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| birth_name = Anne Burlak
| birth_name = Anne Burlak
| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|05|24}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|05|24}}
| birth_place = [[Slatington, PA]], U.S.
| birth_place = [[Slatington, Pennsylvania]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|07|09|1911|05|24}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|07|09|1911|05|24}}
| death_place = [[East Longmeadow, MA]], U.S.
| death_place = [[East Longmeadow, Massachusetts]]
| spouse = {{marriage| Arthur E. Timpson|1939|}}
| spouse = {{marriage| Arthur E. Timpson|1939|}}
| children = Kathryn Anne Timpson (b. 1943); William Michael Timpson (b. 1946)
| children = 2
}}
}}
'''Anne E. Burlak Timpson''' (May 24, 1911 – July 9, 2002) was an early twentieth-century leader in [[Trade union|labor organizing]] and leftist political movements. Largely known for her work in New England, Burlak's passion and staunch [[Communism]] earned her the nicknames of the "Red Flame,"<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Pecinovsky|first=Tony|date=2020-03-27|title=Anne Burlak: The red flame|url=https://cpusa.org/article/anne-burlak-the-red-flame/|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Communist Party USA|language=en-US}}</ref> the "girl striker,"<ref name=":2" /> "Seditious Anne,"<ref name=":14" /> and the "Hunger March Queen."<ref name=":14" />
'''Anne Burlak Timpson''' (May 24, 1911<ref name=":2" /> – July 9, 2002) was an early twentieth-century leader in [[Trade union|labor organizing]] and leftist political movements. Largely known for her work in New England, Burlak's passion and staunch [[Communism]] earned her the nicknames of the "Red Flame,"<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Pecinovsky|first=Tony|date=2020-03-27|title=Anne Burlak: The red flame|url=https://cpusa.org/article/anne-burlak-the-red-flame/|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Communist Party USA|language=en-US}}</ref> the "girl striker,"<ref name=":2" /> "Seditious Anne,"<ref name=":14" /> and the "Hunger March Queen."<ref name=":14" />


== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Born in [[Slatington, Pennsylvania]], Anne Burlak was the daughter of Harry and Anastasia Smigel Burlak, who came to the United States as immigrants from [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russia]] (from the area now comprising [[Ukraine]].)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Collection: Anne Burlak Timpson papers {{!}} Smith College Finding Aids|url=https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/543|access-date=2021-09-28|website=findingaids.smith.edu}}</ref> The eldest of six children, Burlak left school at age 14 to join the labor force to support her family.<ref name=":0" /> As was common practice for children whose families needed the income, Burlak lied about her age in order to work at a textile mill in [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]].<ref name=":14" />
Born in [[Slatington, Pennsylvania]], Anne Burlak was the daughter of Harry and Anastasia Smigel Burlak, who came to the United States as immigrants from [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russia]], in the area now comprising [[Ukraine]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Collection: Anne Burlak Timpson papers {{!}} Smith College Finding Aids|url=https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/543|access-date=2021-09-28|website=findingaids.smith.edu}}</ref> The eldest of six children, Burlak left school at the age of 14 to join the workforce and provide financial support to her family.<ref name=":0" /> As was common practice for children whose families needed the income, Burlak lied about her age in order to work at a textile mill in [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]].<ref name=":14" />


Introduced to [[Left-wing politics|left-wing ideas]] early in life by her father, who worked for [[Bethlehem Steel]],<ref name=":14" /> Burlak joined the [[Young Communist League USA|Young Communist League]] at the age of 15 or 16.<ref name=":0" /> Inspired by her father's struggle for fair wages<ref name=":14" /> and work hours as well as by the union organizers like [[Ella Reeve Bloor]], whom she met in 1925,<ref name=":14" /> Burlak tried to organize her fellow workers into a union and was subsequently fired.<ref name=":0" />
Introduced to [[Left-wing politics|left-wing ideas]] early in life by her father, who worked for [[Bethlehem Steel]],<ref name=":14" /> Burlak joined the [[Young Communist League USA|Young Communist League]] at the age of 15 or 16.<ref name=":0" /> Inspired by her father's struggle for fair wages and work hours, as well as by the union organizers like [[Ella Reeve Bloor]], whom she met in 1925,<ref name=":14" /> Burlak tried to organize a [[Labor Union|labor union]] of her fellow workers and was subsequently fired.<ref name=":0" />


