The forty-second day of the [Flint Michigan] strike arrived and nearly passed. It was almost midnight when there was a knock on the door of the hotel room of [John L. Lewis] There stood the miserable governor Murphy...In his hand was an order to the troops of the National guard to clear the plants on the following morning.
John L. who had been ill, now gathered himself for the final effort. He turned all his scorn and eloquence upon the suffering Governor who had said that he must “uphold the law.” [Saul] Alinsky describes the scene:
Lewis continued with his voice rising with each sentence. ’Governor Murphy, when you gave ardent support to the Irish revolutionary movement against the British Empire, you were not doing that because of your high regard for law and order. You did not then say “Uphold the law!” When your father, Governor Murphy, was imprisoned by the British authorities for his activities as an Irish revolutionary, you did not sing forth with hosannas and say “The law cannot be wrong. The law must be supported. It is right and just that my father be put in prison. Praised be the law!”
“And when the British government took your grandfather as an Irish revolutionary and hanged him by the neck until he was dead, you did not get down on your knees and burst forth in praise for the sanctity and the glory and the purity of the law, the law that must be upheld at all costs!
“But here, Governor Murphy, you do. You want my answer, sir? I give it to you. Tomorrow morning I shall personally enter General Motors Plant Chevrolet Number 4. I shall order the men to disregard your order, to stand fast. I shall then walk to the largest window in the plant, open it, divest myself of my outer rainments, remove my shirt and bare my bosom. Then when you order your troops to fire, mine will be the first breast those bullets will strike!’
Then Lewis lowered his voice. ’And as my body falls from the window to the ground, you listen to the voice of your grandfather as he whispers in your ear, ‘Frank are you sure you are doing the right thing?’”
From Saul Alinsky’s book, John L. Lewis, An Unauthorized Biography, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1949
Extended excerpt taken from Labor’s Untold Story (Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY , 1955)
