Interview with Suzanne Sukle, Author of Bucket of Blood: The Ragman’s War

Suzanne Sukle’s novel Bucket of Blood: The Ragman’s War tells a fictionalised story of her family’s history in the strikes in coal mines in provincial USA in 1927-8. it’s a story of great courage and integrity under adversity and vividly brings to life the hardships faced by the striking families. I interviewed Suzanne by email and asked her about her future plans and her opinions about workers’ rights in modern America.

JW: The rights to decent work conditions and salary were hard won. Do you fear that these are being too easily ceded? Or taken away?

SS: Working conditions are so much better today. Workers have rights. In addition to safety standards through OSHA, there is workman's comp, minimum wage, and social security. The worker can take any grievances to their union, the ACLU, and other agencies. In the time before the National Industry Recovery Act was signed by Roosevelt in 1933 there was no place for labor to complain without bringing a heap of troubles upon their head. Back then all that labor hoped for was safer working conditions, an 8 hour day, a 6 day work week, and a fair pay for an honest day's work.

Unfortunately after the unions became extremely powerful, they pushed demands beyond the limit of reason. This was not in the best interest of the worker since it priced American workers out of the market. Leaders of industry looked to other countries for cheaper labor. With the signing of the Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the corporate corruption during the soaring stock years of the late nineties, and the ever pressing need for increased profits, most manufacturing jobs were moved out of the country. A few years later the technical jobs followed. As a result, the power of the unions became diluted. That dilution has caused a slow erosion of many worker benefits.

My father once told me: "When organizations get too powerful officials often forget those who they represent." He saw it happen time after time to different political groups he belonged to. "The people give officials the power, and the people can take it away. Roosevelt was a good leader because he didn't kowtow to one particular interest group or another. He listened to the people especially the working class. They knew he listened, and he had their support. No, he remembered who put him in office. That's why he stayed there so long."

JW: These days, it seems to me as a non-American that it must be almost impossible to claim to be a Communist or even an ex-Communist and still participate in mainstream political discourse. Is this true?

I know for our family it was. My father's politics caused our immediate family -my parents, two brothers, and me - to be shunned by both of my mother and father's. When we lived in New Jersey, my mother's greatest fear that we would be found out. She always wanted a normal life.

I was the only child- my brothers were 10 and 14 years older then me- in a world of adults and a worry to my mother about what I might tell people. From an early age she cautioned me to be careful what I say. "What you hear in this house stays in this house. If anyone asks questions about your father or who visits, talk about anything else. Don't answer the questions, but come home and tell me."

My father went underground in January 1952, to escape from the party as much as McCarthy. He returned to the family farm hidden in the hills near Russellton, Pennsylvania that he had purchased from his parents in 1936. The rest of us followed in the summer of 1953. My father started a new life after he returned home. Because he was no longer affiliated with his former politics, we were once again embraced by family and former friends, many who I had met for the first time. Instructed that our life in New Jersey was to remain private, we clung together as an isolated family unit. Every time I would ask questions, my parents told me to ask again after I turned 21. On my 21^st birthday I held them to that promise. They answered on a need to know basis. It wasn't until after the Berlin Wall crumbled and the iron curtain melted, that my father felt free to talk about his past but even then only to a few trusted friends.

My father died in 1997. I worked on "Bucket of Blood the Ragman's War" for seven years. I decided to tell the early part of my father's story as fiction rather then memoir-biography because of urging from certain family members in fear of association with a communist relative. I purposely avoided mentioning the family name.

I think it unfortunate that most of society still think all Communists were evil. My father was a good man and so were others in the movement.

Wouldn't the press have a field day if I ever tried to run for office!

JW: In your experience, have the conditions for migrant workers improved that much in the intervening years since 1928?

SS: I have seen conditions for migrant workers improve immensely since the 1980s. I can only judge by the conditions in Virginia where I now live in the apple and Christmas tree growing area. Today's laws and civil suits have led to better housing, schooling, etc. for the migrants and their families. Other then from what I have observed locally, I don't have the knowledge or experience to give an intelligent answer.

JW: I am not that familiar with US literature on the working classes and their struggle. Can you recommend any good books?

Yes I can. "Solidarity Forever, an oral history of the IWW" by Stewart Bird, Dan Georgakas, Deborah Shaffer or any other book about the Wobblies, "Working Class Hollywood, Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America" by Steven J. Ross, Left Out by Judity Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin, "The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement" by Susan Ferriss, et al, and "Communist Front?: The Civil Rights Congress, 1946-1956" by Gerald Horne.

SS: When can we expect the memoir of your father you mentioned in the book? Can you provide some idea of the broad scope of his life?

I am presently working on "Wildcat Strike" a sequel to "Bucket of Blood the Ragman's War". It will focus on the character of Albert, who was my father, and cover from 1928 to 1936 when he was booted from both Republic Iron and Steel and the United Mine Workers of America for communist activity. Like "Bucket of Blood" it covers a lot of previously unrecorded history and will also contain actual news articles to introduce chapters. It will cover the Jefferson Clubs that helped to elect Roosevelt, the passing of the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, and my father's work as a union organizer in the fight for the legitimizing of the union.

My third book, "Loyalty Oath", will be the originally planned memoir-biography of my father. Unlike the memoir of Paul Robeson's son, there will be no denial as to my father's involvement with the communist party. Instead I will point out the good social causes that so many like my father fought to achieve-unions, civil rights for all people regardless of class, abolishment of "Jim Crow" laws, and providing an affordable comprehensive health care pan through the International Worker's Order.

The book will also talk about contributions by Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, and Marion Anderson to the civil rights movement in the late 1930's and early 40's. Added to that background of history will be the personal story of my father, mother, and family. It will cover serfdom in Europe, repression of the working class in America, organization of unions, New Deal era under Roosevelt, United Mine Workers of America, IWO, American Communist Party, Civil Rights Congress, Progressive Party, Henry Wallace campaign, Stalinist Communist threat, Red Scare, McCarthy, going underground, and end with a trial for signing an unfair loyalty oath.

JW: Thanks very much, Suzanne, I look forward to reading it.