WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 We've got a really massive stack of historical 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:05.139 documents in front of us today, and I've been 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:07.019 waiting all week to get into this one. Oh yeah, 00:00:07.139 --> 00:00:09.679 this is a big one. It really is. We are launching 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:12.740 right into a brand new deep dive for you, looking 00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:15.320 at the incredibly complex, completely fascinating 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:19.899 life of Ella Reeve Bloor. Right. Or, as a lot 00:00:19.899 --> 00:00:22.039 of people in history knew her, simply Mother 00:00:22.039 --> 00:00:25.320 Bloor. It's a sweeping story to take on, honestly. 00:00:25.420 --> 00:00:28.780 I mean, her life spanned from 1862 all the way 00:00:28.780 --> 00:00:31.649 to 19... Which is just a massive chunk of time. 00:00:31.769 --> 00:00:33.789 Exactly. It covers some of the absolute most 00:00:33.789 --> 00:00:36.590 volatile, transformative decades in modern history. 00:00:36.869 --> 00:00:39.950 Yeah. So our mission today, we are pulling from 00:00:39.950 --> 00:00:43.390 excerpts of her Wikipedia biography, and we really 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:45.990 want to extract the most important nuggets of 00:00:45.990 --> 00:00:48.770 knowledge from those sources. We want to figure 00:00:48.770 --> 00:00:52.609 out how this one woman navigated, shaped, and 00:00:52.609 --> 00:00:55.429 just relentlessly challenged the American labor 00:00:55.429 --> 00:00:58.640 and radical political landscapes. of the late 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.000 19th and early 20th centuries. It's a massive 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.700 undertaking, but a vital one if you want to understand 00:01:03.700 --> 00:01:07.420 the mechanics of that era. Definitely. Now, before 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:10.099 we jump into the history, there's something very 00:01:10.099 --> 00:01:12.000 important we need to establish right up front 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:14.879 with you. Yes. The disclaimer. Right. This deep 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:17.540 dive covers some highly politically charged topics. 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:20.000 We are going to be talking about the history 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.680 of socialist and communist movements, both here 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:24.579 in the United States and abroad. And we need 00:01:24.579 --> 00:01:27.159 to be very clear here. Absolutely clear to you. 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:30.620 our listener, that we are not taking any sides 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:32.540 here. Yeah. Neither left wing nor right wing. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:35.500 That is a crucial point. We are not endorsing 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:39.840 any of the viewpoints, the platforms or the ideologies 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:41.439 that are going to come up in this conversation. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:44.819 Not all. Our role today is strictly to be your 00:01:44.819 --> 00:01:47.620 impartial guides. We are just conveying the factual 00:01:47.620 --> 00:01:50.140 history and the ideas exactly as they are contained 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:52.359 within our original source material. We're just 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:55.019 here for the history and the human story. Exactly. 00:01:55.219 --> 00:01:58.870 So. With that established, why should we be paying 00:01:58.870 --> 00:02:01.849 attention to Ella Reeve Bloor? Out of all the 00:02:01.849 --> 00:02:04.730 figures from that era, why dedicate a whole deep 00:02:04.730 --> 00:02:07.209 dive to her? You should care because Mother Bloor's 00:02:07.209 --> 00:02:09.530 life is really a masterclass in how grassroots 00:02:09.530 --> 00:02:12.449 movements evolve over time. Okay. If you want 00:02:12.449 --> 00:02:14.629 to understand the historical roots of tying political 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:17.870 rights specifically, the right to vote directly 00:02:17.870 --> 00:02:21.069 to workplace safety and labor rights, her story 00:02:21.069 --> 00:02:24.530 is the blueprint. She really loved it. She did. 00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:26.870 She didn't just theorize from a desk somewhere. 