In 1929, Burlak, her father, and her brother<ref name=":14" /> were arrested for sedition and on suspicion of spreading Communist ideas.<ref name=":0" /> Reportedly, Burlak decided that "I might as well join the Communist Party and learn more about it."<ref name=":0" /> Burlak was [[Blacklisting|blacklisted]] following her arrest, and unable to find work; Harry Burlak was also terminated from his job at Bethlehem Steel.<ref name=":14" /> Harry and the rest of the Burlak family later relocated to the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=":14" />
In 1929, Burlak, her father, and her brother<ref name=":14" /> were arrested for [[sedition]] and on suspicion of spreading communist ideas.<ref name=":0" /> Reportedly, Burlak decided that, "I might as well join the Communist Party and learn more about it."<ref name=":0" /> Burlak was [[Blacklisting|blacklisted]] following her arrest, and unable to find work; Harry Burlak was also terminated from his job at Bethlehem Steel.<ref name=":14" /> Harry and the rest of the Burlak family later relocated to the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=":14" />


== Career ==
== Career ==
At seventeen, Burlak had been a delegate to the inaugural National Textile Workers Union convention. After the charges of sedition against her were dropped, she became a [[Union organizer|labor organizer]] for the National Textile Workers Union, working full-time for ten dollars a week.<ref name=":0" /> At age 21, Burlak became the first American woman elected to the role of National Secretary of the NWTU.<ref name=":0" />
At 17, Burlak had been a delegate to the inaugural National Textile Workers Union (NWTU) convention. After the charges of sedition against her were dropped, she became a [[Union organizer|labor organizer]] for the NTWU, working full-time for ten dollars a week.<ref name=":0" /> At age 21, Burlak became the first woman elected to the role of National Secretary of the NWTU.<ref name=":0" />


