Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 168

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(RADICALISM.) Fur & Leather Workers Union photo with banner reading "Back the Invasion to Destroy Nazism-Fascism!" Panoramic photograph, 10 x 32 inches, captioned in the negative "Fifteenth Biennial Convention of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada, C.I.O." with inked photographer's stamp on verso; worn, moderate dampstaining and soiling, sides cropped, several short closed tears. Atlantic City, NJ: Fred Hess & Son, 20 May 1944
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Additional Details

The Fur and Leather Workers had long been one of the most radical of the left-leaning unions that comprised the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Their long-time president Ben Gold was a Communist Party member; we think he's sitting in the center of the head table, just under the portrait of Stalin. This war-date convention photo shows a large banquet hall filled with local leaders from across the country, including some women and several African Americans. Several of the local unions have hung their banners on the walls, along with patriotic war messages, a Roosevelt re-election sign, and the banner at center, recalling the days when all Americans could join together against a global emergency: "Back the Invasion to Destroy Nazism-Fascism!"

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