Gold, Ben

Gold, Ben

(1898–1985) labor leader; born in Bessarabia, Russia. Emigrating to the United States in 1910, he worked in the fur industry and joined the radical movement. A Communist, he led a 1926 strike of New York fur workers. He led the fur workers into the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and was elected president of the International Fur and Leather Workers in 1939. The union was expelled from the CIO in 1950 because of its pro-Communist stance supported by Gold.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.