=== Georgia ===
=== Georgia ===
Burlak gained her first major experience with labor-management conflicts trying to organize workers across lines of [[Race (human categorization)|race]] and [[Ethnic group|ethnicity]] in the [[Southern United States|South]]. After briefly working in [[North Carolina]] and [[South Carolina]], the NTWU sent her to [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], in 1930 to organize workers there into multiracial unions.<ref name=":14" /> Facing opposition not only from recalcitrant mill owners but also from the state's enforcement of [[Racial segregation|segregation]], Burlak was arrested and charged with insurrection under Georgia law, which carried the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]].<ref name=":2" /> Burlak was one in a group of black and white Communist organizers who were facing insurrection charges; collectively they became known as the "[[Atlanta Six]]" and counted M.H. Powers,<ref name=":2" /> Joe Carr,<ref name=":2" /> and Herbert Newton<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pecinovsky|first=Tony|date=2016-02-02|title="A Life in Red" offers historical insight, but can it deliver?|url=https://peoplesworld.org/article/a-life-in-red-offers-historical-insight-but-can-it-deliver/|access-date=2021-09-28|website=People's World|language=en-US}}</ref> among their number. Burlak and the other members of the Atlanta Six were held in jail for six weeks.<ref name=":0" /> Upon being released on bail, Burlak traveled the country to raise funds for the Atlanta Six's legal defense.<ref name=":2" /> The law under which the Atlanta Six were charged dated from before the Civil War,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Communists|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/communists|access-date=2021-09-28|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia|language=en}}</ref> and would not be overturned until the Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Herndon v. Lowry]]'' (1937).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vile|first=John R.|title=Herndon v. Lowry|url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/268/herndon-v-lowry|access-date=2021-09-28|website=www.mtsu.edu|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The charges against Burlak and the Atlanta Six would not be dropped until 1939.<ref name=":0" />
Burlak gained her first major experience with labor management conflicts trying to organize workers across lines of race and ethnicity in the [[Southern United States|South]]. After briefly working in North Carolina and South Carolina, the NTWU sent her to [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], in 1930 to organize workers there into multiracial unions.<ref name=":14" /> Facing opposition not only from recalcitrant mill owners but also from the state's enforcement of [[Racial segregation|segregation]], Burlak was arrested and charged with insurrection under Georgia law, which carried the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]].<ref name=":2" /> Burlak was one in a group of black and white Communist organizers who were facing insurrection charges; collectively they became known as the "[[Atlanta Six]]" and counted M. H. Powers,<ref name=":2" /> Joe Carr,<ref name=":2" /> and Herbert Newton<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pecinovsky|first=Tony|date=2016-02-02|title="A Life in Red" offers historical insight, but can it deliver?|url=https://peoplesworld.org/article/a-life-in-red-offers-historical-insight-but-can-it-deliver/|access-date=2021-09-28|website=People's World|language=en-US}}</ref> among their number. Burlak and the rest of the Atlanta Six were held in jail for six weeks.<ref name=":0" /> Upon being released on bail, Burlak traveled the country to raise funds for the Atlanta Six's legal defense.<ref name=":2" /> The law under which the Atlanta Six were charged dated from before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Communists|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/communists|access-date=2021-09-28|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia|language=en}}</ref> and would not be overturned until the Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Herndon v. Lowry]]'' (1937).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vile|first=John R.|title=Herndon v. Lowry|url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/268/herndon-v-lowry|access-date=2021-09-28|website=www.mtsu.edu|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The charges against Burlak and the Atlanta Six would not be dropped until 1939.<ref name=":0" />


=== Rhode Island ===
=== New England ===
Following her release from prison in Georgia, Burlak began organizing [[Rhode Island]] textile workers in their struggle for collective bargaining, overtime pay, and wage increases. She would become a central figure in the [[Strike action|strikes]] that shook the state's textile industry in the early 1930s.<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal|last=Hughes|first=Quenby Olmstead|date=Summer 2009|title=Red Flame Burning Bright: Communist Labor Organizer Ann Burlak, Rhode Island Workers, and the New Deal|url=https://www.rihs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2009_SumFall.pdf|journal=Rhode Island History|volume=67| issue = 2|pages=43–60}}</ref> Burlak soon began leading strike actions in [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island|Pawtucket]] and [[Central Falls, Rhode Island|Central Falls]], and was arrested for alleged violence in a July 1931 strike.<ref name=":14" /> She was ultimately sentenced to thirty days in jail and a fine.<ref name=":14" /> As a response to her continued activism, she faced deportation by federal immigration authorities, who tried to prove she was not born in the United States.<ref name=":14" />
Following her release from prison in Georgia, Burlak began organizing [[Rhode Island]] textile workers in their struggle for [[collective bargaining]], overtime pay, and wage increases. She would become a central figure in the [[Strike action|strikes]] that shook the state's textile industry in the early 1930s.<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal|last=Hughes|first=Quenby Olmstead|date=Summer 2009|title=Red Flame Burning Bright: Communist Labor Organizer Ann Burlak, Rhode Island Workers, and the New Deal|url=https://www.rihs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2009_SumFall.pdf|journal=Rhode Island History|volume=67| issue = 2|pages=43–60}}</ref> Burlak soon began leading strike actions in [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island|Pawtucket]] and [[Central Falls, Rhode Island|Central Falls]], and was arrested for alleged violence in a July 1931 strike.<ref name=":14" /> She was ultimately sentenced to 30 days in jail and a fine.<ref name=":14" /> As a response to her continued activism, she faced deportation by federal immigration authorities, who tried to prove she was not born in the United States.<ref name=":14" />


