Marisa Tomei

The things we take for granted now. These were revolutionary ideas when we began to demand them in the '30s. We wanted unemployment insurance.

We wanted home relief, hot meals for children in schools, and housing for the destitute people living in the city dumps. In that time, who heard of an eight-hour day? Even the idea of a union was in this time a new concept in the world.

No one expected decent wages. The others with the privilege were born up there. But we we were on the bottom.

To us, the idea that we had the right to strike, that was something that was, it was hard to imagine. So what could be done about all this? We began to organize.

We formed unemployed councils. They were spontaneous people's organizations. We would open an office in the middle of a neighborhood.

We organized around our needs. The women were organized to monitor the prices of food all the time. If an item became too expensive in a particular store, we immediately went on strike.

We picketed with the sign, "Don't patronize this grocery. They are charging too much for bread." Nobody would cross our picket lines.

By that time, our workers were everywhere, leading demonstrations, circulating petitions, speaking on street corners. So we would go into a building, introduce ourselves, and ask the people to organize. We promised that we would fight the evictions and help take care of the people who were thrown out.

In those days, you would walk down the street and see whole families with their children sitting on the sidewalk surrounded by furniture. When an entire building was organized and willing to participate in a strike, we formed negotiating committees for the tenants. We put up large signs in every window facing the street and picketed the house.

The signs read, "Rent strike. Don't rent apartments in this building." The landlord, of course, would rather die than give in to the tenants' demands, so the strike began.

We knew that one day he would give some eviction notices, but he could never evict everyone. It cost too much. On the day of the eviction, we would tell all the men to leave the building.