Caroline Decker
| Caroline Decker Gladstein | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
April 26, 1912 Macon, Georgia, USA |
| Died | May 17, 1992 Marin, California, USA |
| Other names | Caroline Decker; Caroline Dwofsky |
| Organization | Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ International Union |
| Known for | Labor activism |
Caroline Decker Gladstein (born Caroline Dwofsky, 1912–1992) was a labor activist in the 1930s in California. A member of the Communist Party, as many activists were, she was an organizer for the Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ International Union (CAWIU). Decker helped organize massive strikes of agricultural workers in California in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
After serving time in prison, she married a second time. She and her attorney husband had four children together.
Caroline Decker was born on April 26, 1912 in Macon, Georgia. Her real name was Caroline Dwofsky, the daughter of Bernard Dwofsky and Anna Raskin. Like most Communist organizers at the time, Caroline used an alias, taking "Decker" as hers, and known as Caroline Decker throughout her organizing career. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from who had emigrated to the US after fleeing pogroms in Ukraine.
Her family moved to Syracuse, N.Y. when she was 12, and her father Bernard is buried there in the Workman's Circle Cemetery. In Syracuse, Caroline met many leaders of left-wing organizations who frequented the family home. Influenced by her brother, who was a student at Columbia University in New York City, and her sister, who was a national officer of the left-wing Workers International Relief Organization, Decker became involved with radical politics and trade union organizing in her early teens. She joined the Young Communist League USA, helped organize cigar workers and shoe workers in Binghamton, N.Y. and became a speaker at such events as International Women's Day.
Decker's first foray in union activism took place during the Harlan County War, the violent confrontation between miners and mine owners in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1931–1932 during the Great Depression. She and her sister worked out of Knoxville, Tennessee, helping with strike relief and organization.
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