During her time in Rhode Island, Burlak ran for elected office multiple times on the Communist Party ticket. In 1932, she ran for mayor of the city of Pawtucket, garnering only 160 votes in a city of 77,000 inhabitants.<ref name=":14" /> The Communist Party platform promised government-funded social welfare and support of workers' right to strike, among other planks. At the statewide and national level, Governor [[Theodore F. Green|Theodore Francis Green]] and President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] were elected in 1932 on the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] ticket, pledging similar reforms and support of workers.<ref name=":14" /> Burlak also led the Rhode Island delegation<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Pappademos|first=John|date=2002-07-19|title=Anne E. Burlak Timpson May 24, 1911 July 9, 2002 May 24, 1911 July 9, 2002|url=https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/anne-e-burlak-timpson-may-24-1911-july-9-2002-may-24-1911-july-9-2002/|access-date=2021-09-29|website=People's World|language=en-US}}</ref> to the 1932 National Hunger March<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Day|first=Dorothy|date=1932|title=Hunger March on Washington|url=https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/39.pdf|journal=Commonweal|volume=48|pages=277–279}}</ref> on Washington, D.C.
During her time in Rhode Island, Burlak ran for elected office multiple times on the Communist Party ticket. In 1932, she ran for mayor of the city of Pawtucket, garnering only 160 votes in a city of 77,000 inhabitants.<ref name=":14" /> The Communist Party platform promised government-funded social welfare and support of workers' right to strike, among other planks. At the statewide and national level, Governor [[Theodore F. Green|Theodore Francis Green]] and President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] were elected in 1932 on the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] ticket, pledging similar reforms and support of workers.<ref name=":14" /> Burlak also led the Rhode Island delegation to the 1932 National Hunger March<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Day|first=Dorothy|date=1932|title=Hunger March on Washington|url=https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/39.pdf|journal=Commonweal|volume=48|pages=277–279}}</ref> on Washington, D.C.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Pappademos|first=John|date=2002-07-19|title=Anne E. Burlak Timpson May 24, 1911 July 9, 2002 May 24, 1911 July 9, 2002|url=https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/anne-e-burlak-timpson-may-24-1911-july-9-2002-may-24-1911-july-9-2002/|access-date=2021-09-29|website=People's World|language=en-US}}</ref>


Burlak later unsuccessfully ran for Secretary of State of Rhode Island on the Communist Party ticket in 1938.<ref name=":0" /> Following this defeat, Burlak relocated to Massachusetts within the next several years, and was elected Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of Massachusetts in 1940.<ref name=":0" /> She would be based in the Boston area for the remainder of her life, where she continued to advocate for housing, schools, and social welfare.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Timpson, Anne Burlak (1911–2002), labor activist|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1501321|access-date=2021-09-29|website=American National Biography|year = 2009|language=en|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1501321|isbn = 978-0-19-860669-7|last1 = Chomsky|first1 = Aviva}}</ref>
Burlak later unsuccessfully ran for Secretary of State of Rhode Island in 1938.<ref name=":0" /> Following this defeat, Burlak relocated to Massachusetts within the next several years, and was elected Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of Massachusetts in 1940.<ref name=":0" /> She would be based in the Boston area for the remainder of her life, where she continued to advocate for housing, schools, and social welfare.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Timpson, Anne Burlak (1911–2002), labor activist|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1501321|access-date=2021-09-29|website=American National Biography|year = 2009|language=en|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1501321|isbn = 978-0-19-860669-7|last1 = Chomsky|first1 = Aviva}}</ref>


