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Anne Burlak Timpson was an early female US labor union organizer.
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Anne Burlak Timpson, born on May 24, 1911 in Slatington, Pennsylvania, 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.)[1] A staunch Communist known as the "Red Flame,"[2] she was a leader in labor organizing and leftist political movements in Georgia and Rhode Island during the twentieth century.
Early Life[edit]
The eldest of six children, Burlak left school at age 14 to join the labor force to support her family.[1] 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.[3] Introduced to left-wing ideas early in life by her father, who worked for Bethlehem Steel,[3] Burlak joined the Young Communist League at the age of 15 or 16.[1] Inspired by her father's struggle for fair wages[3] and work hours as well as by the union organizers like Ella Reeve Bloor, whom she met in 1925,[3] Burlak tried to organize her fellow workers into a union and was subsequently fired.[1] In 1929, Burlak, her father, and her brother[3] were arrested for sedition and suspicion of spreading Communist ideas.[1] Reportedly, Burlak decided that "I might as well join the Communist Party and learn more about it."[1] Burlak was blacklisted following her arrest, and unable to find work.
Career[edit]
Georgia
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. Burlak gained her first major experience with labor-management conflicts trying to organize workers across lines of race and ethnicity in the South.
Rhode Island
she became a central figure in the strikes that shook the Rhode Island textile industry in the early 1930s. Ann Burlak fought for workers' right to collective bargaining, overtime pay, and wage increases. She was arrested multiple times for her activism and faced with at least one (unsuccessful) attempt to deport her. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, 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 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 "Collection: Anne Burlak Timpson papers | Smith College Finding Aids". findingaids.smith.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
- ^ Pecinovsky, Tony (2020-03-27). "Anne Burlak: The red flame". Communist Party USA. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
- ^ a b c d e 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.
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