Sidney Lipshires Papers

This series contains a number of biographical materials of Sidney Lipshires', including certificates, correspondence, personal items, newspaper clippings and legal, professional, financial, and military records. While much of the correspondence are short holiday and travel cards, there are some items offering more depth, especially a 1945 letter from the French workers Lipshires oversaw during World War II as a member of the United States Army. His compassion and ability to forge deep connections with others are evidenced in this letter, and in records throughout this series and collection. The obituaries, condolences, and memorial materials offer not only more biographical information and notes on Lipshires' lifelong passions and commitments to equality, education, labor politics, and activism, but also reveal him as a man deeply respected and enjoyed by others. Lipshires as a friend, teacher, and captivating speaker is revealed in a touching memorial speech of his for friend and colleague Art Guinness, and even in his charming standup comedy act, performed at the age of 78. His life-long identification with Jewish culture and stories is also evidenced in these materials.

The small amount of materials representing Lipshires' professional life as a professor at Manchester Community College (MCC) also convey his love for teaching and public speaking. Official college print material and personal correspondence concerning his formal lectures given at the college, along with a draft of his retirement speech, suggest the importance of the school and his career for Lipshires, and offer limited insights into the MCC environment and community at the time. While Lipshires' academic interests in modern European intellectual and social history are made obvious in the MCC materials, they are detailed in Lipshires' earlier academic work, including his doctoral thesis, "Herbert Marcuse - from Marx to Freud and Beyond," which was published by Schenkman Publishing Company in 1974, and in several other articles on these thinkers and their histories, influences, and legacies.

Several family materials are perhaps the highlights of this series. Lipshires was in possession of a large scrapbook and speech draft, "My Shoe Story," of his father's, David Lipshires, which document the beginning and rise of David Lipshires' shoe stores in Northampton, Massachusetts and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, covering roughly 1946 to 1956. David Boot Shop sold handbags and dressy footwear for women, while The Bootery carried footwear for men and children, along with practical, low-heeled footwear for women. The history of the stores includes the vital connection to Smith College as an ever-present community of fashion conscious, and fashion forward, women, and also the impact of the Navy WAVE program established in Northampton. During the war, the Lipshires' stores and staff provided footwear for WAVE officers, and after the war, David Lipshires used lessons learned as well as his new client base to begin a mail order business.

In addition to documenting the impact of these geographical and historical events on women's fashion retail, the scrapbook documents in detail the business and outreach policies of the stores, including an ever-present focus on brands, marketing, and the importance of connections to local community events and social and business groups. Other business policies, such as staff training, industry knowledge, sales, branding, free giveaways, and calculated risks (such as branching out into fashionable women's shoes in larger sizes) are also covered and documented by newspaper clippings and accompanying notes.

Several items concerning Sidney's second wife, Joann Breen Lipshires, are also of note. A touching and courageous 1948 letter written by Joann Lipshires to her father concerns her reasons for being a communist, a point of view and lifestyle with which he did not agree. She states her beliefs with passion and no regrets, but also credits many of her father's convictions as related to her own moral and political compass, attempting to find an equal, or at least empathetic, ground between them from which to foster mutual respect, and familial love. A later letter to Joann Lipshires is from an employer at the time when Sidney Lipshires was arrested under the Smith Act. Her request for bail money for Lipshires is declined, with various political and personal reasons listed. An essay written by Lisa Lipshires, recounts Joann Lipshires' story of survival and travel as she moved alone and "penniless" to Florida in 1951 in order to seek a divorce from her first husband so that she could marry Sidney Lipshires. Lessons about divorce, small town employment, living in poverty, business savvy, and the importance of labor unions are described.

This series covers Sidney Lipshires' involvements with activism and labor organization, especially the Communist Party and other leftist political movements, and his eventual role in establishing and leading the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, a union for college professors and professionals. These political and labor materials were kept in a series together, as they reflect lifelong interests and passions of Lipshires', which should be taken in context together. While Lipshires' beliefs and associations transitioned as he matured and changed settings, he remained a lifelong activist, both in convictions and actions.

The earliest materials, including fliers, broadsides, and newspaper clippings, concern his connection to the Communist Party, covering his 1947 campaign under the Communist Party for city alderman in Ward 4 of Springfield, Massachusetts. Lipshires' platform presents the Communist Party as a people's alternative to the two party system, and demonstrates the Left's urban concerns at the time: affordable housing, rent control, and anti-discrimination legislation. At that point, Lipshires was already under federal investigation, and his FBI file, covering thirty years of investigations, documents the intelligence patterns and concerns of the FBI and Massachusetts citizens during this period, and offers a unique view into Lipshires' various movements, aliases, and connections.

