Abraham Beckerman (September 27, 1890 – July 31, 1964) was an English-born American labor leader, politician and convicted criminal. In 1937, he was found guilty of

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

for using his position as general manager of the Fur Dressers Factor Corporation to aid mobsters Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter in a conspiracy to control the $75 million fur-dressing industry. He was previously a

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

politician, representing Manhattan's 6th district on the

New York City Board of Aldermen The New York City Board of Aldermen was a body that was the upper house of New York City's Common Council from 1824 to 1875, the lower house of its Municipal Assembly upon consolidation in 1898 until the charter was amended in 1901 to abolish ...

from 1918 to 1921. After he left office, he became general manager of the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Joint Board of the

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Indus ...

. During his tenure, Beckerman fought to rid the unions of

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

influence with what former colleague Baruch Charney Vladeck dubbed "Beckerman's knuckles."

References

External links

*
Our Campaigns - Beckerman, Abraham I.

FBI - Fur Dressers Case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckerman, Abraham 1890 births 1964 deaths Politicians from London Members of the Socialist Party of America Socialist Party of America politicians from New York (state) American socialists New York City Council members