Vera Shlakman (July 15, 1909 – November 5, 2017) was a 20th-century American professor of Economics and

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and author of a 1935 book on women factory workers. She was best known in 1952 for her firing by

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

for refusing to testify to the

McCarran Committee The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...

whether she was a card-carrying

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

, as well as for apology and restitution she received in 1982.

Background

Vera Shlakman was born on July 15, 1909, in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, Canada. Her parents, Louis Shlakman (tailor, garment foreman) and Lena Hendler, were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

immigrants from Eastern Europe. They named their children for revolutionary heroes: Vera for

Vera Zasulich Vera Ivanovna Zasulich (russian: link=no, Ве́ра Ива́новна Засу́лич; – 8 May 1919) was a Russian socialist activist, Menshevik writer and revolutionary. Radical beginnings Zasulich was born in Mikhaylovka, in the Smol ...

, Eleanora for

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's daughter Eleanor Marx, and Victor for

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

. Anarchist

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...

was a family friend. In 1930, she received bachelor's degree from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

, followed by an MA in economics. She received a doctorate in economics at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Her doctoral dissertation analyzed women factory workers in the 1800s in

Chicopee, Massachusetts Chicopee ( ) is a city located on the Connecticut River in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 55,560, making it the second-largest city in Western Massachusetts after Springfield. ...

Career

Shlakman obtained a research fellowship at

Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...

and then taught briefly at Sweet Briar College. In 1938, Shlakman became an instructor at Queens College, where she taught about labor,

Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

, and concentration of wealth. Shlakman was vice president of the college division of a

Teachers Union The New York City Teachers Union or "TU" (1916–1964) was the first New York labor union for teachers, formed as "AFT Local 5" of the American Federation of Teachers, which found itself hounded throughout its history due largely to co-membership ...

local, rebuked for Communists domination.

Anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

provides background to Shlakman's career as the

New York City Board of Education The Panel for Educational Policy of the Department of Education of the City School District of the City of New York, abbreviated as the Panel for Educational Policy and also known as the New York City Board of Education, is the governing body of ...

, state officials, and courts specifically targeted left-wing Jewish teachers and professors to fire as part of their Communist purge.

Hearings, firing

On September 24, 1952, during testimony at a public hearing of the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator

Pat McCarran Patrick Anthony McCarran (August 8, 1876 – September 28, 1954) was an American farmer, attorney, judge, and Democratic politician who represented Nevada in the United States Senate from 1933 until 1954. McCarran was born in Reno, Nevada, atte ...

, Shlakman pled the First and Fifth amendments with regard to any membership in the Communist Party. In October 1952, she was fired under two New York State regulations. The first (the

Feinberg Law , image = , image_size = , caption = , pronunciation = , meaning = fine, beautiful + mountain , region = Ukraine, Russia, Soviet, Israel, United States , languageorigin = Yiddish , variant = Fein (< ), New York City Charter The New York City Charter is the municipal charter of New York City. As of January 2018, it includes a non-numbered introductory chapter, plus chapters identified by a number (1 through 75) or a number plus a letter suffix. For the rest of the 1950s, Shlakman worked as a secretary, a bookkeeper, and occasional teacher. In 1960, Dr. Shlakman started to teach again at

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher edu ...

's School of Social Work. In 1966, she became a full-time professor at

Columbia University School of Social Work The Columbia University School of Social Work is the graduate school of social work of Columbia University. It is the nation's oldest social work program, with roots extending back to 1898, when the New York Charity Organization Society's first ...

. She retired as professor emerita in 1978. Dr. Shlakman's enduring connection to Columbia's School of Social Work led her to establish a scholarship, and to leave a bequest to the School in her will.

Restitution

In 1980, City University offered an apology to professors dismissed then, including Shlakman. "They were dismissed during and in the spirit of the shameful era of

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

, during which the freedoms traditionally associated with academic institutions were quashed," the trustees of the City University of New York declared in a unanimous resolution. Shlakman and Oscar Shaftel filed an appeal to New York City Comptroller

Harrison J. Goldin Harrison Jay Goldin (born February 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and former politician. He was born on February 23, 1936, in the Bronx, New York City. He graduated as Science Valedictorian from the Bronx High School of Science in 1953, and ...

over pensions or death benefits for former professors dismissed during the Second

Red Scare A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which ar ...