00:02:27.150 --> 00:02:29.889 She was on the front lines, often at great personal 00:02:29.889 --> 00:02:32.250 cost. Okay, let's unpack this. We have to start 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:35.449 at the very beginning, which is actually a million 00:02:35.449 --> 00:02:38.150 miles away from those radical front lines. It 00:02:38.150 --> 00:02:41.270 really is. She was born Ella Reeve on Staten 00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:44.490 Island in July 1862. So this is right in the 00:02:44.490 --> 00:02:47.069 middle of the American Civil War. And she ends 00:02:47.069 --> 00:02:49.719 up growing up in Bridgerton, New Jersey. A very, 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:51.520 very different world than the one she would eventually 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:53.580 help shape. I mean, the societal expectations 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:57.080 for a woman in the 1870s and 80s were incredibly 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:00.419 rigid. Completely different. And her early personal 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:04.020 life reflects that intensity, I think. In 1882, 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:06.460 when she was just 19 years old, she married a 00:03:06.460 --> 00:03:09.599 man named Lucian Bonaparte Ware. Who was quite 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:12.719 a bit older. Yeah, he was 27 at the time. And 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:14.699 over the next 10 years, they had seven children. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:17.930 Seven kids in 10 years. But the heartbreak here 00:03:17.930 --> 00:03:20.590 is immense. She lost three of those children 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:22.750 by the time they were three years old. Oh, wow. 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:25.310 Yeah, Pauline, Charles, and one of her twins, 00:03:25.469 --> 00:03:28.360 Lucian Jr. It's a profound amount of tragedy 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:30.780 for a young mother to experience in such a short 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:33.180 window of time. I can't even imagine. The infant 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:35.379 mortality rates of the era were higher, of course, 00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:37.360 but that doesn't lessen the personal devastation 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:39.539 at all. No, not at all. And the four children 00:03:39.539 --> 00:03:42.180 who did survive went on to live these incredibly 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:45.080 diverse, vibrant lives. They really did. Her 00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:47.780 daughter Helen became a concert violinist. Her 00:03:47.780 --> 00:03:51.319 son Harold became an agriculture expert and later 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:53.560 on an activist in the Communist Party of America, 00:03:53.699 --> 00:03:55.840 just like his mother. Following in her footsteps. 00:03:56.139 --> 00:03:58.740 Exactly. And another son, Hamilton, who went 00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:01.539 by Buzz, became an artist and a really prominent 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:04.139 leader in the village of Arden, Delaware, which 00:04:04.139 --> 00:04:07.139 is actually where Ella lived for many years later 00:04:07.139 --> 00:04:10.280 on. It paints a picture of a household that was 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:13.639 clearly very dynamic. You have this fostering 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:16.300 of both intense creativity and a strong sense 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:18.939 of civic or political duty. But her own civic 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:22.149 duty didn't start out radical at all. I was actually 00:04:22.149 --> 00:04:24.350 surprised by this in the sources. Oh, her early 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:27.370 activism. Yeah. She was initially involved in 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:29.649 reform movements like the Women's Christian Temperance 00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:32.670 Union, the WCTU and women's suffrage. Right. 00:04:33.069 --> 00:04:35.050 Plus, she was a published children's book author. 00:04:35.170 --> 00:04:37.949 She wrote a book in 1895 called Three Little 00:04:37.949 --> 00:04:41.250 Lovers of Nature and another in 1899 called Talks 00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:43.569 About Authors and Their Work. What's fascinating 00:04:43.569 --> 00:04:46.730 here is the sheer distance she travels ideologically. 00:04:47.050 --> 00:04:49.829 You have a temperance advocate and children's 00:04:49.829 --> 00:04:52.189 author who eventually becomes converted to socialism. 00:04:52.629 --> 00:04:55.029 It's quite the pivot. According to her later 00:04:55.029 --> 00:04:58.269 FBI files, the catalyst for this conversion was 00:04:58.269 --> 00:05:01.529 a man named Dr. M .V. Ball of Philadelphia. Right. 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:05.100 a student of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:07.379 Wait, pause for a second. Going from writing 00:05:07.379 --> 00:05:09.500 children's books about nature and campaigning 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:12.480 against alcohol to reading Marx and Engels, how 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.720 does that leap even happen? If we connect this 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.819 to the bigger picture, it actually starts to 00:05:16.819 --> 00:05:19.000 make a lot of sense. Okay, how so? Put yourself 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.579 in her shoes. You have a grieving mother who 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:25.300 has suffered immense personal loss. She is already 00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:27.819 advocating for women's suffrage and temperance. 