Cohn, Fannia (c. 1885–1962)

views updated

Cohn, Fannia (c. 1885–1962)

American labor educator and organizer. Born Fannia Mary Cohn in Minsk, Russia, on April 5, 1885 (some sources cite 1888); died of a stroke in New York City, on December 24, 1962; daughter of Hyman and Anna Rozofsky Cohn; privately educated in Russia; never married; no children.

Was a member of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party (1901–04); immigrated to the U.S.(1904); joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU, 1909); served as member, executive board of the Kimono, Wrappers, and Housedress Workers Union 41 (1909–14) and chair (1911–14); worked as ILGWU organizer in Chicago (1915–16); served as ILGWU vice-president (1916–25); served as executive secretary of the ILGWU education department (1918–62); co-founded Brookwood Labor College and the Workers' Education Bureau (1921); served as member of the board of directors, Brookwood Labor College (1926–28) and vice-president of the College (1932–37). Publications: several articles in Labor Age, American Federationalist, Justice, and Workers' Education Bureau.

Unlike so many of her fellow Eastern European immigrants who were involved in the labor movement in the first decades of the 20th century, Fannia Cohn came from a prosperous family. Born in Minsk, Russia, on April 5, probably in 1885, Cohn enjoyed a comfortable childhood. Her father ran the family's flour-mill business and was able to provide all of his children with a private education. Despite their prosperity, her parents were involved with radical politics and apparently approved of their daughter Fannia's membership in the illegal Socialist Revolutionary party, beginning in 1901. She came to America three years later, initially with plans of becoming a pharmacist and joining a relative's drug supply company. However, in 1905, seeing the harsh conditions many of her less fortunate fellow Eastern European immigrants lived and worked in, Fannia Cohn decided to become a trade unionist.

After a brief career as a sleevemaker in a New York City garment factory, Cohn soon rose up through the ranks of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). She organized locals in New York and Chicago as well as led a number of critical strikes, including the successful 1915 Chicago white goods workers' strike. Recognized by the ILGWU as one of its most talented organizers, Cohn was elected vice president by the union in 1916. The first woman to hold that office, she remained vice president until 1925. However, it was in the area of worker education that Fannia Cohn focused most of her energies for the next several decades. In 1918, she became executive secretary of the ILGWU's educational department. Although she valued trade unionism in and of itself, Cohn felt that educated workers would make the best union members. Further, she was well aware of the advantages of her own education and sought to provide that opportunity to all.

By the late 1920s, however, the workers' education movement was divided by internal disputes. While Cohn claimed to be politically neutral, some ILGWU leaders objected to the apparent affiliation between Brookwood Labor College, of which Cohn served on the board of directors (1926–28) and as vice-president (1932–37), and the American Communist Party. The union cut the funding for their educational department and Cohn, left without a salary, had to turn to her family for help. By the 1930s, she was further marginalized as a new, non-immigrant population became active in the ILGWU. Nonetheless, the union allowed her to keep the title of executive secretary of the ILGWU's educational department until forcing her into retirement in August 1962. By then in her mid–70s and increasingly frustrated and bitter, Fannia Cohn died only four months later.

sources:

Kessler-Harris, Alice. "Organizing the Unorganizable: Three Jewish Women and Their Union," in Labor History. Vol. 17, 1976, pp. 5–23.

Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green, eds. Notable American Woman: The Modern Period. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980, pp. 154–155.

collections:

Fannia Cohn Papers, New York Public Library.

Kathleen Banks Nutter , Department of History, University of Massachusetts at Amherst