Long-time working class activists, Communist Party member John J Ballam was the National Organizer of the National Textile Workers Union, a member of the Trade Union Unity League in 1933. As a union leader he played an important role in the massive East Coast silk strike of 1933, which set the stage for the even larger textile strikes the following year.

70,000 Silk Workers Strike for Bread and Unity by John J. Ballam. Labor Unity Publishers, New York. March, 1934.

Contents: Ballyhoo, The Storm Gathers, The Silk Workers’ Forces, The Great Silk Strike Begins, The Neck of the Bottle, The “Red Scare”, McMahon Tries to Sell Out the Strike, The United Front, The Strike Situation in Rhode Island, National Labor Board – Government Strike-Breaker, Breaking the United Front, Breaking the United Front {Continued), The Paterson No-Strike Agreement, The Next Steps.

Labor Unity was the monthly journal of the Trade Union Educational League (TUEL), which sought to radically transform existing unions, and from 1929, the Trade Union Unity League which sought to challenge them with new “red unions.” The Leagues were industrial union organizations of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the American affiliate to the Red International of Labor Unions. The TUUL was wound up with the Third Period and the beginning of the Popular Front era in 1935.

PDF of full pamphlet: https://archive.org/download/70000SilkWorkersStrikeForBreadAndUnity/70SWS_text.pdf