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.740 Right. The WCTU. And at that time, temperance 00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:33.480 wasn't just about banning alcohol for moral reasons. 00:05:33.819 --> 00:05:36.000 It was seen by many women as a way to protect 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.839 families from the ravages of poverty, domestic 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:41.620 violence and addiction. Which were huge issues. 00:05:41.819 --> 00:05:44.240 Huge issues which they felt were exacerbated 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:46.620 by the industrial working conditions of the time. 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:48.480 So she's already looking at. social problems 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:50.759 and try to fix them. Precisely. She's treating 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:53.459 the symptoms. But when someone like Dr. Ball 00:05:53.459 --> 00:05:56.819 introduces her to a systemic critique of society, 00:05:57.160 --> 00:05:59.560 like the economic frameworks offered by Marx 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:01.860 and Engels, it provides a broader vocabulary 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:04.660 for the injustices she's already fighting against. 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:07.500 It gives her a framework. Yes. She evolved from 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:10.500 a reformer into a fierce political radical because 00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:13.079 she started looking for the root causes of that 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:15.480 poverty and suffering. That reframing helps a 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:20.100 lot. She was looking for assistance. And she 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.439 really threw herself into finding the right vehicle 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:25.259 for those new beliefs. She definitely didn't 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:30.100 do things halfway. No kidding. In 1897, she divorced 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:33.439 Lucian. married her second husband, Lewis Cohen, 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:36.519 who was also a socialist, and became a founding 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:39.079 member of the Social Democracy of America. Which 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.379 was a very big deal. Yeah, this was a group set 00:06:41.379 --> 00:06:44.860 up by Eugene V. Debs and Victor Berger. Eugene 00:06:44.860 --> 00:06:47.620 V. Debs being one of the most famous, influential 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:51.060 labor organizers in American history. Working 00:06:51.060 --> 00:06:54.399 alongside him was massive. But her memoir reveals 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.800 a really telling anecdote about her time there, 00:06:56.899 --> 00:06:59.300 which shows she wasn't just a blind follower. 00:06:59.540 --> 00:07:02.360 Not at all. Debs had this grand plan to form 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:06.100 a utopian colony out west. The idea was to build 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:08.920 an ideal community to show everyone, by example, 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:11.620 that this economic model could work. Right. A 00:07:11.620 --> 00:07:14.480 proof of concept. Exactly. And Ella was writing 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:16.639 a children's column for their paper, The Social 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:19.100 Democrat. And kids were actually mailing her 00:07:19.100 --> 00:07:22.040 pennies to fund this utopian colony. You can 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:24.120 see the ethical dilemma forming right there. 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:26.379 It sparked a massive crisis of conscience for 00:07:26.379 --> 00:07:28.779 her. She felt it was completely unfair to collect 00:07:28.779 --> 00:07:30.779 money from children for something that didn't 00:07:30.779 --> 00:07:33.339 even exist yet. It bothered her deeply. She looked 00:07:33.339 --> 00:07:35.600 at this whole colonization scheme and called 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:39.180 it unscientific and unsound. She essentially 00:07:39.180 --> 00:07:41.899 told her local group it wasn't real socialism 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:44.079 at all. