Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila
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Author(s)/Editor(s)
Sandy Polishuk was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, but now resides in Portland, Oregon. Polishuk has been an activist since the 1960s, and met Julia Ruuttila at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in 1966. Noting that she recently reviewed her 1974 police intelligence file that listed her occupation as “parent and revolutionary,” Polishuk currently serves as vice president of her local teacher’s union and is the treasurer of the Oregon local of the National Writer’s Union. 1 Some of her essays include “Rallies, Reds and the Rosenbergs: the Early Years of a Lifelong Activist, Rose Leopold, an Oral History” and "Secrets, Lies and Misremembering: The Perils of Oral History Interviewing," which have appeared in both scholarly and literary journals. Polishuk teaches oral history at Portland State University. 2
Summary
Sticking to the Union revolves around Julia Ruuttila who was a lifelong political activist and union supporter. The book looks at her progression in the labor movement from her earliest days in the Industrial Workers of the World and her support of the American Federation of Labor’s Committee for Industrial Organization, to her vivid descriptions and support of protests in the late twentieth century. Entirely self-educated, Ruuttila supported her family through her career as a journalist for leftist newspapers as well as working for the longshoremen’s union. Ruuttila was an active supporter of many issues, including the right to unionize, voter registration, protection of the rights of the foreign-born, and the Civil Rights movement: Sticking to the Union discusses these pursuits as well as controversial issues like Vietnam and abortion rights.
Drawn from extensive interviews with Ruuttila first as part of the Northwest Women’s History Project (NWHP) in 1983 and later at Ruuttila’s home in Portland, Polishuk created an autobiography that is interweaved with stories and photographs from family members and friends of Ruuttila. 3 Polishuk begins each chapter with a short discussion of background information into the hierarchies and histories of the various unions and political movements, preparing the reader for an onslaught of abbreviations and names. Ultimately, Ruuttila herself summed up her life in an epitaph written to Polishuk in her final days: "This is my death, and I shall go in my own way into the super dark. And if I choose to type all night or protest in the park, I’m not the only one who’s finished so….I shall go shouting into the black night. In Potter’s Field, inscribe upon my stone: Died as she lived, shouting the system down”.4
Methodological Comparisons within the Oral Autobiography Genre
- See the article on Golda Meir’s A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography of Golda Meir for further analysis.
- See the article on Theodore Rosengarten’s All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw for further analysis.
Sources
- Sandy Polishuk,Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 1.
- Sandy Polishuk, "Secrets, Lies and Misremembering: The Perils of Oral History Interviewing," Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. v. 19, no. 3. (1998); Sandy Polishuk, "Rallies, Reds and the Rosenbergs: the Early Years of a Lifelong Activist, Rose Leopold, an Oral History," The Portland Alliance, v. 16, no. 1. (February 1996).
- Sandy Polishuk, Sticking to the Union, 1.
- Ibid., 235; see Also http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-labor&month=0311&week=c&msg=uiWr8YWNep3zulmuX8mOzw&user=&pw (Accessed May 12, 2009).
