Ben Gold (1898 - 1985)

Thu Sep 08, 1898

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Image: Ben Gold, president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union, addressing the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) convention in Portland, Oregon, in November 1948. [Wikipedia]

Benjamin Gold, born on this day in 1898, was an American labor leader and Communist Party member who was president of the International Fur and Leather Workers Union (IFLWU) from 1937 to 1955.

In 1926, Gold led a fur worker’s strike in New York City that included all 12,000 workers in the industry. His leadership style was aggressive, and the relatively moderate American Federation of Labor (AFL) sought to undermine his influence in the strike, although their efforts failed due to worker loyalty to Gold.

Although the strike was ultimately successful due to Gold’s efforts, the AFL expelled him, accusing Gold and other strike leaders of debauchery, wasting union money, bribery, forcing workers to join the Communist Party, among other grievances. Despite this, he remained a powerful figure within the organized labor of the fur industry, often competing directly with AFL-backed unions for influence among workers.

Gold was also a victim of anti-communist purges on many occasions. In 1950, Gold resigned from the Communist Party and signed an anti-communist oath related to the Taft-Hartley Act. The Justice Department argued that Gold had not really resigned, and indicted him for perjury in August 1953 one day before the statute of limitations ran out.

Although he was successfully convicted, Gold managed to get the conviction overturned on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (Gold v. United States) and all charges were dropped.