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind. 00:07:44.259 --> 00:07:46.579 Clearly. Because when the party held a convention 00:07:46.579 --> 00:07:50.199 in Chicago in 1898 and officially voted to continue 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:52.639 with the colony plan, she abruptly resigned. 00:07:52.899 --> 00:07:54.740 That is a crucial moment for understanding her 00:07:54.740 --> 00:07:57.389 character. Eugene Debs was basically a rock star 00:07:57.389 --> 00:07:59.730 in this movement. Walking away from him was a 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:03.350 huge risk. But she possessed a very sharp critical 00:08:03.350 --> 00:08:06.189 thinking ability. She needed something grounded 00:08:06.189 --> 00:08:09.189 in reality, not a fantasy colony out west. And 00:08:09.189 --> 00:08:11.589 she thought she found that reality shortly after, 00:08:11.629 --> 00:08:13.870 when she attended a meeting of the Socialist 00:08:13.870 --> 00:08:16.829 Labor Party in New York. The SLP? Right. The 00:08:16.829 --> 00:08:18.949 speaker was Daniel DeLeon, the editor of the 00:08:18.949 --> 00:08:21.810 party's newspaper. She described him as small, 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.480 slight, prematurely gray, but speaking very deliberately 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:27.720 and convincingly. He was a powerful intellectual 00:08:27.720 --> 00:08:30.560 force. He was analyzing capitalism and tearing 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.820 down the idea of isolated utopian colonies. And 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:36.720 Ella was sold. She thought, finally, scientific 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.909 socialism. And she joined the SLP. She was looking 00:08:39.909 --> 00:08:43.549 for a rigorous theoretical approach and DeLeon 00:08:43.549 --> 00:08:46.429 certainly provided that strict framework. He 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:49.090 did. But here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:49.309 --> 00:08:52.669 Oh, this story. So good. Ellen DeLeon became 00:08:52.669 --> 00:08:55.230 friends and she started working with the New 00:08:55.230 --> 00:08:57.629 York Labor News Company. which was managing the 00:08:57.629 --> 00:08:59.730 translation of revolutionary books and pamphlets 00:08:59.730 --> 00:09:03.049 into English. She worked with the manager, Julian 00:09:03.049 --> 00:09:06.149 Pierce, to proofread the pamphlets that DeLeon 00:09:06.149 --> 00:09:09.129 himself had translated. But apparently, DeLeon's 00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:13.190 English translations were incredibly rough. Unreadable, 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:15.629 even. It's completely clunky. So Ella and Julian 00:09:15.629 --> 00:09:18.830 would secretly reconstruct and fix DeLeon's English 00:09:18.830 --> 00:09:21.570 behind his bag before they went to print. And 00:09:21.570 --> 00:09:23.450 they never let him know they were doing it. It's 00:09:23.450 --> 00:09:25.710 a brilliant detail. It shows a real grounded 00:09:25.710 --> 00:09:28.889 pragmatism. Yeah. She wasn't interested in bruising 00:09:28.889 --> 00:09:31.350 the leader's ego or having a theoretical debate 00:09:31.350 --> 00:09:33.669 about language. She just wanted the material 00:09:33.669 --> 00:09:35.909 to be readable and effective for the workers 00:09:35.909 --> 00:09:38.309 on the street. She just wanted it to work. Exactly. 00:09:39.230 --> 00:09:41.590 But her time with DeLeon wasn't destined to last 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:43.649 either. And this raises an important question 00:09:43.649 --> 00:09:46.769 about her overall philosophy, the constant tension 00:09:46.769 --> 00:09:49.789 between ideological purity and practical results. 00:09:50.149 --> 00:09:51.710 Let's dig into that because she ended up walking 00:09:51.710 --> 00:09:54.330 away from the SLP, too. She did. She had been 00:09:54.330 --> 00:09:56.149 elected to the general executive board of the 00:09:56.149 --> 00:09:59.470 SLP's union affiliate, which was called the Socialist 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:04.129 Trade and Labor Alliance. The STNLA. Yes. And 00:10:04.129 --> 00:10:06.169 she was out there organizing streetcar workers 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:08.690 in Philadelphia and Essex County, New Jersey. 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:11.669 But she started to see a massive strategic flaw. 00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:14.649 By trying to build a separate, ideologically 00:10:14.649 --> 00:10:18.029 pure, radical union, they were engaging in what's 00:10:18.029 --> 00:10:20.309 called sectarianism. Let me make sure I'm following. 00:10:20.470 --> 00:10:22.730 Can you break down why that was such a problem 00:10:22.730 --> 00:10:25.289 for her on the ground? Think of it like a massive 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:27.809 company where the workers want better conditions. 00:10:28.289 --> 00:10:31.009 You have a main union in this case, the American 00:10:31.009 --> 00:10:34.230 Federation of Labor, the AFL. Okay, the big mainstream 00:10:34.230 --> 00:10:37.590 union. Right. The SLP decides the AFL isn't radical 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:39.570 enough, so they start their own splinter union. 