Rising Star

by David J. Garrow

  The crucial, prescient story predicting Wisconsin’s closing was Tom O’Boyle, “Steel Firm Faces Bankruptcy, Crippled by Harvester Strike,” CCB, 10 March 1980, pp. 1, 28. Richard Longworth’s subsequent pair of stories, “Wisconsin Steel Scrambles for Financial Aid to Stay Alive,” CT, 17 March 1980, p. D10, and “Wisconsin Steel Seeks New Funds to Avoid Bankruptcy,” CT, 27 March 1980, p. C7, are likewise essential, as are Charles Storch and Pam Sebastian, “Wisconsin Steel Fights to Survive,” CT, 6 April 1980, p. D5; R. C. Longworth, “Steel Union Understated Dues Income in Reports to U.S.,” CT, 27 April 1980, p. 6; R. C. Longworth, “Shutdown of Bankrupt Steel Mill Leaves U.S., Creditors Holding Bag,” CT, 4 May 1980, p. M3; and Longworth’s invaluable later essay, “Winners and Losers in Steel Firm Collapse,” CT, 8 June 1980, pp. M1–2.

  Essential sources for understanding Envirodyne’s acquisition of Wisconsin Steel from International Harvester are William Gruber, “Fearless Buying: Tiny Firm Tackles Ailing Steel Outfit,” CT, 7 August 1977, pp. B1, B14; Carol J. Loomis, “A Lot of Losers at Wisconsin Steel,” Forbes, 19 May 1980, p. 94; Barbara Marsh and Sally Saville’s stunningly impressive duo of stories, “International Harvester’s Story: How a Great Company Lost Its Way,” CCB, 8 November 1982, pp. 21–43, and “A McCormick’s Mission: Revive the Sleeping Giant,” CCB, 15 November 1982, pp. 19–42; Gordon L. Clark’s extremely valuable “Piercing the Corporate Veil: The Closure of Wisconsin Steel in South Chicago,” Regional Studies 24 (October 1990): 405–20 (which observes that “Harvester sold its steel division hoping that the new owner would be held responsible in whole or in part for the pension liabilities”); Circuit Judge Walter J. Cummings Jr.’s opinion in Lumpkin v. Envirodyne Industries, 933 F. 2d 449 (7th Cir.), 17 May 1991; and David C. Ranney, “The Closing of Wisconsin Steel,” in Charles Craypo and Bruce Nissen, eds., Grand Designs: The Impact of Corporate Strategies on Workers, Unions, and Communities (ILR Press, 1993), pp. 65–91. See also John F. Wasik, “Waiting for the Brimstone,” Progressive, March 1984, pp. 28–30; Patricia Moore, “Once-Proud Harvester Plowed Deep Furrows,” CST, 2 December 1984, p. B1; James Fallows, “America’s Changing Economic Landscape,” Atlantic, March 1985, pp. 47ff. (agreeing that for Wisconsin’s workforce March 28 “was the end of the world”); Gregory D. Squires et al., Chicago: Race, Class, and the Response to Urban Decline (Temple University Press, 1987); and Judith Stein, Running Steel, Running America (University of North Carolina Press, 1998), esp. pp. 249–50.

  George Harper’s recollections of March 28 appear in Bonita Brodt, “Steel Firm’s Collapse Was Quick, Painful,” CT, 21 August 1980, p. M2, and workers’ recollections of that day appear in News from Calumet Community Religious Conference Vol. 1, #1, 9 November 1980 (“We got no warning”), and “Five Years and Fighting Hard,” Labor Today, April 1985, p. 4 (FLP Box 5 Fld. 1). Contemporaneous stories include Storer Rowley, “Steel Mill Closes; 3,400 Idled,” CT, 29 March 1980, p. M2; Dave Schneiderman, “Agency That OK’d Loan to Study Plant Closing,” CT, 30 March 1980, p. 3; and John Wasik, “Wisconsin Steel Closes,” DC, 31 March 1980, p. 1. See also Maury Richards, “Wisc. Steel Bankrupt,” 1033 News & Views, April 1980, pp. 1, 3. And last, but most certainly not least, the most emotionally powerful commentary of all on March 28—and the morning of March 29—is Christine J. Walley’s account in “Deindustrializing Chicago: A Daughter’s Story,” in Hugh Gusterson and Catherine Besteman, eds., The Insecure American (University of California Press, 2010), pp. 113–39, esp. pp. 113 and 124, and Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2013), esp. pp. 1–2. Exit Zero can bring tears to your eyes each time you open it. This account benefits as well from DJG’s interviews with Alma Avalos, Tom Geoghegan, Ken Jania, and Beatrice Lumpkin.

