ABSTRACT
Progressive Labor (PL) pinned its hopes for communist revolution on industrial workers, and in New York City that primarily meant garment workers—the city’s largest group of industrial workers. In August 1968 a wildcat strike broke out at Figure Flattery in the heart of Manhattan’s West Side industrial district. The traditional nationalists were led by Ramon Medina Ramirez, who had spent many years in jail for nationalist activities; he was a close friend of Pedro Albizu Campos, and had led the Nationalist Party while Albizu Campos was in prison. PL’s young, White, male garment organizers were quickly promoted from their starting slots as pushers and helpers into positions as truck drivers. The management, probably with the advice and consent of the union, estimated that the strike leaders’ support had weakened, and that absent its leaders, the workers’ struggle would collapse. The workers’ belief that they were being treated contemptuously by management provoked them even more than the specific conditions they delineated.
