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Fannia Mary Cohn (1885–1962) was a leading figure in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the workers education movement in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. In February of 1934 Cohn wrote in the American Federalist, “While organization gives the workers power, purposeful, dynamic education gives them the ability to use that power intelligently and effectively”.

Cohn was born in the Russian Empire as the forth of five children of Anna and Hyman Cohn. The Cohn’s were a middle class Jewish family, , who ran a family owned flour mill. Fannia was educated privately at home. At 19 Fannia immigrated with her brother to the United States in 1904, after his near death in a pogrom. She first worked as a representative of the American Jewish Women’s Committee at Ellis Island before deciding to continue her education and involving herself in the trade union labor.

In 1906 Cohn took a job as a garment worker in New York City in order to participate more directly in the labor movement. In 1909 Cohn was an organizer for ILGWU Local 41, a local for wrapper and kimono makers. In 1913 Cohn was instrumental in the success and organization of the strike for Chicago’s dress and white goods workers. She acted as a liaison between the local and the ILGWU national convention. Shortly after she became involved in the Women's Trade Union League', attending its training school for labor organizers in Chicago (1914). By 1915 she was working for the ILGWU and organizing dressmakers. In that same year she headed a strike at a shop for Sears and Roebuck. In1916 Cohen moved back to New York, the next year she was selected to be on the ILGWU’s Genereal Education Committee. She was reelected serving a total of ten years on the executive board as the vice president of the ILGWU. Her leadership position gave her the opportunity to be a policymaker for the union. She expanded and developed the education program and made the ILGWU the largest union educational department nationwide. Cohn successfully founded educational programs in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. Concurrently, the ILGWU opened a Workers’ University located in New York City at Washington Irving High School.

She was a key component in the formation of the Workers' Education Bureau of America in 1921, and was part of the circle of labor intellectuals connected to Brookwood Labor College, the Labor Age, and other non-Communist radical initiatives of the 1920s and 1930s. Brookwood Labor College premiered as the first residential workers’ college in the United States. At international conferences for workers’ education held in Brussels and Oxford, Cohn was able to build an international network of contacts and was recognized for her innovative work in workers’ education.

In a male- dominated union, Cohn encountered much resistance when trying to advance workers’ education. Eventually, the American Federation of Labor2 no longer sponsored Brookwood Labor College. They claimed the college allowed communists and that the students supported an anti-AFL attitude.

Though Cohn never held the title she acted as de facto director of the union’s education department. In 1935 Cohn’s title of executive secretary was taken away and the ILGWU hired Mark Starr, as head of the department. The tension between Cohn and the other male leaders of ILGWU grew when the union implemented a narrow program of labor education. Cohn fought for the empowerment of peoples belonging to the proletariat. Other male union leaders viewed her objective as a threat.

Cohn was forced into retirement in September 1962 by the union, who organized a dinner in her honor after they withdrew support for her projects. Fannia Mary Cohn passed away in New York City, December 24, 1962.

References

(1) http://jwa.org/archive/jsp/perInfo.jsp?personID=595

(2) Orleck, Annelise, Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965. 1995.

(3) http://www-distance.syr.edu/long.html

(4) http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05780-049.html

(5) “Fannia Cohn and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.” Ph.D. iss., University of Southern California, 1976; Cohn, Fannia.

(6) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/fcohn.html

(7) Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900–1965 (1995); Who’s Who in Labor (1946); Wong, Susan Stone

Category:1885 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Belarusian Jews Category:International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union leaders