=== The New Deal Era and the Red Scare ===
=== The New Deal Era and the Red Scare ===
As the National Secretary of the NWTU, Burlak became involved in crafting aspects of the [[National Recovery Administration]]'s industrywide codes for minimum working conditions on behalf of textile unions.<ref name=":14" /> While voluntary, the provisions laid out in the NRA were accepted widely around the United States, leading to an increase in collective bargaining in the workplace and worker membership in the [[AFL–CIO|AFL.]] Backed by the federal government, the AFL, particularly its United Textile Workers union (UTW) became a powerful political player and purged Communists from its ranks.<ref name=":2" /> As a prominent member of the more radical NWTU, Burlak was forbidden from becoming involved in strikes or attending worker rallies.<ref name=":2" /> In 1939, she was subpoenaed by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].<ref name=":0" />
As the National Secretary of the NWTU, Burlak became involved in crafting aspects of the [[National Recovery Administration]] (NRA)'s industrywide codes for minimum working conditions on behalf of textile unions.<ref name=":14" /> While voluntary, the provisions laid out in the NRA were widely accepted around the United States, leading to an increase in collective bargaining in the workplace and worker membership in the [[American Federation of Labor]] (AFL). Backed by the federal government, the AFL, particularly its United Textile Workers union (UTW), became a powerful political player and purged Communists from its ranks.<ref name=":2" /> As a prominent member of the more radical NWTU, Burlak was deemed a threat by the AFL, who enlisted its leadership and law enforcement in preventing her from leading in strikes or attending worker rallies.<ref name=":2" /> In 1939, she was subpoenaed by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].<ref name=":0" />


Burlak was also targeted during the postwar [[Red Scare]] era. In 1956, she was arrested under the [[Smith Act]], as were many other American Communists.<ref name=":0" /> The charges were not dropped until the Supreme Court decision in ''[[Yates v. United States]]'' (1957), which ruled that the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] protected political speech in the absence of a "[[clear and present danger]]." Burlak was later arrested in 1964 under the [[McCarran Internal Security Act|McCarran Act]], which required Communists to register with the United States government; the charges were dropped after the Supreme Court ruled the McCarran Act unconstitutional in ''[[Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board]].''<ref name=":0" />
Burlak was also targeted during the postwar [[Red Scare]] era. In 1956, she was arrested under the [[Smith Act]], as were many other American Communists.<ref name=":0" /> The charges were not dropped until the Supreme Court decision in ''[[Yates v. United States]]'' (1957), which ruled that the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] protected political speech in the absence of a "[[clear and present danger]]." Burlak was later arrested in 1964 under the [[McCarran Internal Security Act|McCarran Act]], which required Communists to register with the United States government; the charges were dropped after the Supreme Court ruled the McCarran Act unconstitutional in ''[[Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board]].''<ref name=":0" />


== Personal life ==
== Personal life ==
Burlak married fellow labor activist Arthur E. Timpson in 1939 and gave birth to two children, Kathryn Anne Timpson Wright (b. 1943) and William Michael Timpson (b. 1946).<ref name=":4" /> She died July 9, 2002 in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.<ref name=":0" />
Burlak married fellow labor activist Arthur E. Timpson in 1939. The couple had two children, Kathryn Anne Timpson Wright (b. 1943) and William Michael Timpson (b. 1946).<ref name=":4" /> She died July 9, 2002 in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.<ref name=":0" />


