In the far northwest of New York City’s northernmost borough, the Bronx, just south of Van Cortlandt Park, the site of Revolutionary War battles, is the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative. It’s due to celebrate its centenary next year, making it the oldest surviving co-op of its kind in the US. It is one of 11 housing cooperatives dotted around the city, built between 1927 and the early 1970s, comprising 32,903 homes for people with moderate incomes, inspired and sponsored by NYC’s labor unions, particularly those organized in the clothing industry.
Abraham Kazan and New York City housing cooperatives
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) gave its name to the groundbreaking Bronx Co-op and worked closely with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). Overwhelmingly, the pioneer “cooperators” (as they liked to be called) were first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Through their numerous political, social and cultural organisations, they galvanised a radicalisation of NYC politics that could be compared with the recent election of Zohran Mamdani. The ACWA and ILGWU developed a form of welfare trade unionism that produced health, banking and insurance services for their members, as well as cooperative housing and holiday resorts.
Read the rest at London School of Economics and Political Science
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