Series:

Interviews not in a series, part two

Topic:

Social Movements

Civil Rights Movement

Biographical Note:

Activist and organizer. Work with the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democratic Society, as well as its Weathermen faction. Other work includes labor organizing and work in environmental justice. Currently director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles.

Interviewer:

Collings, Jane

Interviewee:

Mann, Eric

Persons Present:

Mann and Collings.

Place Conducted:

The Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles.

Supporting Documents:

Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research.

Interviewer Background and Preparation:

The interview was conducted by Jane Collings, principal editor and interviewer, UCLA Center for Oral History Research; Ph.D., Critical Studies in Film and Television, UCLA.

Processing of Interview:

The transcript is a verbatim transcription of the recording. It was transcribed by a professional transcribing agency using a list of proper names and specialized terminology supplied by the interviewer. Mann was then given an opportunity to review the transcript but made no corrections or additions.

Length:

15.5 hrs.

Language:

English

Copyright:

Interviewee Retained Copyright

Audio:

Historical context for interview--The family’s Russian and Polish roots--The impact of the pogroms on the family--Grandmother began work at garment factory in New York--Grandfather’s industrial accident--Father’s participation in the Young People’s Socialist League--Father’s work as a labor organizer in the thirties--Mother’s background--Mother’s strong feminist beliefs--Raised by mother and aunt while father served in World War II--Relationships with parents--Family’s avowed anti-Nazi stance and anti-fascist stance--Early experience of anti-Semitism in the neighborhood--Family's distrust of WASP culture--Ethnic and class makeup of the neighborhood in Flatbush—Family's self-identification as Jewish, communist, anti-fascist, pro-trade union and pro-civil rights--Abhorrence of racism against African Americans--Raised to live a life with a strong moral compass--Grandmother continues working in garment industry until her fifties--Family moves to Valley Stream, Long Island--Sports teams sponsored by Catholic churches--Predominately Irish and Italian kids at school--Mother’s anger about the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg--The murder of Emmett Till--An encounter as a child with a group of older men defending the Korean War--Father’s political views--Beginnings of the Cold War--Classes at high school--Experiments with membership in an outlier group of kids in high school--Participates in drama at high school--Joins a Jewish high school fraternity--Assaulted for wearing fraternity sweater to school--Mother begins working in retail and flourishes--Participation in an American Friends Service Committee housing rehabilitation event in Harlem--Attends Cornell University to study industrial labor relations--Enters the program at a time when labor and management were supposedly aligned against communism—Engages in activism against nuclear weapons--Importance of collective experience in order to overcome individualism.

Father’s political ideology of social democracy--Mann’s political education--Schism between communists and social Democrats after World War I--Father’s labor organizing work--The social democratic tradition in the US context--Father’s espousal of anti-Communist views--Father’s influential role in Mann’s political education—Brother, Richard--Attends Industrial Labor Relations (ILR) program at Cornell university--The emphasis at the ILR in brokering a peace between management and labor--Runs for election of President at dorms and wins--Friend, Danny Schechter--Greek life at Cornell--Segregation along religious lines at Cornell fraternities--The Tau Delta phi (ZBT) house--Coursework at ILR--President John F. Kennedy’s strategy for counterinsurgency for fighting communism--The role of the individual in a revolutionary process--Cornell students’ response to the Cuban missile crisis--Ongoing political education--Friendships at college--Participates in efforts to boost enrollment of African-American students--The management focused curriculum at ILR--Transfers to the liberal arts school at Cornell, majoring in political science and government.

