The Torch Lady

...Cases in point: .9 The lockout by Litton Industries last September of its Athol, Massachusetts, plant workers who had been bargaining in good faith and without a contract for four months [ Com-monweal, June 15...

...Despite appar- ently good domestic economic news, many workers and or- ganized labor in particular find themselves not on the upswing side of recovery but in the most defensive workers' posture in a generation...

...Each of these five states has a large Catholic population: Massachusetts 51 percent, New York 35 percent, Wisconsin 32 percent, Pennsylvania 31 percent, and Ohio 21 percent...

...My personal kinship with Ferraro is, in part, shared by a significant number of her female supporters...

...The Postal Service wishes to cut wages of all new workers by twenty- three percent...

...Women have been getting top jobs right along...

...I had just made it home from a meeting and was determined to hear the words of the first woman nomi- nated for such an office...

...Pope John Paul II wrote in Laborem exercens three years ago this month: "in every case a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socio-economic system.., of checking that it is functioning justly" (89...

...Postal workers' unions have vowed to fight...

...No amount of years, however short from a democracy's inception, can excuse that democracy from allowing full rights to all its citizens...

...almost half of what is needed to be elected or reelected president of the United States...

...Brought to this country at the age of two, my uneducated grandmother possessed an inherent sense of political rights...

...Suddenly I realized what it was like to watch "one of our own" (a term often reserved for a parochial, sometimes cabalistic genre), but at this time, this moment, a term which meant not only had Geraldine Ferraro made it, but all 53 percent of the American female population had made it...

...Reagan conveniently crossed paths with Pope John Paul II in Alaska~ welcomed several bishops to the White House, and visited a Hoboken, N.J., parish...

...Now will come the fights that should have come with the fight to vote...

...against the disclosure of my finances to the protection of his...

...the torch has been passed...

...MARYANN FLANNERY (Mary Ann Flannery, a doctoral student in communications at Kent State University, has served on many national and local committees dealing with peace and justice issues in the American church...

...So, I sat there --blinking back tears --watching a woman who was, at this moment, standing there in place of each woman in America...

...The Catholic archdiocese had warned the hospitals of "union busting" tactics...

...On the other hand, they are not the only issues on which Catholics will have to base their vote...

...What is more, his substantive questions about the nature of work, the purpose of economics, and the relationship of workers to their work and the common good bear scrutiny...

...In 1976, 54 percent of Catholics voted for the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter...

...The administrative board of the U.S...

...Reagan appointed a woman to the Supreme Court...

...What kind of torch...

...But the noble stories, the stories of the Torch Lady's most difficult confrontations as a cigar-roller by day and activist by night, were left to my mother to tell...

...they were acknowledgments of kinship.Every woman could say: "I have made it...

...She was called the "Torch Lady" in her Sharpsburg neighbor- hood because her job in the suffragist night marches was to light the way with a torch since the city streets had no electric lights...

...Since Ferraro's selection, I have heard people say that the U.S...

...Thinking this, I was sure that those courageous women who protested as suffragettes, or planned secret suffragist meet- ings, or strategized whatever ways they could to get the Nineteenth Amendment passed, were all on that platform with Ferraro...

...Indeed, we have only begun to address the issue of sexism...

...against the professional membership extended to him to the exclusion of me...

...This year in particular it is time for thought...

...This Labor Day it is not uncommon to observe strikes that have lasted more than a year, some of which have involved physical assaults on striking workers...

...While these are not isolated instances, they throw consider- able light on what can be expected in forthcoming labor negotiations...

...Ferraro's mag- netism affirmed every woman in Moscone Center and every woman in the TV audience...

...Gary Hart only served to obfuscate the saying all the more...

...A dramatic line seems to have been crossed, a decisive balance altered by the 1981 Patco strike...

...Her arm was extended and a shadowy past, challenged yet rebuffed, ignored yet repulsed, was once and for all illuminated...

...The appeal by Reagan and other politicians to the social issues is not, as some commentators say, an improper mix of poli~cs and religion.9 The issues of abortion, tuition subsidy, the Equal Rights Amendment, and prayer in public places are important issues and should be of concern to religious people...

...The pope included the following as constitutive elements of the "just wage": health benefits, retirement benefits, rest periods, the right of association, and environments that are not harmful to either workers' safety or their moral integrity (93, 94...

...But with Patco's demise, labor issues were thrown back to a previous, near-Paleolithic era in which the very existence of unions was once again questioned...

...Rubbish...

...The crossover from Democrat to Repfiblican in these states in 1980 occurred predominantly in the urban/ethnic centers -territory usually associated with a large percentage of Catho- lics...

