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Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Frank Green

Titles: Twentieth Century Radicalism in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Frank Green (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Frank Green was born Maurice Greenberg in 1915 in Minneapolis. He grew up in a radical Jewish family on the north side of Minneapolis. His father belonged to the Workman's Circle, and his mother participated in the Rosa Luxemburg League. It was natural that Morrie joined the Young Communist League while he was still in high school. When he graduated from high school, Mr. Greenberg moved to Rochester, Minnesota, and got a job in the needle trades there. He participated in early efforts to organize hospital food workers, and came to the Twin Cities for hunger marches. Although he moved back to Minneapolis in 1936 or 1937, he kept up his ties with southern Minnesota, visiting Communist friends there and returning to Rochester briefly in connection with the southern Minnesota organizing drive of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. After the war, Mr. Greenberg moved to Los Angeles, California, and changed his name to Frank Green. He began a long career as the business agent for the Amalgamated Watchmakers and Jewelers local there, affiliated with the Service Employees' International. At the time of the interview, he still had not retired. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Evaluation of the Trotskyist leadership of the teamsters. Communist involvement in the Unemployed Councils, hunger marches, and unemployed demonstrations, 1930s. Student peace movement at the University of Minnesota, 1930s. Organizing among hospital and hotel workers in Rochester, 1937-39, and early 1940s. Communist presence in Rochester, Austin, and Faribault, Minnesota, 1930s. Description of a penny auction near Faribault. Impressions of Chester Watson. Memories of constructing sewers in Minneapolis under the Works Progress Administration, late 1930s. International Hod Carriers, Building, and Common Laborers' Union Local #563 (Minneapolis). Organized crime and organized labor in Minneapolis, late 1930s. State liquor dispensary bill, and organized labor's reactions to it, 1937. Communist Party's role in developing the unemployment insurance laws. Trotskyist influence among packinghouse workers in Austin, 1930s. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: The first half hour of the interview was accidentally not recorded. Either Mr. Green's memory is sketchy, or he describes rather unknown incidents, because it is difficult to correlate his stories with contemporary printed materials, like the labor newspapers. Mr. Green slurs his words, making his somewhat difficult to understand.

Dates

  • 10/26/1987 (Creation)

Creation

Identifiers

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

Quantity: 2 hours sound cassette 20 pages transcript

Format

  • Content Category: sound recordings
  • Content Category: text

Measurements

  • 00:59:20 running time

Subjects

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Documents

Audio:

Audio Part 1

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Audio Part 2

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