Characterizes “the sixties“ as being a twenty-six-year period--An episode of racism in Valley Stream, Long Island, in the sixties--Pervasive sense of civil rights injustice among the youth of the sixties--Commitment among youth to reforming the United States--The African American response to the Vietnam War--The Cornell University class of 1964’s commitment to making the world a better place--Interviews for jobs after college with social change organizations--Danny Schechter--Interviews with Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)--Meets Lou Smith--Begins work as CORE field secretary--Works with Cornell United--Counters objections to the use of student funds for voter registration efforts--Mary Nichols--The concept of a campaign: every step must count--Works with Joyce Ware and Herb Callender at CORE--Tom Hayden--Sense that white radicals did not respect organizing work done in the black community--Job responsibilities at CORE--James Farmer--A CORE campaign at the World’s Fair called the “ stall in”--Herb Callender--Importance of group dynamics in a political campaign--John Mackie--Site visits to CORE regional offices--Serves on phone banks--Receives the call that initiates the campaign against discriminatory hiring at Trailways Transportation System bus company--CORE support for the campaign--A hearing in the case before the New York City Commission on Human Rights--Successful outcome of campaign--Civil actions at Trailways stations--The advantage to a campaign of working with a previously organized group--“Transformative organizing”--Joins Newark Community Union Project (NCUP) in 1965.

Steps involved in Trailways campaign victory--Problems with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) chapter structure--Struggles between National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and CORE over Trailways campaign--The steep learning curve to become a community organizer--The work of meeting with CORE chapters and getting them on the same page--Herb Callender--Joyce Ware--Roy Innis--Mann finds himself the object of “hazing” at Harlem CORE--More on Roy Innis--George Wiley--Sense of Harlem chapter as too white, middle class, and factionalized--Leaves CORE over the issue of the Vietnam War--The pace of civil rights activity in 1964--Factionalism within New York CORE--Norman Hill--More on Herb Callender.

Meets Walter Lively through Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Baltimore--Meets a group of Trotskyist community organizers--The Newark Community Union Project (NCUP)--Tom Hayden’s strategy for building an inter-racial movement of the poor--Mann’s sense that it is useful to engage the middle class in the movement--The position of NCUP on the Vietnam War--The Community/Labor Strategy Center training techniques--The lack of training at NCUP--Learns from a first encounter with a community member as a beginning organizer--NCUP block clubs--Staughton Lynd and Herbert Aptheker reach out to Hayden to visit Vietnam--Mann’s sense of rivalry with Tom Hayden--The Freedom Ticket, a third party electoral ticket--Troublemakers, a film about NCUP--The unofficial dress code for community organizing--The Freedom Ticket loses--Mann’s difficulties as a community organizer--Becomes a public school teacher--Daughter is born--Gets divorced--Living accommodations in Newark--Teacher training--Teaches at a junior high school--Discipline at the school--Teaching approaches at the school--Teaches reproductive health--Suspended from teaching--George Richardson leads a campaign for Mann to be reinstated--Substantial support from students and parents for Mann’s ideas about education--Media coverage of the case.

Childcare responsibilities--The living arrangements of white organizers--The Newark rebellion, 1967--Publishes several books--Begins the Newark Community School--Involvement with Independent School 201--The formation of an all-black school board in Newark--Tom Hayden’s vision for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)--Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP)—Union for Jobs and Income Now (UJOIN)--Works against the Vietnam War while in Newark--Involvement with SDS--Community organizer goals--Becomes head of New England SDS--The prevalence of fear of communism--Brings community organizing skills to SDS work--Sexual mores within the antiwar movement--Acquisition of Mann’s papers by University of Massachusetts, Amherst--The Progressive Labor (PL) party comes into SDS--Involvement in ethnic studies center--PL’s efforts to take over SDS--Revolutionary nationalism vs. reactionary nationalism--PL’s position on nationalism--PL’s position against ethnic studies--Argues for supporting democratic rights at a Harvard SDS meeting--Sense that Harvard and Boston University SDS chapters were elitist--Split between the Weather Underground Organization and SDS.

