Women Strikers Occupy Chain Stores, Win Big

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Dana Frank. Women Strikers Occupy Chain Stores, Win Big

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Interview with Dana Frank

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You asked about the media. Much of the mainstream media was very supportive of the Woolworth strikers—that was a big part of what made it possible for them to stay in the store, and win. The headlines I used in the text are mostly real, although I made up the original title, “Girl Strikers Occupy Chain Store, Win Big.” You would see headlines like that all the time during 1937. Today, you can see peeps here and there of sympathy—like one mainstream report on Occupy San Francisco that emphasized that the demonstrators had gone out of their way to isolate and discourage anyone who sought to damage a nearby ATM. The reporters and editors themselves are usually union members. But they’re under tremendous pressure from their own bosses. So you almost never ever see a headline that affirms that Organizing Works! Striking Gets You Health Care! Warmongers Don’t Invade Country X Because of Mass Protests!

Can you talk about this question of democracy within the occupation and the demands these young women, and we should say very young women, I think the average age was eighteen or nineteen, placed on the bosses? Within Occupy Wall Street there is a strong current of concern that raising any set of demands necessarily puts you at risk of being co-opted back into the system. So, how did Woolworth workers articulate their demands, and how, given this problem you raised about union officials taking over the negotiations, how do you see what we might call partial victories?

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