Public Employee Press

Book and Video Review
Lessons from the tragic Triangle fire of 1911

The centennial of the tragic 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory near Washington Square Park spurred a media avalanche commemorating the deaths of the 146 mostly young immigrant women workers and exploring the vibrant movement of women workers they were part of.

In the 1909 strike called The Uprising of the 20,000, thousands of garment workers fought valiantly against brutal repression for a union to end their sweatshop conditions - low wages, long hours and unsafe workplaces.

Most won union rights, but not at Triangle, where the employers beat down the workers, locked the exit doors and provided inadequate fire escapes. Of the 146 fatalities, 54 leaped aflame out the ninth-floor windows to their deaths.

Hundreds of thousands participated in a funeral march organized by the garment union and allies in the women's, labor, socialist and settlement house movements, inflaming public opinion to change sweatshop conditions. The resulting New York labor reforms became the basis for those adopted nationally by the New Deal in the 1930s.

There are now two new videos on Triangle from PBS and HBO. They both combine period visuals with commentary by leading scholars, including David Von Drehle, Richard Greenwald and Jo Ann Argersinger, who have written insightful books on Triangle. Both are moving testaments to the tragedy and the labor movement of that period. They can inspire and educate us as we struggle to create a movement against today's new forms of sweated labor.

There is also a new comprehensive pictorial history of Triangle by Leigh Benin, a reissue of Leon Stein's classic book and an entire issue of the journal New Labor Forum devoted to Triangle and its meaning for today. WBAI Radio offers a tapestry of sound at www.buildingbridgesradio.org and there are numerous books for children and teen audiences. All are available at the DC 37 Education Fund Library, Room 211.

— Ken Nash
Ed Fund Librarian