Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Weinstein, Nat and Sylvia papers
HLL.2019.017  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Overview
 
Table of contents What's This?
Description
The collection comprises the papers of Nat and Sylvia Weinstein, members of the Socialist Workers Party and founding members of Socialist Action, as well as labor and women's rights activists. It includes reports, resolutions, article drafts, minutes, convention and plenum notebooks and reports, correspondence, speeches, statements, flyers, bulletins, announcements, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings.
Background
Nat Weinstein was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York and passed away in San Francisco, California in 2014. He learned about Marxism from members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) while serving in the Merchant Marine from 1943 to 1945, and joined the SWP in 1945. He led the New York City SWP's collaboration with Malcolm X in 1964 while serving as an organizer of the New York City branch as well as the National Committee, and was also a member of the New York City Painter's Union. He helped to restore the Seattle branch of the SWP after many members left it to form the Freedom Socialist Party, and later he and his wife Sylvia Weinstein moved to San Francisco to assist an oppositional caucus within the San Francisco Painters Local No. 4 union in their attempts to democratize their union after its leader, Dow Wilson, was assassinated. In the San Francisco branch of the SWP, Nat served on the political committee, Northern California district committee, and led a solidarity coalition with the Department Store Union Employees Local No. 1100 in a strike against the Sears Roebuck Company. Sylvia Weinstein was born in 1926 in Kentucky and passed away in 2001 in San Francisco, California. Her mother's family were coal miners who participated in union activity. Sylvia met and married Nat Weinstein in New York City, and aligned with socialism during World War Two, around the time Nat learned about Marxism while serving in the Merchant Marine. She became a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and worked in its National Office in New York City. During this time, Sylvia and Nat assisted in organizing a meeting between Malcolm X and Fidel Castro. In the 1960s, Sylvia ran for New York City Council and for lieutenant governor, both unsuccessfully. She and Nat moved to San Francisco in 1966, where she ran for mayor, supervisor, and for the Board of Education in the 1970s and 1980s, also unsuccessfully.
Extent
5 boxes
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Availability
There are no access restrictions on this collection.