  2. Longworth, “Winners and Losers in Steel Firm Collapse,” CT, 8 June 1980, p. M2; CT, 1 April 1980, p. C6; DC, 1 April 1980, p. 1; John Wasik, “Court to Decide Wisconsin Fate,” DC, 2 April 1980, p. 1; Editorial, “Wisconsin Mess A Danger to Us All,” DC, 2 April 1980, p. 4; John Wasik, “Wisconsin Woes in Bankruptcy Court,” DC, 3 April 1980, p. 1; Wasik, “Order Loan Release to Protect Coke Ovens,” DC, 4 April 1980, p. 1; Wasik, “Wisconsin Lenders Seek Payments” and Wasik, “Layoff, Forms Mar Jim’s Easter Weekend,” DC, 5 April 1980, p. 1; Charles Storch and Pam Sebastian, “Wisconsin Steel Fights to Survive,” CT, 6 April 1980, p. D5; John Wasik, “Insurance Benefits, Certainty Elude Wisconsin Workers,” DC, 8 April 1980, p. 1; Editorial, “Save Wisconsin Bill Needs Support,” DC, 8 April 1980, p. 4. Only come spring 1981 were workers allowed in to clean out their old lockers. Lynn Emmerman, “Lives Built on Steel Rust with Idleness,” CT, 14 September 1986, p. T1.

  3. John Wasik, “Wisconsin Workers Prompt Investigation into PSW Union,” DC, 17 April 1980, p. 1; Amelia Forglia, “Unemployment Compensation Wanted Now,” CT, 18 April 1980, p. D2 (letter to the editor); Leonard Roque to Dear Member, “Progressive Steel Workers Union Membership Meeting,” 18 April 1980, FLP Box 2 Fld. 4; R. C. Longworth, “Plan to Reopen Steel Firm Studied,” CT, 23 April 1980, p. C1; R. C. Longworth, “Harvester Will Pay Wisconsin Steel Benefits,” CT, 26 April 1980, p. 6; Longworth, “Steel Union Understated Dues Income in Reports to Feds,” CT, 27 April 1980, p. 6; Longworth, “Plan to Sell Steel Mill Inventory Is Approved,” CT, 29 April 1980, p. B6; Longworth, “Strike May Kill Wisconsin Steel,” CT, 2 May 1980, p. C8; Longworth, “Shutdown of Bankrupt Steel Mill Leaves U.S., Creditors Holding Bag,” CT, 4 May 1980, p. M3; Longworth, “Firm Owning Wisconsin Steel Asks $750,000 ‘to Protect’ Its Assets,” CT, 7 May 1980, p. E3; John McCarron, “Bleak Future Seen for Wisconsin Steel,” CT, 17 November 1980, p. 3.

  4. DJG interviews with Tom Joyce and Dick Poethig; Richard P. Poethig, “Telling the Story: The Role of Information-Sharing in Urban and Industrial Mission,” International Review of Mission 87 (January 1998): 113–22; National Conference on Religion and Labor, 13–14 May 1980, St. Thomas More College, Covington, KT, pp. 3–5, RPP Box 20; and Chuck Rawlings e-mail to DJG.

  Sources on the Youngstown shutdown and its immediate aftermath are copious, but Staughton Lynd’s excellent The Fight Against Shutdowns (Singlejack Books, 1982), Thomas G. Fuechtmann, Steeples and Stacks: Religion and Steel Crisis in Youngstown (Cambridge University Press, 1989), and Charles W. Rawlings’s own subsequent “Steel Shutdown in Youngstown: Ecumenical Response to the Opening Hand of Globalization,” Church & Society, January–February 2003, pp. 71–91, are the richest historical overviews. Also valuable are Lynd’s contemporary essay, “The Fight to Save the Steel Mills,” NYRB, 19 April 1979; Roger T. Wolcott, “The Church and Social Action,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 21 (March 1982): 71–79; Terry F. Buss and F. Stevens Redburn, “Religious Leaders as Policy Advocates: The Youngstown Steel Mill Closing,” Policy Studies Journal 11 (June 1983): 640–47; and Lynd’s later article, “The Genesis of the Idea of a Community Right to Industrial Property in Youngstown and Pittsburgh,” Journal of American History 74 (December 1987): 926–58.

