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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

So I remained there for a week or two. They put in a pacemaker. My visitors were limited, but Dennis came. Rebecca Miller I remember coming.

Q:

She was the political director at that time?

Foner:

Yes. And obviously my family came. And when I went home I had to take it easy, and Davis, I remember, announced -- not Davis. Dennis announced to the executive council that I could not be expected to be around much, but I was, and what I remember is he called the meeting, called the entire staff, the officers, where Dennis had asked me if I would speak, and I remember before I spoke, Dennis introduced me and said that he had spent the previous night reading Upheaval in the Quiet Zone. He said, “For the first time I understood what Moe's role had been in the building of this union.” [Taping interruption.]

Q:

We had an interruption there, but when you were last talking, you had described your heart attack and a staff meeting at the union at which Dennis was talking about your role in the founding of the union.

Foner:

My health condition began to deteriorate, seriously deteriorate about --

Q:

I'm sorry, had you finished telling about what Dennis said at that meeting? He said he never fully understood your role in the 1959 organizing drive.

Foner:

What Dennis said was that he now realized the role I had played in building the union from the time I came here, not merely Bread and Roses, but, more importantly, my role in the organizing of hospital workers in New York and then in all the other campaigns where the union was involved and where I did public relations and in a sense was deeply involved in the directing of these strikes. Elliott --

Q:

Elliott Godoff.

Foner:

Elliott Godoff.

Q:

Executive vice president.

Foner:

Yes, with Henry Nicholas in Charleston, with the people who were making decisions for the union on the organizing campaign, the whole question of winning the legislation in Albany in 1962, working up in Albany on the campaign, and in constant touch with Davis and Elliott on arranging for a settlement from the governor.





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