Hirsch, Samuel, 1923-2009

Samuel Hirsch (1923-2009) life-long labor and community activist, was raised in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York. While attending Thomas Jefferson High School he joined the left leaning American Students Union. He later joined the Young Communist League and the Communist Party before enlisting in the army in 1942 where he served in the Signal Corps. After the war, he went to work for the Cooks Union, Local 89 where he served as welfare fund administrator for the next twenty years.

From this base, Hirsch maintained an intense level of political and trade union activity, often "loaned" to other unions by Local 89's progressive leadership. His political involvement during the 1950s included the following: civil rights work with the Harlem NAACP and the Civil Rights Congress, union organizing, anti-Korean War activism through Veterans for Peace, and his first arrest during his leaderhip in a protest campaign against police brutality. Although he had long-standing conflicts, Hirsch kept close ties to comrades in the community and in the labor movement. It was not until 1957 that he left the Communist Party. For years the FBI harassed him, trying unsuccessfully to enlist him as an anti-Communist witness.

Hirsch helped in the successful campaign to elect Mark Lane to the New York State Assembly through the East Harlem Reform Democrats. Following this, he organized reform Democratic clubs in mostly minority communities and actively participated in city politics. Through his new position in the 1960s, he worked with the civil rights movement and labor unions, including the United Federation of Teachers and Hospital Workers Local 1199. He also organized support for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and participated in the Selma March and in school integration fights in New York City. In 1966, he worked with the American Civil Liberties Union in its unsuccessful effort to defeat a police-led referendum banning a civilian review board.

Between 1967 and 1972, Hirsch joined Frank Schonfeld's reform administration of District Council 9 of the Painters Union, serving as head of the Painters Joint Industry Board. It was in this capacity that he played a major role in two successful legislative campaigns: the passage of OSHA (in 1970) and the ban on lead paint. He was co-founder and treasurer of Citizens to End Lead Poisoning (1968-1973). During the same period, Hirsch enrolled in Empire State Labor College and completed a BA in sociology. After 1973 he directed the New York State Committee for National Health Security. As a free lance "pol", he worked in many election campaigns, including Paul O'Dwyer's campaign for NYC Council President. In 1976, Hirsch worked for six months as a policy analyst for the New York State Assembly Labor Committee under the chairmanship of Sysner.

He was hired as an international representative by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union for its J. P. Stevens Campaign. He served as a trouble-shooter and represented ACTW in its leadership role in campaigns for full employment and environmental legislation. In 1979-1980, with Father Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. he co-founded the New York Labor/Religion Coalition, which brought together unionists and the religious community around common legislative goals and labor struggles. Hirsch served as the Coalition's chair, and later chair emeritus. Throughout the 1980s he worked as a health-care policy consultant, and worked with Ray Rogers' Corporate Campaign, Inc. on the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and Hormel drives. From 1997 he served on Voices for immigrant Justice, a network of NYC and Long Island Catholic dioceses, and was a member of the NYC Central Labor Council's Immigration Sub-committee.

Samuel Hirsch died in New York City in 2009.

From the guide to the Samuel Hirsch Papers, 1952-2004, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)