A selection of newspaper clippings and print material covers the arrest, trial, and testimony of Lipshires and others under the Smith Act. The case, prosecution, defense, and seven defendants are introduced and summarized in a pamphlet produced by the Massachusetts Smith Act Defendants' Committee and written by Lipshires. A transcript of Lipshires' testimony at the "Public Hearing before the Special Commission to Study and Investigate Communism and Subversive Activities and Related Matters in the Commonwealth," on September 14, 1955, provides insight into the transactions and tactics of the Bowker Commission, and into Lipshires' character, convictions, and preparation. Lipshires' belief in free expression and thought, and his objections to the coercion of speech, come through, as do some of his early positions concerning the founding fathers of communism, the Korean War, and the political situations in communist Europe and Asia. His thorough advocacy for non-violence is also apparent, despite attempts to indicate the contrary, and while not combative, Lipshires' did not shy away from outright disagreements with the Commission nor from issuing several somewhat lengthy lectures while under oath.

Even amongst these early riches, the gems of the series in relation to the Communist Party of New England are the extremely detailed autobiography and accompanying documents arranged by Lipshires in preparation for his defense under the Smith Act. The autobiography is a lengthy typescript with newspaper clippings and fliers placed within context, and according to Lipshires' preface, the record and the associated documents prove "the peaceful and constitutional methods employed by the Party."

Covering Lipshires' history as an activist, including progressive activities in high school, and his introduction to the Communist Party and American Student Union in college, the majority of the text outlines his activities in western Massachusetts and New England. The period covered includes first his years as a paid full-time Secretary of the Communist Party in western Massachusetts from 1947 through the spring of 1951, and, after a period away from New England and the Communist Party in California, his and Joann Lipshires' later work for the Party under various titles in Rhode Island and New England, including Lipshires' time as Communist Party Boston City Secretary, New England District Organizer and Secretary of the Communist Party of New England. It concludes with Lipshires' Bowker Commission testimony, arrest, and growing disillusionment with communism after the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Union Communist Party in 1956, and his 1957 resignation after the unsatisfactory response of the Communist Party in the United States and New England.

Lipshires offers commentary on his various responsibilities and activities, as well as on the shifting political conditions affecting the Party and its organization, policies, practices, membership, and concerns throughout the years. As a writer, speaker, and leader, Lipshires often served the role of articulating Party policies, commenting upon social and political issues as framed by the Left, and working as an internal reporter on Party organization and effectiveness. Lipshires' connection with various Communist Party affiliates, including Mike Russo, Geoffrey White, Joseph Starobin, Mike Schirmer, Daniel Boone Schirmer, Junius Sides and Armando Penha (whom Lipshires identified as an informer against him) are established.

The autobiography covers the Communist Party's interest in industrial workers and factory unions, noting Lipshires' production of several shop papers, "The Westinghouse Worker" and "Fisk Worker," copies of which appear in the collection and were itemized by Lipshires for his defense. Later involvements with unions and strikes in the packing and textile industries are also covered, as are Communist Party positions on Party history, labor unity, the Geneva Convention, the atomic bomb, African American rights and white chauvinism. These last issues, of race and rights, are discussed both broadly and in connection to specific events, such as educational classes, projects with the western Massachusetts railroad utilities, and the East Union Street School in Springfield. Political reactions to the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as to the Soviet Union Communist Party, especially its Twentieth Congress in 1956, are also covered by Lipshires, both personally and as a Party reporter.

All folders marked "Smith Act defense," contain materials collected by Lipshires in his defense preparation, and represent a large variety of materials and topics. Beyond his autobiography, there are typescripts, typed and handwritten research notes and outlines, class syllabi, and other printed material that cover Lipshires' activities and the Communist Party in New England, as well as Lipshires' research on assumed informants. These materials also include the statistical data Lipshires collected on various trips and for reports, including local election results and environments, lists of unions by industry, name, and employee numbers, and town community records, such as the data collected on the greater New Bedford area, including notes on the NAACP and Young Democrats organizations there.

Later records within this series represent Lipshires' activism after his resignation from the Communist Party, particularly his prominent role in forming and leading the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, or CCCC or the 4C's. Lipshires narrates the story of the 4C's in his self-published text, Giving Them Hell: How a College Professor Organized and Led a Successful Statewide Union. Lipshires devotes a chapter to his personal history, entitled "How Even Smart People Can Be Fooled," revealing his later thoughts on the Communist Party. Other sections of the book cover the importance of his childhood, and the influence of his parents, especially his father, and the Jewish community of Northampton on his ideals and organizational intuition and skills.