  Charles W. Rawlings’s initial memo was “The Steel Crisis and Growing Unemployment,” 29 September 1977 (ICUIS 3700); his subsequent writings on Youngstown include “The Religous Community and Economic Justice,” in John C. Raines et al., eds., Community and Capital in Conflict: Plant Closings and Job Loss (Temple University Press, 1982), pp. 136–51; “New Challenges for the Church and Labor,” Radical Religion 5 (June 1981): 69–73; and “U.S. Steel vs. the People,” Christianity & Crisis, 29 March 1982, pp. 75–80. NCEA’s first two contributions were Gar Alperovitz, “Preliminary Observations: Youngstown, Ohio,” 9 October 1977 (ICUIS 3698), and Alperovitz and Jeff Faux, “Youngstown Lessons,” NYT, 3 November 1977, p. 25. ECMV’s “A Religious Response to the Mahoning Valley Steel Crisis,” 29 November 1977 (ICUIS 3796), is most easily available in Feuchtmann, Steeples and Stacks, pp. 137–45; Alperovitz summarized his preliminary report in “The Youngstown Experience,” Challenge, July–August 1978, pp. 21–24, and his subsequent view is presented in Alper
ovitz and Faux, “When Steel Goes Cold,” NYT, 12 December 1979, p. A31. Three oral histories conducted by Philip Bracy in early 1981 with ECMV members—Robert Campbell, John Sharick, and Richard Speicher—are available online, and the Ohio Historical Society possesses two small collections (MSS 793 and YHC MSS 0008) of ECMV Papers.

  Contemporaneous journalism includes Gene Smith, “Youngstown Steel to Pare Operations,” NYT, 20 September 1977, p. 1; William K. Stevens, “Shutdown of Steel Works Stuns Youngstown,” NYT, 21 September 1977, p. A1; Robert A. Dobkin (AP), “Steel Workers Urge U.S. Restrictions on Imports,” WP, 24 September 1977, p. D9; Agis Salpukas, “Steel Towns Hit by Layoffs Face Hard Times,” NYT, 13 October 1977, p. D1; Salpukas, “U.S. Funds Available to Reopen Plants, Steel Group Is Told,” NYT, 26 November 1977, p. 38; William H. Jones, “Steel Plant Reopening Is Possible, Report Says,” WP, 16 December 1977, p. E9; AP, “Coalition Unveils Proposal to Reopen Idled Steel Plant,” WP, 18 December 1977; Robert Reinhold, “H.U.D. Rushing to Revive an Ohio Steel Works,” NYT, 31 December 1977, p. 27; Bill Peterson, “Closed Steel Plant Model for HUD Recovery Effort,” WP, 31 December 1977, p. A2; Paula L. Cizmar, “Steelyard Blues,” Mother Jones, April 1978, pp. 36–42; Edward Cowan, “Steel Merger? Debate Grows in Youngstown,” NYT, 10 April 1978, pp. D1–2; Agis Salpukas, “Hope Glimmers for Reopening Campbell Steel Works,” NYT, 12 April 1978, p. D1; Susanna McBee, “Desperate Jobless City Seeks to Buy Failing Steel Plant,” WP, 9 May 1978, p. A2; Reginald Stuart, “Youngstown Seeks a Grasp on Its Fading Steel Industry,” NYT, 20 June 1978, p. B10; Edward Cowan, “U.S. Approves Merger of LTV with Lykes, Creating Steel Giant,” NYT, 22 June 1978, pp. A1, D13; Agis Salpukas, “At Youngstown Steel, Relief but No Joy,” NYT, 22 June 1978, p. D13; Richard Brookhiser, “Mr. A Goes to Youngstown,” NR, 7 July 1978, p. 835; Susanna McBee, “Youngstown Group Presses to Reopen Steel Mill,” WP, 19 September 1978, p. A3; Marjorie Hyer, “Religous Leaders Backed in Plan to Reopen Steel Mill,” WP, 28 September 1978, p. A28; Ivar Peterson, “Public Money and Private Ambition Clash over Future of Steel in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley,” NYT, 8 December 1978, p. A18; Agis Salpukas, “Steel Union, Making Concession, Backs Plant’s Reopening in Ohio,” NYT, 30 March 1979, p. A10; Roger Wilkins, “Carter Rejects a Plan to Reopen Steel Plant in Ohio,” NYT, 31 March 1979, p. 46; Wilkins, “Reopening a Steel Plant in Ohio: Reaction to the Federal Rejection”; Robert Howard, “Going Bust in Youngstown,” Commonweal, 25 May 1979, pp. 301–5; Nick Kotz’s excellent overview, “Youngstown’s Tragedies: A Legacy for Other Cities,” WP, 17 June 1979, pp. B1, B4–B5; and John Logue, “When They Close the Factory Gates,” Progressive, August 1980, pp. 16–23. Note as well Judge George C. Edwards’s opinion in Local 1330 United Steelworkers v. United States Steel Corp., 631 F. 2d 1264 (6th Cir.), 25 July 1980.