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:42.970 To be more pure. Yes. But by pulling all the 00:10:42.970 --> 00:10:46.169 most passionate, radical vocal workers out of 00:10:46.169 --> 00:10:48.230 the mainstream union to form their own pure club, 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:51.169 they accidentally handed all the power in the 00:10:51.169 --> 00:10:53.230 main union over to the conservative leaders. 00:10:53.389 --> 00:10:55.549 Oh, wow. They were isolating themselves from 00:10:55.549 --> 00:10:58.120 the vast majority of. everyday workers. So they 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:00.559 were basically preaching to the choir in an empty 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:03.860 room. Exactly. While the actual power remained 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:06.460 untouched. That makes total sense. She realized 00:11:06.460 --> 00:11:09.580 this sectarianism was a dead end. She believed 00:11:09.580 --> 00:11:11.960 organizers needed to be working within the massive 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:15.679 AF of L to create a united trade union movement, 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:19.190 not sitting in isolated purity. And she confronted 00:11:19.190 --> 00:11:21.850 DeLeon about this. She told DeLeon this directly. 00:11:21.950 --> 00:11:24.330 He didn't get angry, but he flat out refused 00:11:24.330 --> 00:11:27.350 to change his methods. So, true to form, she 00:11:27.350 --> 00:11:29.470 walked away. She just kept moving through whatever 00:11:29.470 --> 00:11:31.830 was most practical. She even rejected another 00:11:31.830 --> 00:11:34.230 splinter group in Pennsylvania called the Logical 00:11:34.230 --> 00:11:36.649 Center, led by Lucien Samuel. Because it was 00:11:36.649 --> 00:11:39.870 more of the same. Exactly. Instead, in 1901, 00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:42.330 she swallowed her pride and went back to her 00:11:42.330 --> 00:11:45.450 old friend Eugene Debs to join the newly formed 00:11:45.450 --> 00:11:49.250 Socialist Party of America. The S .P .A. But 00:11:49.250 --> 00:11:52.230 theory only gets you so far. Eventually, she 00:11:52.230 --> 00:11:54.389 had to test these ideas in the real world, which 00:11:54.389 --> 00:11:56.950 brings us to her fieldwork. And this brings us 00:11:56.950 --> 00:11:59.730 to 1905, which is a legendary piece of her story. 00:11:59.909 --> 00:12:02.049 This is the year she gets her famous nickname. 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.669 Yes. Ella teamed up with a fellow Socialist Party 00:12:04.669 --> 00:12:08.129 member, Upton Sinclair. Sinclair was writing 00:12:08.129 --> 00:12:10.269 a book about the horrific conditions in the Chicago 00:12:10.269 --> 00:12:13.309 stockyards, a book that would become the massive 00:12:13.309 --> 00:12:16.269 bestseller, The Jungle. A book that literally 00:12:16.269 --> 00:12:19.850 changed American food safety laws. But gathering 00:12:19.850 --> 00:12:22.269 that information was incredibly dangerous work. 00:12:22.470 --> 00:12:25.649 It was. Ella went undercover right into the visceral, 00:12:25.750 --> 00:12:28.309 dangerous reality of the stockyards to help him 00:12:28.309 --> 00:12:30.230 gather the information. She was right in the 00:12:30.230 --> 00:12:32.750 thick of it. To pull this off, she partnered 00:12:32.750 --> 00:12:35.370 up with a colleague named Richard Bloor. They 00:12:35.370 --> 00:12:37.470 pretended to be a married couple to avoid suspicion 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:40.169 from the factory bosses. And it worked. It did. 00:12:40.289 --> 00:12:43.090 And the wildest part, they never actually married, 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:46.039 but she kept his last name. Bloor for the rest 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:48.940 of her life. She became Mother Bloor. It's a 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.779 fantastic origin story for a legendary organizer. 00:12:52.139 --> 00:12:54.700 And her organizing was relentless from that point 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:57.539 on. Relentless almost feels like an understatement 00:12:57.539 --> 00:13:00.139 when you look at the record. Our sources list 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:02.899 her organizing strikes across Pennsylvania, Michigan, 00:13:03.059 --> 00:13:06.200 Colorado, Ohio, and New York. All over the country. 00:13:06.379 --> 00:13:08.639 We were talking about miners, hatters, steel 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.580 workers, and needle workers. She was constantly 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:14.809 in the trenches. And the physical toll. Must 00:13:14.809 --> 00:13:17.070 have been staggering because our source notes 00:13:17.070 --> 00:13:21.190 a crazy statistic. She was arrested 36 times 00:13:21.190 --> 00:13:24.230 over the course of her career. 