Born February 2, 1916, Soklov, Poland. Labor activist. Mollie West immigrated to the United States in 1929 at the age of thirteen. In 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, her high school threatened to cut the extracurricular activities. West, who enrolled in music lessons through the school, responded by organizing a student strike. She and several others were arrested and placed in a juvenile home. Claiming that this was the radicalizing moment in her life, after graduation she went on to work for the Farm Equipment Workers of America, an early CIO union. A member of the Communist Party from 1935 until 1962, she initially joined the Young Communist League working as a labor organizer and later served as the secretary of the Illinois Community Party. Married on June 30, 1940, her first husband, Karl Lieber, also a Communist sympathizer, was killed during World War II in 1945. Forced into underground hiding from 1953 until 1955 with her second husband, James West, and their adopted son, Steven, she finally broke ties with the Party in 1962. Afterwards, she sought out temporary employment as a proofreader while going to night school to learn the printing trade. From 1960-1987, as a member of the Typographical Union, West broke gender barriers. In 1973, she was the first woman elected to a union office in the Chicago Typographical Union, Local 16 (CTU) as a delegate to the International Typographical Union (ITU) Convention held in San Diego, California. She was only one of six women among the 350 attending delegates. That same year, West was the first woman to address the International Convention Union Council, the first female elected to the Executive Committee of CTU, and the first female appointed delegate to the Illinois state AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Coalition of Industrial Organizations). For over thirty years she served as a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor as well as to the Illinois State AFL-CIO. As a founding member of the Chicago chapter of CLUW (Coalition of Labor Union Women), West served on the national executive board. At the age of sixty she entered Mundelein's Weekend College earning a bachelor's degree in labor education. In 1980, she organized an annual award for women labor leaders in the Chicago Federation of Labor-Industrial Union Council. After her retirement from the printing trade in 1987, she continued to promote education and recognition for labor leaders through her work at the Illinois Labor History Society as the administrative secretary and volunteer.
From the description of Mollie Lieber West papers, 1916-2006. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 568225195
