Caroline Decker was born Caroline Dwofsky 26 Apr 1912 in Macon, GA to Bernard Dwfsky & Anna Raskin.
Most Communist organizers at that time, used an alias, she took "Decker" as hers, and known as Caroline Decker throughout her organizing career. Her parents were Jewish immigrants that emigrated to the US after fleeing pogroms in Ukraine.
Inmate: #57617 San Quentin Prison
Rec" 2 May 1935
Crime: Conspiracy To Commit Crime Syndicalism
Term: 1-14 yrs
Caroline met many leaders of left-wing organizations who frequented the family home. Influenced by her brother, who was a student at Columbia University in New York City, and her sister, who was a national officer of the left-wing Workers International Relief Organization, Decker became involved with radical politics and trade union organizing in her early teens. She joined the Young Communist League USA, helped organize cigar workers and shoe workers in Binghamton, N.Y. and became a speaker at such events as International Women's Day.
Caroline's first foray in union activism took place during the Harlan County War, the violent confrontation between miners and mine owners in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1931–1932 during the Great Depression. She and her sister worked out of Knoxville, Tennessee, helping with strike relief and organization.
After the strike ended, Decker went west to California as part of the Free Tom Mooney delegation. She stopped in Carmel at the home of Lincoln Steffens, where Langston Hughes and Ellen Winter celebrated the victory by writing a pageant. They intended it to be “…a tribute to Caroline Decker” but it was unsuccessful, a “…long, artificial propaganda vehicle too complicated and too cumbersome to be performed.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39581594/caroline_decker/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39581426/caroline_decker/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39581349/caroline_decker/
In June 1934 Decker traveled to Contra Costa County to organize apricot pickers, working alongside members of the AFL-affiliated Cannery Workers Union. Growers objected to Caroline Decker's presence because of her Communist membership, and she was maneuvered off the team. Meanwhile, a group was formed representing growers and funded by railroads, utilities, banks, and others who hoped to defeat agricultural unionism: the Associated Farmers of California. They hired private investigators and even infiltrated the Communist Party in order to learn more about the CAWIU leadership.
On July 20 the police, acting on information from the Associated Farmers, rounded up seventeen of the union's leaders, including Caroline, and charged them with “criminal syndicalism, a felony”. When the trial finally went to the jury, after a six-hour defense summary by Caroline, it had become the longest trial in California history, at four and a half months. Caroline was found guilty on two of six counts and sentenced to a term of imprisonment at (San Quentin) Then transferred to Tehachapi. She served for three years and was released in 1937. The Third District Court of Appeals eventually overturned the verdict and voided the convictions.Along with these two co-conspirators below.
Her husband at the time Jack Warnick was also involved and he was acquitted, she would divorce him after getting out of prison.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39584764/caroline_decker/
The 20 Jun 1941 she married again to Richard Gladstein, and they would have our children together.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39584904/caroline_decker/
Most Communist organizers at that time, used an alias, she took "Decker" as hers, and known as Caroline Decker throughout her organizing career. Her parents were Jewish immigrants that emigrated to the US after fleeing pogroms in Ukraine.
Inmate: #57617 San Quentin Prison
Rec" 2 May 1935
Crime: Conspiracy To Commit Crime Syndicalism
Term: 1-14 yrs
Caroline met many leaders of left-wing organizations who frequented the family home. Influenced by her brother, who was a student at Columbia University in New York City, and her sister, who was a national officer of the left-wing Workers International Relief Organization, Decker became involved with radical politics and trade union organizing in her early teens. She joined the Young Communist League USA, helped organize cigar workers and shoe workers in Binghamton, N.Y. and became a speaker at such events as International Women's Day.
After the strike ended, Decker went west to California as part of the Free Tom Mooney delegation. She stopped in Carmel at the home of Lincoln Steffens, where Langston Hughes and Ellen Winter celebrated the victory by writing a pageant. They intended it to be “…a tribute to Caroline Decker” but it was unsuccessful, a “…long, artificial propaganda vehicle too complicated and too cumbersome to be performed.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39581594/caroline_decker/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39581426/caroline_decker/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39581349/caroline_decker/
In June 1934 Decker traveled to Contra Costa County to organize apricot pickers, working alongside members of the AFL-affiliated Cannery Workers Union. Growers objected to Caroline Decker's presence because of her Communist membership, and she was maneuvered off the team. Meanwhile, a group was formed representing growers and funded by railroads, utilities, banks, and others who hoped to defeat agricultural unionism: the Associated Farmers of California. They hired private investigators and even infiltrated the Communist Party in order to learn more about the CAWIU leadership.
On July 20 the police, acting on information from the Associated Farmers, rounded up seventeen of the union's leaders, including Caroline, and charged them with “criminal syndicalism, a felony”. When the trial finally went to the jury, after a six-hour defense summary by Caroline, it had become the longest trial in California history, at four and a half months. Caroline was found guilty on two of six counts and sentenced to a term of imprisonment at (San Quentin) Then transferred to Tehachapi. She served for three years and was released in 1937. The Third District Court of Appeals eventually overturned the verdict and voided the convictions.Along with these two co-conspirators below.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39584764/caroline_decker/
The 20 Jun 1941 she married again to Richard Gladstein, and they would have our children together.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39584904/caroline_decker/
Visalia Times-Delta
Visalia, California
17 Apr 1937, Sat • Page 1
Caroline died 17 May 1992 in Marin County, CA.
Quite a woman! Terrible how she was prosecuted for helping the underdog.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your interest. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteGwen
Decker figures into the book about Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath by Rick Wartzman. RW's book is all about setting the stage for how and why Steinbeck wrote the book, and how those enemies of Decker and the other labor organizers tried to suppress the Grapes of Wrath. (One grower who Decker had battled in court had a book burning in 1939). Thanks for the background to Decker. The picture of her and the 13 other defenders from March 1935 is in Wartzman's book. Looks more like photo of college classmates than people fighting prosecution.
ReplyDelete