== Legacy ==
== Legacy ==
In 1933, social activist and writer [[Dorothy Day]] described Burlak "as a fine, strapping young girl, blond-haired, rosy cheeked, looking like a Valkyrie as she marches at the head of her strikers," but criticized her for joining in the "obstructionist" tactics of the Communist Party as opposed to working with more established unions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Day|first=Dorothy|date=1933|title=All In a Day|url=https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/272.pdf|journal=Catholic Worker|volume=Oct 1933|pages=5–6}}</ref> Poet [[Muriel Rukeyser]] penned a tribute to her in her 1939 collection ''A Turning Wind: Poems.''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rukeyser|first=Muriel|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/turning-wind/oclc/2694300|title=A turning wind|date=1939|publisher=The Viking Press|location=New York|language=English|oclc=2694300}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Rukeyser|first=Muriel|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28549720|title=A Muriel Rukeyser reader|date=1994|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Jan Heller Levi|isbn=0-393-03566-2|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=28549720}}</ref>
In 1933, social activist and writer [[Dorothy Day]] described Burlak "as a fine, strapping young girl, blond-haired, rosy cheeked, looking like a Valkyrie as she marches at the head of her strikers," but criticized her for joining in the "obstructionist" tactics of the Communist Party as opposed to working with more established unions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Day|first=Dorothy|date=1933|title=All In a Day|url=https://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/272.pdf|journal=Catholic Worker|volume=Oct 1933|pages=5–6}}</ref> Poet [[Muriel Rukeyser]] penned a tribute to Burlak in her 1939 collection ''A Turning Wind: Poems.''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rukeyser|first=Muriel|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/turning-wind/oclc/2694300|title=A turning wind|date=1939|publisher=The Viking Press|location=New York|language=English|oclc=2694300}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Rukeyser|first=Muriel|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28549720|title=A Muriel Rukeyser reader|date=1994|publisher=W.W. Norton|others=Jan Heller Levi|isbn=0-393-03566-2|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=28549720}}</ref>


Burlak was awarded the Wonder Woman Award from the Wonder Woman Foundation in 1982,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wonder Woman Foundation honors women's achievements|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/12/03/Wonder-Woman-Foundation-honors-womens-achievements/8950407739600/|access-date=2021-09-30|website=UPI|language=en}}</ref> and the [[Sacco and Vanzetti|Sacco-Vanzetti]] Memorial Award for Social Justice<ref>{{Cite web|last=www.italiasw.com|first=Matteo Turchetto-|title=The Community Church of Boston » The Sacco-Vanzetti Award for Social Justice|url=http://www.communitychurchofboston.org/home/sacco-vanzetti/|access-date=2021-09-30|language=en}}</ref> from the Community Church of Boston in 1997.<ref name=":2" />
Burlak was awarded the Wonder Woman Award from the Wonder Woman Foundation in 1982,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wonder Woman Foundation honors women's achievements|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/12/03/Wonder-Woman-Foundation-honors-womens-achievements/8950407739600/|access-date=2021-09-30|website=UPI|language=en}}</ref> and the Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Award for Social Justice<ref>{{Cite web|last=www.italiasw.com|first=Matteo Turchetto-|title=The Community Church of Boston » The Sacco-Vanzetti Award for Social Justice|url=http://www.communitychurchofboston.org/home/sacco-vanzetti/|access-date=2021-09-30|language=en}}</ref> from the Community Church of Boston in 1997.<ref name=":2" />


== Literature ==
== Literature ==

Revision as of 16:29, 23 October 2021

Anne Burlak Timpson
Born
Anne Burlak

(1911-05-24)May 24, 1911
DiedJuly 9, 2002(2002-07-09) (aged 91)
Spouse
Arthur E. Timpson
(m. 1939)
Children2

Anne Burlak Timpson (May 24, 1911[1] – July 9, 2002) was an early twentieth-century leader in labor organizing and leftist political movements. Largely known for her work in New England, Burlak's passion and staunch Communism earned her the nicknames of the "Red Flame,"[1] the "girl striker,"[1] "Seditious Anne,"[2] and the "Hunger March Queen."[2]

Early life

Born in Slatington, Pennsylvania, Anne Burlak was the daughter of Harry and Anastasia Smigel Burlak, who came to the United States as immigrants from Tsarist Russia, in the area now comprising Ukraine.[3] The eldest of six children, Burlak left school at the age of 14 to join the workforce and provide financial support to her family.[3] As was common practice for children whose families needed the income, Burlak lied about her age in order to work at a textile mill in Bethlehem.[2]