The characteristics of a good organization--The changing landscape of social justice organizing--The Cornell Liberal Union--A life-changing Student for a Democratic Society (SDS) march on Washington in April 1965--Speeches at the event--Conducts door-to-door surveys on attitudes toward the war--Joins SDS in 1967, after its shift to the far left--The organizational structure of SDS--The anti-imperialist direction of SDS--A move within SDS to root out liberal tendencies--Tom Hayden’s ability as an anti-war organizer--SDS view that Hayden was working with “middle forces”--Concerns on part of North Vietnamese that students would alienate American public--Importance of strategy in organizing--The Cold War era struggle against communist base building--Sense that implementing revolutionary strategy meant toning down ultra-left rhetoric--Operational problems at SDS chapters--Efforts to keep the campus chapters focused on ending the war--Lenin’s embrace of trade unions as model for Mann’s thinking--The process of “disaggregating people’s consciousness”--Work to build efficacy of chapters--The Columbia University strike against the war--Mark Rudd--SDS participation in the strike--The Boston chapter of the Progressive Labor (PL) party--The PL “worker-student alliance”--PL “work ins” to educate students—The issue of how to reconcile competing caucus groups within a union--A Cold War era public service film teaches children to spot communists--The PL position on nationalism--Russian, Chinese, and North Vietnamese positions toward end of war--Positions of American anti-war moment on peace negotiations--The Vietnamese civil war--Emerging belief within SDS that Vietnamese were "selling out."

The importance of making political education a central part of community organizing--The tradition of oratory in activist practice--Mann’s approach to organizing--A Students for a Democratic Society ( SDS) takeover of a building at Boston University--The Weather Underground Organization philosophy--The infiltration of SDS by Progressive Labor (PL)--PL’s approach to organizing--Differences between SDS and PL--The formation of SDS-RYM (Revolutionary Youth Movement)--The collapse of PL--The Boston SDS chapter declines to join RYM--Role as SDS spokesperson--Attends Weather Underground meeting in Ohio--Mike Klonsky’s critique of SDS--Recruited to head Boston Weather Underground--Loses confidence in Weather Underground--The Days of Rage in Chicago, October 1969--Bill Ayers' leadership style--Organizes demonstration at Harvard Center for International Affairs--Faces criminal charges stemming from demonstration--The Weather Underground conference at Flint, Michigan in December 1969--Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn’s approach to Weather Underground leadership--Weather Underground tactics--Growing alienation of those against the Vietnam War from WUO approach--The Indo-China Peace Campaign.

Attends Fred Hampton memorial service--Works at Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) national office to organize Flint War Council meeting--Mann begins to consider fact that he will go to prison--Types of liberals--Mann’s court case--Mann’s Weather Underground Organization collective acquires guns--Efforts to attract young, militant whites to SDS cause--Local street kid, Jimmy Valentine, joins the collective--Mann charged with attempted murder--Jimmy Valentine becomes key witness against Mann--Living arrangements at the collective--Mann’s trial--Sentenced to prison--Conditions in prison--Forms relationships with other prisoners--Race relations in prison--More on prison conditions--Denied parole twice--The Weathermen townhouse explosion--SDS fragments after Cambodia invasion--Campus shutdowns in response to strikes--The disintegration of the anti-war movement--The routine in prison--Holds informal study groups while in prison--Dotson Rader--George Jackson--Solitary confinement.

Political liberalism of the period--As a white movement, the Weather Underground Organization enjoyed some legal protections--Attitude of judge in Mann’s case--Skills of Weather Underground leaders--Weather Underground leaders go underground--Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)’s self-destruction--Mann’s role as an SDS leader--Campus student strikes against Cambodian invasion--The Indo-China Peace Campaign--Solitary confinement while in prison--Relationships with fellow prisoners--Prison routines--Pressured to lead a rebellion--The focus of prisoners on conditions inside, rather than politics--Radio station WBCN in Boston--Newspapers Boston after Dark and the Real Paper--Music reviews by Stu Werbin--Ray Mungo’s Liberation News Service--Danny Schechter’s work in media--Communicates with Schechter about prison organizing--DJ Charles Laquidera performs an organizing role--More on Danny Schechter--The spontaneous nature of the prison rebellions that Mann witnessed--The impact of the L.A. Weekly and the L.A. Reader during the eighties among white protesters--The transformative aspect of being a prisoner--Lawyer Henry di Suvero--Prison conditions--Plays on sports teams while in prison--Adjustment to life outside of prison.