by Desmond Wilcox
The last programme in this series: The Immigrant
Leon Stein is a New Yorker. He is also a Trade Union leader, an editor, an author - and a Jew. His parents were immigrants to
America and came through Ellis Island at the turn of the century.
LEON STEIN worked in the rag trade. At 17 he went into a sweat-shop as his mother and father had before him. He learned his trade as a fabric cutter before he became a full-time organiser for the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, and editor of the union newspaper Justice.
At 65, Leon Stein still feels the powerful pull of his immigrant origins. With the union, he welcomes new immigrants - although these days they are more likely to be Chinese or South American than European. The Trade Union and the rag trade, he claims, are the great Americanisers.
Historical adviser
PROFESSOR MARCUS CUNLIFFE
Executive producer ADAM CLAPHAM Producer IVOR DUNKERTON