WIR Station & Franco-American Federation
Members of Workers International Relief at the organization’s South End relief station in the Franco-American Building, at the corner of Welcome Street and West Rodney French Boulevard, during the 1928 strike.
Approximately the same view in 2023. The building has been demolished, and no visible marker identifies the former relief station or TMC headquarters.
New Bedford Times, October 9, 1928
Chief McLeod Gives Orders for Raids on T.M.C. New Bedford and Fall River police were lined up in front of the South End station while Chief McLeod (second from left, with the white belt) gave final instructions. Captain Bolton, Sergeant McCarty, Detective Ruan and Sergeant Velho are in the front row. New Bedford Times, October 9, 1928
The Daily Worker, May 4, 1928
By May 3, 1928, Workers International Relief had opened its New Bedford headquarters in the Franco-American Building at 12 Rodney French Boulevard. The Daily Worker announced the station on May 4 and said it had begun raising money and food for roughly 30,000 strikers resisting the 10 percent wage cut.[1] This was not a side activity. A strike could continue only while workers and their families could eat, and WIR made relief part of the Textile Mill Committee's organizing system. Additional WIR stations were reported at 80 Potomska Street in the South End and 31 Hathaway Street in the North End, showing an effort to distribute aid near the city's major mill districts.[2]
By August, a Daily Worker report on two large South End families said they were receiving food each day from WIR kitchens.[3] The newspaper was openly aligned with the radical side of the strike and used relief reports to solicit support. The photographs of the relief efforts make the material scale of the work unmistakable: barrels, crates, canned goods, bread, volunteers, and families gathered here to supply striking workers with food. The Franco-American Building was also the site of TMC offices.[4] The building's use for this purpose, along with meetings at the nearby French Sharpshooters' Club, is evidence of the strong support for the strike in the large French-Canadian and Franco-American communities in New Bedford.[5]
On October 9, 1928, three days after the established Textile Council unions voted to accept the settlement, local police raided the TMC offices here and arrested its treasurer, Andrew Izyck, and other TMC leaders.[6]
The First Arrest in T.M.C. South End Raid. An unnamed striker is arrested. New Bedford Times, October 9, 1928
The arched entrance, window arrangement, and WIR sign visible in this photograph as well as the one above confirm that the relief station and the raided TMC headquarters occupied the same building.
The Daily Worker, May 4, 1928
T.M.C. Leader Arrested in Raid. Andrew Izyck, treasurer of the T.M.C., was among the first arrested for being idle and disorderly when police raided the T.M.C.’s South End headquarters. Patrolmen Miller and Moore locked him up. New Bedford Times, October 9, 1928.