  5. On Leo T. Mahon, Leo’s own wonderful and impressive autobiography, coauthored with Nancy Davis, Fire Under My Feet: A Memoir of God’s Power in Panama (Orbis Books, 2007), is an essential starting point; Thomas G. Kelliher Jr.’s rich dissertation, “Hispanic Catholics and the Archdiocese of Chicago, 1923–1970” (University of Notre Dame, December 1996), esp. pp. 131–35, 181–84, 197, 203, 311–12, 339, and Robin Rich’s unpublished paper, “Explaining Historical Change: The Development of Christian Base Communites in Latin America,” March 1991 (RRP), which is based upon a May 1990 interview with Leo, are essential, too. DJG’s interviews with Leo Mahon, Bill Stenzel, Bernie Pietrzak, Jan Poledziewski, Fred Simari, and Christine Gervais, as well as Greg Sakowicz’s 2008 interview with Leo, all inform this account; Leo’s support of the ERA appears in “From the Pastor’s Desk,” St. Victor Parish Sunday Bulletin, 4 May 1980, p. 2. See also Leo Mahon, “Law and Creativity,” Upturn, February–March 1985, p. 13, Leo T. Mahon, Jesus and His Message: An Introduction to the Good News (ACTA Publications, 2000), and his Chicago archdiocesan obituary, “Archdiocesan Priest, Msgr. Leo T. Mahon, Dies,” 22 May 2013.

  On Saul Alinsky, and von Hoffman’s work with him as well, the definitive biography is Sanford D. Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989); see also Lawrence J. Engel, “Saul D. Alinsky and the Chicago School,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy 16 (2002): 50–66. On John Cardinal Cody, Charles W. Dahm’s authoritative Power and Authority in the Catholic Church: Cardinal Cody in Chicago (University of Notre Dame Press, 1981); Andrew M. Greeley, Confessions of a Parish Priest: An Autobiography (Simon & Schuster, 1986), pp. 133, 406–19; John Conroy’s remarkable “Cardinal Sins,” CR, 4 June 1987; Andrew M. Greeley’s “The Fall of an Archdiocese,” CM, September 1987, pp. 128–31, 190–92; Bill Clements, “Uncovering the Cardinal,” CM, December 2002, pp. 66–87; and Roy Larson, “In the 1980’s, A Chicago Newspaper Investigated Cardinal Cody,” Nieman Reports, Spring 2003, are essential; see also Alexander L. Taylor III, “God and Mammon in Chicago,” Time, 21 September 1981, and Linda Witt and John McGuire, “A Deepening Scandal over Church Funds Rocks a Cardinal and His Controversial Cousin,” People, 28 September 1981. Roy Larson, Bill Clements, and Gene Mustain’s pioneering CST stories on Cody, which debuted on September 10, 1981, are accessible only on microfilm.

  6. DJG interviews with Tom Joyce, Dick Poethig, and Leo Mahon; “Present at the Meeting at St. Victor’s, Calumet City, on the Closing of the Area Steel Mills,” [6 June 1980], Tom Joyce to the Committee to Follow Up on the St. Victor’s Meeting Concerning the Closings in the Steel Mills, [7 June 1980], “Steering Committee Minutes,” 23 June 1980, Ensign Leininger to Dick Poethig, 23 June 1980, “Meeting of the Steering Committee on the Steel Crisis in the Calumet Region,” 7 July 1980, all RPP Box 20.