...I have had several careers, one of which was that of a grade school teacher...

...And they are among the most vulnerable to an emotional appeal on these genuine concerns...

...In 1976, all cast their electoral votes for Carter...

...9 In New York City, the longest strike in history by hospi- tal workers at twenty-seven area hospitals ended August 27...

...7 September 1984:453 For the first time I was stirred not by the words of the speaker (as I was most recently by Cuomo's delivery), nor by the combination of personal witness and oratory (as I was by Jackson's speech), but rather, I was thoroughly struck by the kinship between Geraldine Ferraro and myself, and the count- less anonymous women whose efforts throughout history brought us all to this point on a glittering night in San Fran- cisco...

...What generation...

...For over twenty-five years, the Torch Lady fought for the day she could vote...

...He warned thai union demands must not be"turned into a kind of group or class 'egoism,' " but strongly reiterated Catholic teaching that labor unions are an essential factor of the social order, "a genuine means of human solidarity" (97, 96...

...With the deep recession of 1982-83, the swelling wave of accom- panying unemployment, and a new, derisive tone fostered by government which seemed to sow further disregard for the means of collective bargaining, the hard-won gains of many American workers accomplished by virtue of organized labor in the last half-century, were suddenly up for grabs...

...The eyes that swelled with pride as they looked at Ferraro were not eyes of personal adulation...

...I have come from a deeply committed Catholic and Democratic heritage...

...She was not so much a product of that same hard- working Democratic heritage as she was of the women who bonded together since our country began in an effort tO get their right to vote...

...This brought to mind the stories I had heard from my mother about another female political activist: my maternal grand- mother, Catherine McGinty, the suffragette torch carder from Sharpsburg, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

...9 A bitter strike against Phelps-Dodge at four sites in Arizona since July 1983...

...From the Sharpsburg suffragette and her tireless co-workers around the nation, to the Representative of Queens and her spirited supporters, indeed...

...There is some evidence that this Catholic crossover was critical in Reagan's victory...

...As the granddaughter of the Torch Lady, I have not had to Commonweal: 454 fight for my right to vote, but I do have to fight for as much of the dollar as my male colleagues earn...

...Earlier this year, Bishop Michael Begley of Charlotte, N.C., led a dialogue of fourteen representatives of business management, labor, and the church in a series of discussions about the future economic prospects of western North Carolina...

...In 1980, they all switched to Rea- gan...

...I have been blessed with hard-working parents who were blue-collar voters...

...has come a long way in so short a time: "Look at how far the blacks have come...

...This copper struggle is reminiscent of the film "Salt of the Earth," including the use of state law agencies and non-union workers to break the strike...

...Illl EXERTING LABOR Labor Day has come, a fitting, hot, end-of-summer celebra- tion of the bonum arduum...

...Election '84 THE CATHOLIC VOTE ALL THE ISSUES THAT FIT W HAT WEIGHT Catholics assign the so-called "social issues" may well be the decisive factor in a close presidential election this November...

...9 Since May 1984 a strike at Danly Tool in Cicero, Illinois, by a thousand workers...

...She even lived to tell her grandchildren about the quest...

...The issues of employ- ment, care for the poor and elderly, military spending, civil fights, and peace are also important to all people of good will...

...If the "two-tier" strategy succeeds, it will be seen as a precedent for both the federal government and the private sector...

...After Grandmother McGinty got her right to vote she was the first to appear at her polling place every election day for the forty years that remained of her life...

...Confer- ence of Catholic Bishops, and singled out Franciscan Father Bruce Ritter of New York's Covenant House as one of Ameri- ca's heroes...

...I am nearly Ferraro's age...

...All the more reason to honor this Labor Day as a sabbath for reflection...

...They missed nothing at all...

...She knew political issues backwards and forwards, and taught her children to do the same...

...Although they do not vote as a bloc, Catholics do comprise 25 percent of the electorate...

...Grandmother McGinty often pre- vailed upon her understanding husband to watch the children of those women who would not tell their husbands where they were "goin visitin...

...The potential of such a pivotal Catholic vote has not gone unnoticed by Republican strategists...

...Women marched at night quite often because they could secure the services Of an older child who worked during the day, or, in rare instances, elicit the help of their husbands to baby-sit younger children...

...and I have gone on to higher education --along with six other siblings who were able to do so through the extraordinary thriftiness of our parents...

...In recent months, Presi- dent Reagan has restored full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, appointed a special staff liaison to the U.S...

...This model needs to be applied by dioceses across the country, especially in this era when support for workers and their unions has taken a decisive step backwards in the public mind, and when the need for candid discussion among the church's varied family is most urgently called for in light of developing and implementing an effective pastoral on economic life in general...

