ABSTRACT
Progressive Labor’s attempt to establish a communist beachhead within New York City’s garment industry began in earnest in the mid-1960s. It sent a few of its best organizers to get jobs in New York City’s garment center to lead garment workers in struggle at the point of production and recruit them to the party. Martinot and Lemansky subsequently joined Progressive Labor Movement in New York City, gaining experience as communist organizers under Progressive Labor Magazine's (PLM) tutelage. Ironically, the collapse of PLM’s Southern strategy finally gave Lemansky a chance to see revolutionary Cuba. To carry out PLM’s mission to Monroe, he had deferred going to Cuba with Steve Martinot in 1963. The leadership of PLP intended to send its handful of would-be industrial organizers in New York City into the garment center, whose large number of Blacks, Hispanics and women, laboring under miserable working conditions for the minimum wage, were among the most oppressed industrial workers in the city.