Introduced to left-wing ideas early in life by her father, who worked for Bethlehem Steel,[2] Burlak joined the Young Communist League at the age of 15 or 16.[3] Inspired by her father's struggle for fair wages and work hours, as well as by the union organizers like Ella Reeve Bloor, whom she met in 1925,[2] Burlak tried to organize a labor union of her fellow workers and was subsequently fired.[3]

In 1929, Burlak, her father, and her brother[2] were arrested for sedition and on suspicion of spreading communist ideas.[3] Reportedly, Burlak decided that, "I might as well join the Communist Party and learn more about it."[3] Burlak was blacklisted following her arrest, and unable to find work; Harry Burlak was also terminated from his job at Bethlehem Steel.[2] Harry and the rest of the Burlak family later relocated to the Soviet Union.[2]

Career

At 17, Burlak had been a delegate to the inaugural National Textile Workers Union (NWTU) convention. After the charges of sedition against her were dropped, she became a labor organizer for the NTWU, working full-time for ten dollars a week.[3] At age 21, Burlak became the first woman elected to the role of National Secretary of the NWTU.[3]

Georgia

Burlak gained her first major experience with labor management conflicts trying to organize workers across lines of race and ethnicity in the South. After briefly working in North Carolina and South Carolina, the NTWU sent her to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1930 to organize workers there into multiracial unions.[2] Facing opposition not only from recalcitrant mill owners but also from the state's enforcement of segregation, Burlak was arrested and charged with insurrection under Georgia law, which carried the death penalty.[1] Burlak was one in a group of black and white Communist organizers who were facing insurrection charges; collectively they became known as the "Atlanta Six" and counted M. H. Powers,[1] Joe Carr,[1] and Herbert Newton[4] among their number. Burlak and the rest of the Atlanta Six were held in jail for six weeks.[3] Upon being released on bail, Burlak traveled the country to raise funds for the Atlanta Six's legal defense.[1] The law under which the Atlanta Six were charged dated from before the Civil War,[5] and would not be overturned until the Supreme Court's decision in Herndon v. Lowry (1937).[6][3] The charges against Burlak and the Atlanta Six would not be dropped until 1939.[3]

New England

Following her release from prison in Georgia, Burlak began organizing Rhode Island textile workers in their struggle for collective bargaining, overtime pay, and wage increases. She would become a central figure in the strikes that shook the state's textile industry in the early 1930s.[2] Burlak soon began leading strike actions in Pawtucket and Central Falls, and was arrested for alleged violence in a July 1931 strike.[2] She was ultimately sentenced to 30 days in jail and a fine.[2] As a response to her continued activism, she faced deportation by federal immigration authorities, who tried to prove she was not born in the United States.[2]

During her time in Rhode Island, Burlak ran for elected office multiple times on the Communist Party ticket. In 1932, she ran for mayor of the city of Pawtucket, garnering only 160 votes in a city of 77,000 inhabitants.[2] The Communist Party platform promised government-funded social welfare and support of workers' right to strike, among other planks. At the statewide and national level, Governor Theodore Francis Green and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt were elected in 1932 on the Democratic Party ticket, pledging similar reforms and support of workers.[2] Burlak also led the Rhode Island delegation to the 1932 National Hunger March[7] on Washington, D.C.[8]

Burlak later unsuccessfully ran for Secretary of State of Rhode Island in 1938.[3] Following this defeat, Burlak relocated to Massachusetts within the next several years, and was elected Executive Secretary of the Communist Party of Massachusetts in 1940.[3] She would be based in the Boston area for the remainder of her life, where she continued to advocate for housing, schools, and social welfare.[8][9]

