South. After briefly working in North Carolina and South Carolina, the NTWU sent her to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1930 to organize workers there into multiracial unions.[2] Facing opposition not only from recalcitrant mill owners but also from the state's enforcement of segregation, Burlak was arrested and charged with insurrection under Georgia law, which carried the death penalty.[1] Burlak was one in a group of black and white Communist organizers who were facing insurrection charges; collectively they became known as the "Atlanta Six" and counted M.H. Powers,[1] Joe Carr,[1] and Herbert Newton[4] among their number. Burlak and the other members of the Atlanta Six were held in jail for six weeks.[3] Upon being released on bail, Burlak traveled the country to raise funds for the Atlanta Six's legal defense.[1] The law under which the Atlanta Six were charged dated from before the Civil War,[5] and would not be overturned until the Supreme Court's decision in Herndon v. Lowry (1937).[3][6] The charges against Burlak and the Atlanta Six would not be dropped until 1939.[3]
Rhode Island
Following her release from prison in Georgia, Burlak began organizing Rhode Island textile workers in their struggle for collective bargaining, overtime pay, and wage increases. She would become a central figure in the strikes that shook the state's textile industry in the early 1930s.[2] Burlak soon began leading strike actions in Pawtucket and Central Falls, and was arrested for alleged violence in a July 1931 strike.[2] She was ultimately sentenced to thirty days in jail and a fine.[2] As a response to her continued activism, she faced deportation by federal immigration authorities.[2]
When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, the legislative initiatives that were part of the New Deal caused many workers to turn away from radical grassroots activism and to support for Democratic candidates for office. Burlak
Burlak at that point turned her attention to the organization of the unemployed and she would twice run as a Communist for elected office in Rhode Island.
Personal life
A tireless campaigner for social justice issues throughout her life, she married fellow labor activist Arthur E. Timpson in 1939 and gave birth to two children. She died July 9, 2002 in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
https://www.rihs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2009_SumFall.pdf
https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/543
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/civilrights/survey/view_collection.php?coll_id=2138
https://cpusa.org/article/anne-burlak-the-red-flame/
https://webarchives.apps.uri.edu/special_collections/registers/manuscripts/msg232.xml
Literature[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- Anne Burlak Timpson papers at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections
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- ^ a b c d e f Pecinovsky, Tony (2020-03-27). "Anne Burlak: The red flame". Communist Party USA. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hughes, Quenby Olmstead (Summer 2009). "Red Flame Burning Bright: Communist Labor Organizer Ann Burlak, Rhode Island Workers, and the New Deal" (PDF). Rhode Island History. 67, no. 2: 43–60.
{{cite journal}}: line feed character in|title=at position 26 (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Collection: Anne Burlak Timpson papers | Smith College Finding Aids". findingaids.smith.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
- ^ Pecinovsky, Tony (2016-02-02). ""A Life in Red" offers historical insight, but can it deliver?". People's World. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
- ^ "Communists". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
- ^ Vile, John R. "Herndon v. Lowry". www.mtsu.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-28.