The majority of the text covers the 4C's and labor organizing, and Lipshires moves from the first labor action at Manchester Community College (MCC) in 1967, a year after his arrival as a professor, to the creation of a Faculty Senate and the development of the Higher Education Legal Program and Connecticut Higher Education Coalition, which worked to gain leverage and finances for a statewide coalition and political possibilities. Lipshires and faculty colleague Bob Vater were partners in these efforts, and the text offers much insight into the environment and staff community at MCC and other Connecticut higher education schools at the time. Lipshires, Vater, and their colleagues, succeeding in convincing first MCC staff, and then others, that a single labor organization would best unify and serve community college professionals in the state, and the 4C's was eventually established in 1973, with Vater as its first president.

The history of the 4C's, its ratification, its first affiliation with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and later with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees (District 1199) as well as its interests and actions on behalf of its members are covered in Lipshires' book and in a number of other 4C's materials. Over fifteen years of the 4C's newsletter, the "Congress Chronicles," is available, along with a binder on the history of the 4C's accumulated by Lisa Lipshires while assisting Lipshires with the research and writing of Giving Them Hell. Other print materials, such as official Congress letters, advertisements, and election, speech, and retirement materials of Lipshires', offer additional insights into the activities, membership, and convictions of the 4C's, and of Lipshires during his eighteen years as 4C's president. Lipshires' roles in larger labor and organizational groups, such as the State Employees' Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), Connecticut State Employees Association (CSEA), Connecticut State Employee Unions, and the Legislative Electoral Action Program (LEAP) are also documented. Work and friendships with many individuals are covered, including Frederick Lowe, Robert Fenn, Art Guinness, Bob Vater, Sonia Berke, Kay Bergin, and Don Pogue.

In addition to the Communist Party materials, and those on the 4C's union and other groups, Lipshires' lifelong passions for activism and political involvement are evidenced in the series in still other items. His participation as a member of the "Colt 45," a group of activists that held a civil-disobedience sit-in at the Colt Firearms factory in West Hartford, Connecticut in May 1986 to support the strike by the workers' union, is documented in this series. Lipshires' own writing, mostly completed after his retirement from his political and professional careers, demonstrates his shifting and later perspectives on activism, labor, politics, communist practice and theory, and on his own history and beliefs as a young man.

The unpublished book manuscript, Tired of Waiting for Lefty?, is in Lipshires' own words a "fundamental critique from a sympathetic point of view of both labor and the Left seeking to answer the question: why did they not achieve their full potential?" It includes "numerous non-utopian suggestions for how they could do it better...and the role of thought in efforts to bring about more social justice." Set up from the beginning as a non-partisan book of advice on bringing more social justice to the United States, Lipshires shares a bit of his personal history, and critiques the political situation and social apathy of the time (c. 2001), the reactions of both labor and the Left to these circumstances, all the while hoping to stir readers to action with his critique and outlined suggestions. Several shorter essays written between 2000 and 2006 reveal Lipshires' often critical and alarmed stance towards the health care, economic, social, and political situations and leaders, particularly Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, during that time. News headlines or figures are usually clipped or quoted in these articles, revealing coverage of these topics and the inspiration for Lipshires' own commentaries.

This series consists of photographs of Sidney Lipshires and his friends and family, arranged into four folders. The first two folders are arranged first by size, and then in rough chronological order, and the second two folders are each complete photograph albums from the 1995 Congress of Connecticut Community College (the 4C's) retirements of Lipshires and Sonia Berke, respectively.

There are many photographs of Lipshires in his personal and professional life, sitting reading, at the beach or hiking with family, or often in a classroom teaching or on the campus of Manchester Community College. Earlier photographs document Lipshires' involvement with the army, including a 1943 shot of the Northampton, Massachusetts inductees waiting for their train to Camp Devens, two army group photographs, including one from Fort Dix, New Jersey, as well as a shot of Lipshires alone in uniform.

Photographs of the Lipshires family cover multiple years, featuring Lipshires and his children when they are young, teenaged, and grown, and also Lipshires later with a grandson. David Lipshires and his shoe stores are documented in several photographs, revealing both the internal makeup of his stores as well as external shots of downtown Northampton, Massachusetts circa 1955. Lipshires and Lisa Lipshires are also shown at a Cooley Dickinson Hospital event honoring David Lipshires after his death in 1981. All of the photographs reveal Lipshires' keen sense of fashion, a trait displayed even in his later years at events and birthday parties in his eighties.

Lipshires' early life as an activist and his time with the Communist Party are also captured, including a striking photograph of Joseph Starobin giving a speech to a group gathered outside in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1950, a photograph of Lipshires with Manny Bloom, the head of the New England Communist Party, and group shot of the Massachusetts Smith Act Defendants in 1957 after winning their case. Lipshires' long career with the 4C's is also documented, often at formal events and parties throughout the years. His retirement from the 4C's in 1995, along with the retirement of his longtime friend and colleague Sonia Berke, offer two full albums of photographs to accompany the material coverage and retirement wishes in Series 2.