The Paterson Labor dialogue took place in the American Labor History Museum also once the home of the Socialist Mayor Botto and the site of labor movement organizing. As a long-time New Jersey resident in that one night, I listened to stories of colonial history, labor exploitation, organizing, and diverse patterns of migration that I did not know and that that blew my mind.
Like most, I associated Paterson with the Great Falls and as I was writing the poem and listening to the dialogue, I could hear and feel the great power of the water and the river in the layering of voices and histories. I was inspired by William Carlos Williams epic Paterson with its brilliant and mysterious play with form. We are all inspired by the Great Falls and the river, be it Alexander Hamilton or William Carlos Williams for a place that deserves many more such poems and dialogues.
I.
it begins with falling water & the roar of the river
in 1779 Alexander Hamilton & George Washington picnicked at the Great Falls on the Passaic
ate cow tongue, cold ham and watered-down beer underneath an oak tree
To break free from slavery, there needs to be a new path of free labor and merit
America buys too much from England!
Hamilton says gazing at the
oh-so-high
rushing
waterfall pouring two billion gallons each day
Hamilton then wrote the laws
& made Paterson, New Jersey America’s First. Planned. Industrial City
New Jersey, that custard sweet spot between New York & Philadelphia
where the land was cheaper & full of rivers
II.
Let’s take women and children and put them to useÂ
it begins with the immigrants arriving from Scotland
once fired now rehired
only the cotton spinning machine works real fast
& by the 1820’s work is
6 days a week;
13-14 hours day;
little pay
it continues with the children who go on strike
then a ripple of strikes
Paterson now a Model for industrial unrest
Italian anarchists, Jewish socialists, German communists
We were ‘in the silk’! Â
Paterson becoming Silk City
Irish, German, Italian, Polish
then Syrian, Lebanese & Palestinian workers
arriving with cases of thread & lace
You better know it!
Silk being spun, wove and dyed
1913 the Paterson Silk Strike
20,000 workers gather outside
a Socialist mayor’s tree-lined house in the middle of a field
in the Bottos home, delicate creaks
as novelist Upton Sinclair walks up the stairs
then addresses the workers from the balcony
They found the ground beneath their feet
each time the workers die within they begin to rise again too
in 1919, the workers win
an 8 hour workday;
improved working conditions;
minimum wage
what the falling water spilling into the river demands
it begins with the possibility, the fury
it begins with the children
the ache
listen from a balcony
hear them
listen to the words falling from their mouths & hands
III.
We talk wages, benefits, pensions, dignity
it is August 2025 & we gather at the Paterson Labor Museum on a balmy Tuesday August evening
Paterson is now Hispanic, Turkish, Palestinian
home to little Istanbul & & Palestine Way
Remember Eleanor Roosevelt remembering women workers in Paterson sweatshops
elections, layoffs, blue collar, white collar
skilled vs. unskilled workers: what does this distinction even mean
sweat, hot, union, dues, wages
Philip Randolph was underrated
& oh, the civil rights movement
how JFK supported the federal unions
I too worked in a factory. No AC. Lucky to get half a day.
Go outside for a cigarette break
My overalls were the color of work
worked on Wall Street too but the work in the sweatshop was most difficult
the precarity, the layoffs
White-skinned but I too feel like an immigrant in this country nowÂ
the Scottish, the Irish…all immigrants
Who is not an immigrant?
the sharecroppers who arrived from the South too
What is most important for us to remember?
the men who worked on the Lincoln Tunnel and died too
all these jobs, all these places had people & bears the work of people
These hands
It is that they are working with their hands
We must honor these hands