36 times. Think 00:13:24.230 --> 00:13:26.929 about the physical and emotional endurance that 00:13:26.929 --> 00:13:29.649 requires. It's unbelievable. Jail time for radical 00:13:29.649 --> 00:13:32.570 organizers in the 1910s and 20s wasn't just a 00:13:32.570 --> 00:13:35.230 slap on the wrist. It meant facing awful conditions, 00:13:35.370 --> 00:13:38.169 intimidation and real danger. Yeah. But it's 00:13:38.169 --> 00:13:40.429 crucial to understand that for organizers like 00:13:40.429 --> 00:13:42.990 her, an arrest wasn't just a consequence to be 00:13:42.990 --> 00:13:45.750 avoided. It was often a strategic tool to draw 00:13:45.750 --> 00:13:47.690 public attention to the strikes and the working 00:13:47.690 --> 00:13:49.889 conditions. Which is wild when you think about 00:13:49.889 --> 00:13:52.590 it from the perspective of a mother with surviving 00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:55.750 children at home. Very true. But that fieldwork 00:13:55.750 --> 00:13:59.070 deeply shaped her ideology, particularly her 00:13:59.070 --> 00:14:01.879 legacy as a prominent socialist feminist. Yes, 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:04.139 she made what she called a direct connection 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:07.059 between the ballot and our work. She was out 00:14:07.059 --> 00:14:09.159 there seeing the conditions marginalized working 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:12.000 women were facing in these factories. She argued 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.240 that because these women had absolutely no political 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:17.919 voice, their only weapon was protest. And as 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:21.940 her own 36 arrests proved, relying solely on 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:25.340 protest was dangerous. Dangerous and often ineffective 00:14:25.340 --> 00:14:28.740 at creating lasting systemic change. She believed 00:14:28.740 --> 00:14:30.799 that until these working women had the ballot, 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:32.940 Until they could vote on the actual laws that 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:35.580 govern their working conditions, they would always 00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:38.379 be at the mercy of their employers. So it wasn't 00:14:38.379 --> 00:14:41.080 just an abstract democratic ideal. Not at all. 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:43.500 Suffrage wasn't just a philosophical debate for 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:46.100 her. It was a matter of workplace survival. It 00:14:46.100 --> 00:14:48.740 was about having a legally binding contract versus 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:51.879 just begging a boss for a safer machine. So the 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:54.940 vote was literally a tool for safety. And she 00:14:54.940 --> 00:14:57.139 didn't just advocate for the vote. She ran for 00:14:57.139 --> 00:15:00.559 office herself. repeatedly to force these issues 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:02.580 into the public eye. She was a trailblazer there, 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:06.000 too. In 1908, she was the very first woman to 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.179 run for state office in Connecticut when she 00:15:08.179 --> 00:15:11.419 ran for secretary of state. Later, she ran for 00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:14.360 lieutenant governor of New York in 1918 and even 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:17.159 for governor of Pennsylvania in 1938. And again. 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:20.399 Keeping our neutrality disclaimer in mind, we're 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.179 detailing these political campaigns not to endorse 00:15:23.179 --> 00:15:26.080 the specific party platforms, but to illustrate 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.559 her tactics. Exactly. She knew she wasn't going 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:30.940 to win those races. She was using the electoral 00:15:30.940 --> 00:15:33.820 system as a megaphone for the marginalized workers 00:15:33.820 --> 00:15:36.139 she was organizing. A megaphone she kept using 00:15:36.139 --> 00:15:38.440 as she moved into the next phase of her life, 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:41.179 the communist era, where she stepped onto the 00:15:41.179 --> 00:15:43.379 global stage. Things really shift gear here. 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:45.419 She was one of the founders of the Communist 00:15:45.419 --> 00:15:47.559 Labor Party of America, which... emerged from 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:50.340 the left wing of the Socialist Party. And by 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:52.879 the early 1920s, she started traveling internationally. 00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:56.779 In 1921 and 1922, she went to Moscow for the 00:15:56.779 --> 00:15:59.120 Comintern Conventions. The Comintern being the 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:01.259 Communist International, a global gathering of 00:16:01.259 --> 00:16:03.159 these political parties. And there's this incredible 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:06.720 cloak and dagger detail from the 1921 Red International 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.539 of Labor Unions Convention. I love this part. 