Rose Pesotta (1896–1965) was an anarchist, feminist labor organizer and vice president within the

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) was a labor union for employees in the women's clothing industry in the United States. It was one of the largest unions in the country, one of the first to have a primarily female membersh ...

Background

Pesotta was born Rakhel Peisoty in Derazhnia,

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

on Nov. 20, 1896, to a family of Jewish grain merchants. Pesotta was educated in both formal and informal settings during her childhood. She was exposed to the works of anarchists like Bakunin through both her father's library and in a local anarchist underground, and she would eventually adopt

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

views. Her parents arranged a marriage for her, but she did not approve, so in 1913 she emigrated to New York City and became a seamstress in a shirtwaist factory.

Career

ILGWU

In 1914, Pesotta joined ILGWU Local 25, which (influenced by the 1909 shirtwaist strike) was led by women and was heavily involved in activism and education of seamstresses. On behalf of the local, she researched the

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrants and anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parm ...

case, becoming a friend of Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Pesotta regularly wrote for union and anarchist publications in Yiddish and English. Along with Anna Sosnovsky, Fanny Breslaw and Clara Rothberg Larsen, she published '' Der Yunyon Arbeter'' ("The Union Worker") between 1923 and 1927. From 1924 to 1928, Pesotta also contributed occasional articles to the anarchist newspaper '' Road to Freedom'' (the successor to

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

's '' Mother Earth''). Pesotta also regularly sought training, attending summer schools at Bryn Mawr and Wisconsin in 1922 and 1930, and attending Brookwood Labor College, a school to train labor activists, from 1924–26. Beginning in the 1930s, Pesotta became a member of the ILGWU staff and regularly traveled to organize workers outside of New York. For example, in 1933, the ILGWU sent her to Los Angeles to organize garment workers. She organized the primarily Mexican immigrant garment workers, which led to the Los Angeles Garment Workers Strike of 1933. Strikes were a rarity in this notoriously "open shop" city, and so her success in Los Angeles led to her appointment as vice-president of the union in 1934 (only the third woman to be so chosen, following Fannia Cohn). In Montreal in 1937, her efforts included work to transform the nascent movement from one focused on Jewish seamstresses to one that was also inclusive of French-speaking women. As a result, Catholic media suggested she be deported. She also worked in organizing efforts in Puerto Rico (1934), Akron, Milwaukee, and elsewhere.

Resignation

After working extensively with the Los Angeles Local 484 while they were being organized, Pesotta sought to manage the local. Instead, ILGWU president

David Dubinsky David Dubinsky (; born David Isaac Dobnievski; February 22, 1892 – September 17, 1982) was a Belarusian-born American labor leader and politician. He served as president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) between 1932 a ...

rejected her request. In response, Pesotta resigned from the union's staff and board. Her resignation letter specifically blamed sexism as the cause for her resignation, stating that the "men to whom I have been so useful" did not seem "to recognize the fact that I was competent" to manage locals. In 1944, Pesotta refused a new term on the executive board of the union, specifically stating that she could not be the only woman on the board when 85% of the union's membership were women.

Later life

After leaving the union, Pesotta worked briefly for the

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International ( ; from ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish service organization and was formerly a cultural association for German Jewish immigrants to the United States. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the se ...

. However, she returned to work as a seamstress in roughly a year. She also wrote and published two memoirs, ''Bread Upon the Waters'' (1944), and ''Days of Our Lives'' (1958).

Death

Pesotta died of cancer in Miami, Florida on Dec. 6, 1965.

References

External links

Guide to the Rose Pesotta Papers, 1919–1961. 5928. Kheel Center for Labor–Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University.

Rose Pesotta Papers, 1922–1965. MssCol 2390. New York Public Library.

"Bread Upon the Waters" (1945), online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pesotta, Rose 1896 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American women 20th-century anarchists 20th-century Ukrainian Jews American anarchists American feminists American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Anarcha-feminists Brookwood Labor College alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders Jewish American feminists Jewish anarchists Jewish women activists People from Khmelnytskyi Oblast People from Letichevsky Uyezd Ukrainian anarchists Ukrainian feminists