. In April 1982, the City announced a $935,098 settlement with seven living and three deceased former professors: Dr. Shlakman received $114,599. Besides Shlakman and Shaftel, the other professors were: Richard Austin, Joseph Bressler, Dudley Straus, Sarah Reidman Gustafson, and Bernard F. Riess.

Personal life and death

Shlakman never married. Scholar

Marjorie Heins Marjorie Heins (b.1946) is a First Amendment lawyer, writer and founder of the Free Expression Policy Project.Beth Saulnier"The Talking Cure" ''Cornell Alumni Magazine'', Sept./Oct. 2013. Education Heins received a B.A., with distinction, from C ...

has assessed that Shlakman was a socialist-anarchist but not necessarily a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

. Shlakman believed that fears of "communism" fell prone to exaggeration. For example, "When the

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

began to carry packages, this activity was viewed as a challenge to private enterprise ... and a kind of socialistic or communistic activity" but not for long. Regarding her firing, she held that the academic community had a choice not to fire her but chose to do so. She questioned: "Is the dismissal of teachers easier to accept than the burning of books?" In her last years, she became homebound due to blindness. Friends who looked after her included Ellen J. Holahan, Judith Podore Ward, and Bernard Tuchman. According to her friends, she never revealed whether she had been a

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featu ...

member. Shlakman died aged 108 on November 5, 2017, at home in Manhattan. Her friend Ellen J. Holahan reported the death.

Legacy

Sam Roberts of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' commented at her death, "A 42-year-old assistant professor when she was fired in 1952, Dr. Shlakman neither taught economics again nor wrote a sequel to her groundbreaking 1935 book on female factory workers." In the introduction to her 2013 book ''Priests of Our Democracy'', Marjorie Heins asks the question "Why did Vera Shlakman, Oscar Shaftel, and hundreds of others refuse to cooperate in the political inquisitions of the witch-hunt era?" She answers, "Many people who had made the difficult break with communism, or who had never been communists, simply did not want to collaborate in the Red hunt."

Works

Shlakman published only one major book, of which historian

Alice Kessler-Harris Alice Kessler-Harris (June 2, 1941, Leicester) is R. Gordon Hoxie Professor Emerita of American History at Columbia University, and former president of the Organization of American Historians, and specialist in the American labor and comparative ...

later wrote:

Vera Shlakman had an extraordinary effect on my work and on that of a generation of labor historians. Quietly, unobtrusively her interpretive insights and the methodological innovations she introduced paved the way to a more eclectic and integrated discipline. A full seventy years after its publication in 1935, her ''Economic History of a Factory Town: A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts'' still provides an intellectual and conceptual guide, not only to a changing field, but to the persistent questions it raises. because her book 'raised the question of how a transformation in the meaning of work for female workers could, and perhaps did, alter the workplace environment and the nature of family life.'

In 2017, Kessler-Harris added that Shlakman's study of Chicopee confirmed that fundamental problems between capital and labor and thus that labor protests were a reaction to capitalist excesses. In 2017, historian Joshua B. Freeman of Queens College praised Shlakman's 1935 book because it "extended the boundaries of American working-class history" and influenced a generation of historians." * ''Economic History of a Factory Town: A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts'' (1935) (1969)

References

External links

Photo of Shlakman
with New York City Comptroller

(April 1982), ''The New York Times''
Shlakman after blindness had set in
''The New York Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Shlakman, Vera 1909 births 2017 deaths American centenarians Writers from New York City Canadian emigrants to the United States American Marxists American communists American socialists Marxist writers Marxian economists Jewish American writers Jewish socialists Members of the Communist Party USA American political writers Columbia University School of Social Work alumni American women non-fiction writers Women centenarians