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:12.809 She attended using the pseudonym Emmons. And 00:16:12.809 --> 00:16:15.289 she voted using credentials that were issued 00:16:15.289 --> 00:16:17.889 to her by three locals of the International Association 00:16:17.889 --> 00:16:21.250 of Machinists. She was a known radical who had 00:16:21.250 --> 00:16:24.549 been arrested dozens of times. Aliases were simply 00:16:24.549 --> 00:16:26.750 a practical necessity for her to cross borders 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:28.929 and operate at that point. But she certainly 00:16:28.929 --> 00:16:31.539 didn't stay hidden when she came back home. This 00:16:31.539 --> 00:16:33.500 is honestly one of my favorite details in the 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:35.960 source material. It's so good. Upon returning 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:39.340 from the Soviet Union in the early 1920s, when 00:16:39.340 --> 00:16:41.279 she would have been around 60 years old, by the 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:43.759 way, this grandmother hitchhiked all the way 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:45.980 across the United States. Incredible. She was 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:47.879 writing articles about her travels for the Daily 00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:51.299 Worker newspaper. Just the sheer stamina of hitchhiking 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:54.320 across the country in the 1920s is mind -boggling. 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.139 It speaks to her absolute refusal to stop moving. 00:16:57.220 --> 00:16:59.600 Her later years are just as packed as her early 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:03.820 years. They really are. From 1932 to 1948, she 00:17:03.820 --> 00:17:05.420 served on the Central Committee of the Communist 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:08.579 Party USA. She was touring the Midwest, giving 00:17:08.579 --> 00:17:10.900 speeches and leading strikes for farmers during 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:13.519 the Great Depression. Still on the ground. She 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:15.960 even returned to Russia for a few months at the 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:19.359 end of 1937. And what's interesting is how her 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:22.119 political stance has kept adapting to the global 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:25.240 situation, especially during World War II. This 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:28.289 is a critical pivot. After Germany invaded the 00:17:28.289 --> 00:17:32.410 Soviet Union in June 1941, her geopolitical calculus 00:17:32.410 --> 00:17:35.589 completely shifted. She became a highly vocal 00:17:35.589 --> 00:17:37.470 advocate for the United States and into the war, 00:17:37.549 --> 00:17:41.009 right? Yes. She pushed hard for an early invasion 00:17:41.009 --> 00:17:43.710 of Europe to create a second front against the 00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:46.569 Axis powers. This is pragmatism on a global scale. 00:17:46.789 --> 00:17:49.109 You have a lifelong labor organizer who spent 00:17:49.109 --> 00:17:51.250 decades fighting against the American industrial 00:17:51.250 --> 00:17:54.049 machine, suddenly advocating for that same machine 00:17:54.049 --> 00:17:57.019 to gear up for a massive global war. It seems 00:17:57.019 --> 00:17:59.500 like a contradiction at first. It does. But she 00:17:59.500 --> 00:18:01.680 was looking at the geopolitical chessboard, figuring 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:04.380 out what action was necessary right at that moment 00:18:04.380 --> 00:18:07.200 to defeat fascism, which she saw as the ultimate 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:09.779 existential threat to workers everywhere. She 00:18:09.779 --> 00:18:12.380 adapted to the reality in front of her. And she 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:15.640 stayed active, practically until the end. We 00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:18.910 wrap up her timeline in the summer of 1951. Ella 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:22.849 Reeve Bloor died on August 10, 1951, in Richlandtown, 00:18:22.970 --> 00:18:25.910 Pennsylvania. She was 89 years old. Yes. She 00:18:25.910 --> 00:18:28.410 had married for the final time in 1930 to a man 00:18:28.410 --> 00:18:31.690 named Andrew Almholt. Today, she is buried in 00:18:31.690 --> 00:18:34.569 Harley Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey. It's a 00:18:34.569 --> 00:18:37.069 quiet resting place for someone who caused so 00:18:37.069 --> 00:18:39.329 much noise in her lifetime. And the cultural 00:18:39.329 --> 00:18:42.809 footprint she left behind is massive. In 1940, 00:18:42.950 --> 00:18:45.430 she published her autobiography called We Are 00:18:45.430 --> 00:18:48.009 Many. That book actually inspired the legendary 00:18:48.009 --> 00:18:50.470 folk singer Woody Guthrie to write his famous 00:18:50.470 --> 00:18:53.710 song 1913 Massacre. That's a huge cultural touchstone. 