The New Deal Era and the Red Scare

As the National Secretary of the NWTU, Burlak became involved in crafting aspects of the National Recovery Administration (NRA)'s industrywide codes for minimum working conditions on behalf of textile unions.[2] While voluntary, the provisions laid out in the NRA were widely accepted around the United States, leading to an increase in collective bargaining in the workplace and worker membership in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Backed by the federal government, the AFL, particularly its United Textile Workers union (UTW), became a powerful political player and purged Communists from its ranks.[1] As a prominent member of the more radical NWTU, Burlak was deemed a threat by the AFL, who enlisted its leadership and law enforcement in preventing her from leading in strikes or attending worker rallies.[1] In 1939, she was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee.[3]

Burlak was also targeted during the postwar Red Scare era. In 1956, she was arrested under the Smith Act, as were many other American Communists.[3] The charges were not dropped until the Supreme Court decision in Yates v. United States (1957), which ruled that the First Amendment protected political speech in the absence of a "clear and present danger." Burlak was later arrested in 1964 under the McCarran Act, which required Communists to register with the United States government; the charges were dropped after the Supreme Court ruled the McCarran Act unconstitutional in Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board.[3]

Personal life

Burlak married fellow labor activist Arthur E. Timpson in 1939. The couple had two children, Kathryn Anne Timpson Wright (b. 1943) and William Michael Timpson (b. 1946).[9] She died July 9, 2002 in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.[3]

Legacy

In 1933, social activist and writer Dorothy Day described Burlak "as a fine, strapping young girl, blond-haired, rosy cheeked, looking like a Valkyrie as she marches at the head of her strikers," but criticized her for joining in the "obstructionist" tactics of the Communist Party as opposed to working with more established unions.[10] Poet Muriel Rukeyser penned a tribute to Burlak in her 1939 collection A Turning Wind: Poems.[11][12]

Burlak was awarded the Wonder Woman Award from the Wonder Woman Foundation in 1982,[13] and the Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Award for Social Justice[14] from the Community Church of Boston in 1997.[1]

Literature

  • Aviva Chomsky (2008). Linked Labor Histories: New England, Colombia, and the Making of a Global Working Class. Durham, [N.C.]: Duke University Press. ISBN 082238891X.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pecinovsky, Tony (2020-03-27). "Anne Burlak: The red flame". Communist Party USA. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Hughes, Quenby Olmstead (Summer 2009). "Red Flame Burning Bright: Communist Labor Organizer Ann Burlak, Rhode Island Workers, and the New Deal" (PDF). Rhode Island History. 67 (2): 43–60.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Collection: Anne Burlak Timpson papers | Smith College Finding Aids". findingaids.smith.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  4. ^ Pecinovsky, Tony (2016-02-02). ""A Life in Red" offers historical insight, but can it deliver?". People's World. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  5. ^ "Communists". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  6. ^ Vile, John R. "Herndon v. Lowry". www.mtsu.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  7. ^ Day, Dorothy (1932). "Hunger March on Washington" (PDF). Commonweal. 48: 277–279.
  8. ^ a b Pappademos, John (2002-07-19). "Anne E. Burlak Timpson May 24, 1911 July 9, 2002 May 24, 1911 July 9, 2002". People's World. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  9. ^ a b Chomsky, Aviva (2009). "Timpson, Anne Burlak (1911–2002), labor activist". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1501321. ISBN 978-0-19-860669-7. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  10. ^ Day, Dorothy (1933). "All In a Day" (PDF). Catholic Worker. Oct 1933: 5–6.
  11. ^ Rukeyser, Muriel (1939). A turning wind. New York: The Viking Press. OCLC 2694300.
  12. ^ Rukeyser, Muriel (1994). A Muriel Rukeyser reader. Jan Heller Levi (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-03566-2. OCLC 28549720.
  13. ^ "Wonder Woman Foundation honors women's achievements". UPI. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  14. ^ www.italiasw.com, Matteo Turchetto-. "The Community Church of Boston » The Sacco-Vanzetti Award for Social Justice". Retrieved 2021-09-30.