Ella Reeve Bloor
Ella Reev "Mother" Bloor (July 8, 1862 – August 10, 1951) was an American labor organizer and long-time activist in the socialist and communist movements.
One of her other sons was Hamilton D. "Buzz" Ware, an artist and prominent leader in the Village of Arden, Delaware, where she lived for many years.
I was impressed with his analysis of the evils of the capitalist system, and of the fallacy of isolated socialist colonies as a way of achieving socialism.
I became very much interested in the New York Labor News Company — the first organization that published revolutionary books and pamphlets in English on a large scale.
The STLA was weakening the AF of L [American Federation of Labor] by drawing off its more radical elements and leaving the reactionaries in control, and was itself organized on too narrow and sectarian a basis to accomplish anything.
"The last time I talked with DeLeon I told him I was moving to Philadelphia and was willing to accept the secretaryship of the SLP local there, which had been offered me, but I could not go along with their principles wholeheartedly.
Ella opposed this new organization, which called itself "The Logical Center" and included Lucien Sanial, a former top official in the SLP.
[10] Ella had been watching with interest the formation of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) in 1901 and decided to leave her new Pennsylvania comrades to rejoin her friend Gene Debs as a member of his new organization.
[11] In subsequent years, Bloor worked as a trade union organizer and helped during industrial disputes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Ohio and New York.
[12] In 1905 Bloor helped a fellow member of the Socialist Party of America, Upton Sinclair, gather information on the Chicago stock yards.
[15] Upon her return from the Soviet Union, Bloor hitchhiked throughout the United States while writing articles for the Daily Worker.
[16] After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Bloor became an advocate of American participation in World War II.
– Discuss] She gave countless speeches and lectures focusing on topics of women's suffrage and mobilization as workers, often stressing the “direct connection between the ballot and our work.
"[18] For some, Bloor echoed the voice of working women in the early twentieth century by vocalizing the intersection of socialism and suffrage.
She argued that because working women were marginalized by the law as it was, their only form of political power was through protest which frequently proved dangerous and ineffective.
[16] She believed that women needed the right to vote if they hoped to have a say in changing laws and therefore improve their working conditions and lives in general.
[19] Alice Neel's 1951 painting of her funeral reception, "The Death of Mother Bloor," shows her in front of a line of mourners passing by her bier.
