Eugene Krzycki

"The story of Grandpa Martin Krzycki's association with the steel workers at the Bay View rolling mills was told many times, of workers beaten and bloodied strikers gathering at Martin's saloon during the strike in 1886 and of ‘matkas (mothers)' coming there tearfully seeking word of their sons and husbands," recalled Gene Krzycki.Fired at the age of fifteen while leading a lithographers walkout of teen-age press tenders in Milwaukee, Krzycki was blacklisted two years.

Later he began his organizing career on behalf of unions.Initially, he was a member of the Lithographers Union becoming a vice president in the International President Lithographer Press Feeders Union.A founding member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1914, Krzycki enjoyed a life-long, collegial relationship with President Sidney Hillman.
...
Promoted from chief labor organizer to the Executive Board of the Amalgamated in 1922, Krzycki became a vice-president eleven years later.

Naming his first son, Eugene, for Eugene Debs and his second son, Victor, for Congressman and socialist leader, Victor Berger, Krzycki joined the Socialist Party in 1908.Naming his first son, Eugene, for Eugene Debs and his second son, Victor, for Congressman and socialist leader, Victor Berger, Krzycki joined the Socialist Party in 1908.
...
Working with all of the celebrated Socialist leaders of the XXth century, like Debs, Morris Hillquit, Berger, Norman Thomas, Hoan, Oscar Ameringer, Powers Hapgood, Krzycki became a member of the Executive Board and then its national chairman.
...
Gene Krzycki revealed that "the closeness of Berger must have felt to my Dad and his family" was expressed in the token of gifts like the silver commemorative cup, a wooden play pen on casters, and tricycle bestowed upon Victor Krzycki.
...
According to Gene Krzycki, "Dad was called upon many times to lend a hand in United Mine Workers (UMW) organizing activity, particularly in Southern Illinois, West Virginia and especially in Eastern Pennsylvania's anthracite region.

"Later, my father and Carl Sandburg, then a reporter for the Milwaukee Leader," recalled Gene Krzycki, "pulled off a strike against the Milwaukee street car company.Only one motorman was pried loose from his post."Concurrent with his union activities, Krzycki was elected a Milwaukee alderman on the socialist ticket in 1912 and 1914.Incomplete Socialist Party records showed that Krzycki attended the 1917 National Convention as a delegate from Wisconsin.
...
Seventeen years later in Cleveland, Krzycki remarked, "I was fortunate in being present in St. Louis in 1917."
...
Fortunately, the government did not proceed against Krzycki or his comrades.Krzycki patterned himself after his hero, Debs, "first and foremost an orator-an orator of the first rank."
...
Like him, Krzycki "was a propagandist, not a great thinker, and he never pretended to be anything else."
...
Running on the Socialist ticket with Berger, Krzycki lost his 1924 congressional bid while Berger succeeded.
...
Krzycki agreed to run for any office that the SP desired, whether it was the 24th Ward alderman or the U.S. Senate.He was secretary of the Wisconsin state central committee.In 1930, as the guest of the Polish socialists, Mrs. Krzycki and Leo studied conditions, political and economic, in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Katowice (birthplace of Pope John Paul II), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Switzerland.
...
Concurrently, I discovered Leo Krzycki, and set upon writing his biography with the help of his two sons, Gene and Victor.

"The story of Grandpa Martin Krzycki's association with the steel workers at the Bay View rolling mills was told many times, of workers beaten and bloodied strikers gathering at Martin's saloon during the strike in 1886 and of ‘matkas (mothers)' coming there tearfully seeking word of their sons and husbands," recalled Gene Krzycki.Fired at the age of fifteen while leading a lithographers walkout of teen-age press tenders in Milwaukee, Krzycki was blacklisted two years.

Later he began his organizing career on behalf of unions.Initially, he was a member of the Lithographers Union becoming a vice president in the International President Lithographer Press Feeders Union.A founding member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1914, Krzycki enjoyed a life-long, collegial relationship with President Sidney Hillman.
...
Promoted from chief labor organizer to the Executive Board of the Amalgamated in 1922, Krzycki became a vice-president eleven years later.

Naming his first son, Eugene, for Eugene Debs and his second son, Victor, for Congressman and socialist leader, Victor Berger, Krzycki joined the Socialist Party in 1908.
...
Working with all of the celebrated Socialist leaders of the XXth century, like Debs, Morris Hillquit, Berger, Norman Thomas, Hoan, Oscar Ameringer, Powers Hapgood, Krzycki became a member of the Executive Board and then its national chairman.
...
Gene Krzycki revealed that "the closeness of Berger must have felt to my Dad and his family" was expressed in the token of gifts like the silver commemorative cup, a wooden play pen on casters, and tricycle bestowed upon Victor Krzycki.
...
According to Gene Krzycki, "Dad was called upon many times to lend a hand in United Mine Workers (UMW) organizing activity, particularly in Southern Illinois, West Virginia and especially in Eastern Pennsylvania's anthracite region.