00:18:53.910 --> 00:18:55.869 And when she died, her public funeral reception 00:18:55.869 --> 00:18:58.190 in Harlem was a huge event. It was photographed 00:18:58.190 --> 00:19:00.619 by Life magazine. Right. And the famous American 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:03.019 painter Alice Neel actually painted a piece called 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:05.880 The Death of Mother Bloor, showing her beer and 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:08.019 the line of mourners. Which is a brilliant painting. 00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:11.200 It is. That painting was even featured in a major 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:13.940 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:17.539 in New York City recently in 2021. Oh, and one 00:19:17.539 --> 00:19:21.160 more fun fact from the culture side. Her granddaughter, 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:24.730 her to where? became a well -known actress. She 00:19:24.730 --> 00:19:27.130 permeated so many different layers of American 00:19:27.130 --> 00:19:29.369 history and culture, from the factory floors 00:19:29.369 --> 00:19:31.430 to the art world. So what does this all mean? 00:19:31.589 --> 00:19:33.509 That's the big question. When we look at all 00:19:33.509 --> 00:19:37.390 these pieces, the utopian colonies she walked 00:19:37.390 --> 00:19:39.089 away from because they were unrealistic, the 00:19:39.089 --> 00:19:40.849 unions she abandoned because they were too isolated, 00:19:41.109 --> 00:19:44.750 the 36 arrests, the undercover work in the stockyards, 00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:48.130 the hitchhiking, the global conventions, we see 00:19:48.130 --> 00:19:52.839 a woman who was a... deeply restless fiercely 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:56.000 pragmatic organizer yes she completely refused 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.680 to settle for beautiful utopian dreams if they 00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:01.099 didn't practically tangibly help the workers 00:20:01.099 --> 00:20:02.759 standing right in front of her on the ground 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.259 that pragmatism is her defining trait and it 00:20:05.259 --> 00:20:06.759 actually brings up something really fascinating 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.480 to think about in our modern context okay what's 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:11.839 that Well, if you're looking at your own modern 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.619 workplace, you might take basic safety regulations 00:20:14.619 --> 00:20:17.599 or H .R. departments for granted. But Mother 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:20.400 Bloor had to fight tooth and nail for those concepts 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:24.000 to even be discussed. True. She deeply believed 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:27.099 that marginalized workers had absolutely no power 00:20:27.099 --> 00:20:28.759 to change their conditions without the ballot. 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:31.700 She saw the right to vote as the ultimate weapon 00:20:31.700 --> 00:20:34.079 for workplace safety. Because protests were too 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:36.460 dangerous and easily dismissed without legal 00:20:36.460 --> 00:20:39.400 backing. Exactly. So I'll leave you, our listener, 00:20:39.579 --> 00:20:42.039 with this final concept to mull over on your 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:45.500 own. Now that universal suffrage is a legal reality 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:48.099 in our society, how do you think a pragmatist 00:20:48.099 --> 00:20:50.259 like Mother Bloor would view the effectiveness 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:52.900 of the ballot today? That's a great question. 00:20:58.380 --> 00:21:15.079 Wow. That is a fantastic question to chew on. 00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:17.440 Is the ballot the shield she hoped it would be 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:20.119 or just a different kind of trench? Thank you 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.059 for walking through this incredible history with 00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:24.940 us today and helping break down these massive 00:21:24.940 --> 00:21:27.259 historical shifts. It was a pleasure to explore 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:29.579 it. Thank you for listening. Keep questioning 00:21:29.579 --> 00:21:32.039 the systems around you and keep learning. Keep 00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:34.940 that curiosity alive and we will catch you next 00:21:34.940 --> 00:21:36.480 time for another deep dive.