...Pictures in history books have captured the verve and cour- age of these women who looked like so many statues of Lady Liberty galvanized into an army with banners, flags, and skirts whipping in the wind as they forged ahead with one objective in mind: the right to vote...

...They came with proposals taking away everything we've had in the contract for forty years --holi-days, pension, medical benefits, wages, work rules, every- thing...

...The bond she has created with the female voting public is something no man could have done...

...The Ferraro nomination THE TORCH LADY THE WOMEN WHO WENT BEFORE C URIOUSLY ENOUGH, I was alone the night Geraldine Ferraro gave her acceptance speech as the nominee of the Democratic party for the office of vice-president of the United States...

...David Moberg recently reported (In These Times, August 8-21) that postal workers, auto workers, and coal miners all face tough negotiations this fall...

...Catholic Conference, composed of forty-eight bishops, recently issued a major statement -- Political Responsibility: Choices for the 1980's calling on Catholics to consider "the full range of issues" when choosing a public official...

...Meetings were held in the Sharpsburg local theater and, without the advantage of the telephone, they were announced by various chain-reaction-methods from the banging of gar- bage can lids to the rapping on assigned kitchen doors...

...He sees a pattern emerging in which industries demand lower wages for newly hired workers, the "two-tier" wage system...

...Having been gobbled up by Ogden Industries, a $1.7 billion conglomerate, two years ago, Danly, which formerly had excellent relations with its workers, has taken an aggressive attitude toward labor relations...

...At that historic moment I was sure that behind Ferraro stood my own Grandmother McGinty, a proud and gallant soul, her head cocked to one side, two large brown eyes smiling victori- ously from under the brim of her large, floppy hat...

...She followed political conventions with a religious fervor venerating the freedom which allowed them to exist...

...Litton has already transferred a number of jobs from the Athol plant to other, non-unionized centers...

...She never would have called them "carnivals" or "side show politics" as some newspa- pers referred to the Democratic Convention this year...

...I have to fight against the promotion offered to him over me and other women staf- fers...

...The encouraging results can be found in the group's report, "The Workbench of Life" (Origins, February 16): "We found that our shared values and common problems were generally more extensive and important than those on which we differed...

...This strategy has not been without its rewards...

...More than any male leader in our country, Geraldine Ferraro knows this...

...7 September 1984:455...

...Then I began to think of the women who had gone before us --before this night, and before women were allowed to vote...

...Says local union president Joe Romano, "I've never had to deal with anything like this...

...Prior to that, labor disputes centered around wages, hours, health, and oc- cupational safety issues...

...Together these five states represent 118 electoral votes .9...

...The mid-eighties find workers' unions fighting not only for bene- fits and respect, but for survival...

...A period of "quiet diplomacy" between the workers' union and Litton in recent months is likely to be coming to an end...

...If the Republicans are able to repeat their 1980 performance among Catholics, Ronald Reagan will be in the White House for another four years...

...In 1980, one of every four of those Democratic Catholics crossed over and voted for either Inde- pendent John Anderson or Republican Ronald Reagan...

...Presently a member of the lnterreligious Task Force on Central America, she has written for Today's Parish, Sisters Today, Columbia, and other magazines...

...Won by workers a century ago, it offers rest, but demands reflection...

...I had always thought that John Kennedy's neat political aphorism "the torch has been passed to a new generation," was precisely that: a piece of rhetoric splintered among so many other shards of the Camelot dream...

...President Reagan bases his "mandate" on his lopsided Electoral College triumph --489 to Carter's 49 votes.9 But the popular election was much closer.9 Reagan received less than I percent more of the vote than John Kennedy did in his 1960 "clifthanger" victory...

...But what I experienced was totally unexpected...

...Many elements will determine the 1984 winner, but con- sider for a moment the states of Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin...

...Every time I would come across such a picture I would scrutinize it thinking that perhaps Grandma McGinty was in it...

...For example, Reagan recently received the Medal of Distinction from the New York State Federation of Catholic School Par- ents for his efforts to pass tuition tax-credit legislation, and was praised by the newly-appointed archbishop of New York during the ceremony "for his forthright and courageous stand for the rights of the unborn...

...The linchpin of the Republican strategy to attract Catholic voters, though, is the president's frequent championing of the "social issues...

...Not a week goes by when Reagan doesn't reiterate his support for prayer in the public schools, opposi- tion to abortion, and a return to the Bible and traditional family values...

...It is conceivable, then, that the swing votes in November 1984 will come from cities like Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee...