Anne Burlak

Born in Slatington, Pennsylvania, Anne Burlak was the daughter of Harry and Anastasia Smigel Burlak, who came to the United States as immigrants from Tsarist Russia, in the area now comprising Ukraine. The eldest of six children, Burlak left school at the age of 14 to join the workforce and provide financial support to her family. As was common practice for children whose families needed the income, Burlak lied about her age in order to work at a textile mill in Bethlehem. Introduced to left-wing ideas early in life by her father, who worked for Bethlehem Steel, Burlak joined the Young Communist League at the age of 15 or 16. Inspired by her father's struggle for fair wages and work hours, as well as by the union organizers like Ella Reeve Bloor, whom she met in 1925, Burlak tried to organize a labor union of her fellow workers and was subsequently fired. In 1929, Burlak, her father, and her brother were arrested for sedition and on suspicion of spreading communist ideas. Reportedly, Burlak decided that, "I might as well join the Communist Party and learn more about it." Burlak was blacklisted following her arrest, and unable to find work; Harry Burlak was also terminated from his job at Bethlehem Steel. Harry and the rest of the Burlak family later relocated to the Soviet Union. == Career ==

At 17, Burlak had been a delegate to the inaugural National Textile Workers Union (NWTU) convention. After the charges of sedition against her were dropped, she became a labor organizer for the NTWU, working full-time for ten dollars a week. among their number. Burlak and the rest of the Atlanta Six were held in jail for six weeks. and would not be overturned until the Supreme Court's decision in Herndon v. Lowry (1937). Burlak soon began leading strike actions in Pawtucket and Central Falls, and was arrested for alleged violence in a July 1931 strike. on Washington, D.C. Burlak later unsuccessfully ran for Secretary of State of Rhode Island in 1938. The New Deal Era and the Red Scare , April 4, 1940 As the National Secretary of the NWTU, Burlak became involved in crafting aspects of the National Recovery Administration (NRA)'s industrywide codes for minimum working conditions on behalf of textile unions. While voluntary, the provisions laid out in the NRA were widely accepted around the United States, leading to an increase in collective bargaining in the workplace and worker membership in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Backed by the federal government, the AFL, particularly its United Textile Workers union (UTW), became a powerful political player and purged Communists from its ranks. As a prominent member of the more radical NWTU, Burlak was deemed a threat by the AFL, who enlisted its leadership and law enforcement in preventing her from leading in strikes or attending worker rallies. In 1939, she was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Burlak was also targeted during the postwar Red Scare era. In 1956, she was arrested under the Smith Act, as were many other American Communists. The charges were not dropped until the Supreme Court decision in Yates v. United States (1957), which ruled that the First Amendment protected political speech in the absence of a "clear and present danger". Burlak was later arrested in 1964 under the McCarran Act, which required Communists to register with the United States government; the charges were dropped after the Supreme Court ruled the McCarran Act unconstitutional in Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board. == Personal life ==

Burlak married fellow labor activist Arthur E. Timpson in 1939. The couple had two children, Kathryn Anne Timpson Wright (born 1943) and William Michael Timpson (born 1946). She died July 9, 2002, in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. == Legacy ==

Burlak's passion and staunch Communism earned her the nicknames of the "Red Flame," Poet Muriel Rukeyser penned a tribute to Burlak in her 1939 collection A Turning Wind: Poems. Burlak was awarded the Wonder Woman Award from the Wonder Woman Foundation in 1982, and the Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Award for Social Justice from the Community Church of Boston in 1997. Anne Burlak Timpson donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College from 1998 to 1999. Additional materials were donated by her children and her brother. Her papers date "from 1912 to 2003 and are primarily related to her personal and political life." == References ==