Ellen "Nellie" Dawson Kanki (14 December 1900 - 17 April 1967), best known as Ellen Dawson, was a Scottish-American political activist and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

organizer in the

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...

. Dawson is best remembered as an active participant in three of the greatest textile strikes of the 1920s; the 1926 Passaic textile strike, the 1928 New Bedford textile strike, and the 1929 Loray Mill strike in

Gastonia, North Carolina Gastonia is the largest city in and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest satellite city of the Charlotte area, behind Concord. The population was 80,411 at the 2020 census, up from 71,741 in 20 ...

. An activist in the Communist Party USA during the 1920s, Dawson was the first woman elected to a leadership position in an American textile union.

Biography

Early years

Ellen Dawson was born on December 14, 1900 in

Barrhead Barrhead ( sco, Baurheid, gd, Ceann a' Bharra) is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow city centre on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. At the 2011 census its population was 17,268. History Barrhead was formed when ...

, a small industrial town of about 9,000 residents on the outskirts of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

.David Lee McMullen, ''Strike! The Radical Insurrections of Ellen Dawson.'' Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010; pg. 3 She was the fifth of at least 10 children born to Annie Halford Dawson and Patrick Dawson, a poor

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

couple. Her paternal grandparents were indigenous Scots, while her maternal grandparents were Irish emigrants, having left

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the 1840s to escape the Great Famine. At the time of her birth, Dawson's father worked as an iron foundry worker at Shanks' Tubal Works - a manufacturer of

toilet A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popu ...

s and other bathroom products - in Barrhead. The work was gruelling and pay was based on the

piece work Piece work (or piecework) is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed, regardless of time. Context When paying a worker, employers can use various methods and combinations of ...

system.McMullen, ''Strike!'' pp. 14-15. Her mother was a former power loom weaver in a

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

.McMullen, ''Strike!'' pg. 29. During the 18th century, Barrhead had been the center of an

Owenite Owenism is the utopian socialist philosophy of 19th-century social reformer Robert Owen and his followers and successors, who are known as Owenites. Owenism aimed for radical reform of society and is considered a forerunner of the cooperative ...

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

movement — an organization which around the time of Dawson's birth operated 19 businesses and included some 2,100 members — nearly a quarter of the entire community.McMullen, ''Strike!'' pg. 23. While no membership records of the Barrhead Cooperative Society are known to exist, and consequently there is no way to either confirm or deny that the Dawson family were members, Dawson's biographer recounts family oral history indicating that they were members of the organization. This would have been an important formative experience in Dawson's life, it is intimated, as the Cooperative was linked to social and educational efforts directed at the children of the community.

Scottish years

Dawson started work in 1914, probably working in a textile mill as had her mother before her. Although the date of her first employment is known, the exact location and the tasks she performed are not recorded.McMullen, ''Strike!'' pg. 28. While this, with other aspects of Dawson's early years, has been poorly recorded, the political and social environment of so-called

Red Clydeside Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a ...

— the region in which she was raised — is a subject of considerable academic research. Historian David Lee McMullen sees this environmental factor as a fundamental component in the understanding of Ellen Dawson:

"Given what we know about Dawson's activities in the United States during the late 1920s — where she was a highly effective labor organizer, known for her courage on the
picket line A picket line is a horizontal rope along which horses are tied at intervals. The rope can be on the ground, at chest height (above the knees, below the neck) or overhead. The overhead form is usually called a high line. A variant of a high l ...
and her fiery oratory — Red Clydeside must have been Dawson's classroom and the activists of the period her teacher. During these years she was introduced to the realities of industrial wage labor, and began formulating her own attitudes and opinions as a worker. During this time Scottish women emerged not only as rank-and-file workers, but as leaders within several major labor confrontation.... Dawson may have only been a silent witness to these events, but it seems impossible to believe that she, or any other young worker of the period, could have escaped the influence of such firebrand rhetoric and monumental events."

The end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

brought large-scale

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

to Glasgow and other manufacturing cities of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, as wartime spending was curtailed. Late in 1919, the Dawson family including Ellen, left the Clyde area in search of employment, heading south to

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The family settled in the village of Millgate, about 15 miles north of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Dawson found work as a

spinner Technology *Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller * Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells * Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in a GUI * Spinner (MIT Med ...

and a weaver in local textile mills, remaining in this capacity until April, 1921. The unemployment situation in Lancashire proved little better than that of west Scotland, and on April 30, 1921, the 20-year-old Dawson and an older brother departed for the prospect of better opportunities in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. They travelled as

steerage Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North America ...

passengers aboard the ''SS Cedric,'' arriving in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on May 9, 1921.

Labor organizer in America

Soon joined by other family members, the Dawson family settled in the mill town of Passaic, New Jersey, making a home in a working-class neighborhood composed largely of European emigrants, a few blocks from the Botany Worsted Mills. For the next five years, Dawson worked at the Botany Mill, a facility in which over 70 percent of the workers earned less than $1200 annually, at a time when it was estimated that $1600 a year was required to support a family.

Death and legacy

Dawson died at 4am on April 17, 1967 at her home in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.McMullen, ''Strike!'' pg. 182. She was 66 years old. Although the cause of her death will not be released by the state of Florida until 2017, according to family members Dawson had been suffering from "a lung complaint contracted during her years working in the mills." Her published obituary in the local press made no mention of her radical past.McMullen, ''Strike!'' pg. 183.

Footnotes

Works

* "Gastonia," ''Revolutionary Age'' ew York vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 1, 1929), pp. 3–4. * "The Convention of the Textile Workers," ''Revolutionary Age'' ew York vol. 1, no. 6 (Jan. 15, 1930), pg. 10.

External links

* David Lee McMullen
Talk on his book ''Strike!''
C-SPAN BookTV, May 10, 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Ellen 1900 births 1967 deaths American political activists People from Barrhead People from Charlotte County, Florida People from Passaic, New Jersey British emigrants to the United States Textile workers