JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Here's another very striking cover for a pamphlet embracing once-radical semi-socialist pseud-Commie agendas that are today a de rigueur part of our social existence. This is a pro-Union, pro-educational work presented by the International Ladies' Garment Union (education Department) to its members, getting them up to speed on the major issues of the day. Many of these battles fought by the union were bitterly opposed by industry and (sometimes) the government were for programs and agencies that many take for granted, and something utilized by everyone no matter the political leaning, the bright shining "Socialist" aluminum coating for the future long gone as these programs have become "normalized". Some of the issue addressed by the pamphlet were whether or not women could join a union or a labor movement (though 1940 seems a little on the late-ish side for these questions), the necessity of unemployment insurance, social insurance, maternity insurance, old age security, health insurance, and safeguards on the working life of children under 14 years of age.
That, and I also liked the design, the giant parade of women coming from out of the rising Sun. I'm partial to these mass/crowd images on pamphlet covers--you don't see them terribly often so when you do the work really stands apart. Here's another example I wrote about in August 2020, Katherine Pollack's 1932 Why Bother About the Government, the third installment of the Leftist Brookwood Labor College pamphlet series. It is a bit of a Socratic polemic about the problems and advantages of government, owners of the means of production, workers, and labor organizers...coming down firmly in the square of very-pro forces of organized labor:
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