  7. “Wisconsin Workers Meeting,” 7 July 1980, FLP Box 2 Fld. 4; R. C. Longworth, “Union May Try to Block Steel Inventory Removal,” CT, 19 July 1980, p. 6; Leo T. Mahon, “From the Pastor’s Desk,” St. Victor Parish Sunday Bulletin, 27 July 1980, p. 2; Bob Gehring et al., to Dear Pastor & Church Member, 28 July 1980, RPP Box 19; “Planning Committee Meeting . . . ,” 4 August 1980, RPP Box 20. See also Larry Galica, “Wisconsin Steel Five Years Later, Closure Still Haunts Community,” DC, 28 March 1985, p. A5.

  8. Mary Gonzales Weekly Schedule, Latino Institute Papers (LIP), Box 4; DJG interviews with Mary Gonzales, Greg Galluzzo, Bob Creamer, Tom Cima, and Bea Lumpkin; Constantine Angelos, “Feisty Activist Group Disbanding—The Power-Tweaking Sesco Has Long List of Accomplishments,” Seattle Times, 17 September 1991; Minutes, “Administrative Staff Meeting,” Latino Institute, 17 January 1980 and 5 March 1980, LIP Box 5; Mary Gonzales, “A Proposal Presented by United Neighborhood Organization of Southeast Chicago,” June 1980, LIP Box 103 Fld. 15; Minutes, “Administrative Staff Meeting,” Latino Institute, 3 July 1980, LIP Box 5; Donald C. Reitzes and Dietrich S. Reitzes, “Alinsky in the 1980s: Two Contemporary Chicago Community Organizations,” Sociological Quarterly 28 (1987): 265–83; Wilfredo Cruz, “The Nature of Alinsky-Style Community Organizing in the Mexican-American Community of Chicago: United Neighborhood Organization,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, December 1987; Wilfredo Cruz, “UNO: Organizing at the Grass Roots,” II, April 1988, pp. 18–22; Danny Westneat, “Obama Won Race from Ground Up,” Seattle Times, 4 June 2008, p. B1.

  9. Leo T. Mahon, “From the Pastor’s Desk,” St. Victor Parish Sunday Bulletin, 17 August 1980, p. 2, and 24 August 1980, p. 2; “Clergy Focus on Steel Layoffs,” CT, 23 August 1980, p. N10; Mark Kiesling, “Churches Fight Steel Pullout,” [Lansing] Sun Journal, 26 August 1980 (RPP Box 20); [Dick Poethig], “Meeting of the Calumet Religious Community,” 23 August 1980, and “Organizing Committee for the Calumet Religious Community Conference,” 26 August 1980, both RPP Box 20; and DJG interviews with Leo Mahon, Dick Poethig, Tom Joyce, and Roberta Lynch.

  10. R. C. Longworth, “Steel Workers Reject Chase Back Pay Offer,” CT, 5 August 1980, p. C4; Pam Sebastian, “Wis. Steel Gets $1.6 Million,” CT, 26 August 1980, p. C7; “Marchers Protest Wis. Steel Pay Deal,” CT, 30 August 1980, p. 5. On Walt Palmer, see Pam Sebastian, “Wis. Steel Hop
es Rise Just a Bit,” CT, 31 August 1980, p. M5; “Black Activist Trying to Revive Steel Concern,” WSJ, 23 September 1980, pp. 29, 32; Frank Lumpkin to Anthony Roque, 1 October 1980, FLP Box 2 Fld. 4; R. C. Longworth, “Aid Coming to Reopen Mill: Byrne,” CT, 7 October 1980, p. M1; John Wasik, “Byrne Vows November Mill Opening,” DC, 7 October 1980, p. 1 (FLP); R. C. Longworth and Pam Sebastian, “Wisconsin Steel Won’t Reopen Soon,” CT, 12 October 1980, p. M5; John McCarron and Richard Longworth, “Byrne Tells Plan for Wisconsin Steel,” CT, 1 November 1980, p. M3.