Bérmunkás

Bérmunkás (The Wage Worker) was a Hungarian language newspaper published in the United States by the radical syndicalist trade union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The paper was launched as a bi-weekly in November 1912. During the years of World War I American government repression of the IWW and its press forced the publication to make a series of name changes in an attempt to keep ahead of postal authorities. The original name was restored in 1923 and Bérmunkás continued until its eventual termination in 1953.

Publication history

Background

Hungarian radicalism in the United States of America dates back to the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the exile of Governor-President of Hungary Lajos Kossuth. Over the next six decades about 1.7 million people emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of whom somewhere between one-third and one-half were Hungarian language-speaking Magyars. A majority of these were peasants, but perhaps one-third of these were industrial workers from Budapest and other cities, many of whom were familiar with the ideas of trade unionism and socialism.

The Hungarian émigrés to America tended to cluster in the industrial cities of the Eastern and Midwestern United States, including New York City, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. These tended to work at difficult and dangerous physical jobs in heavy industry, mining, meatpacking, and manufacturing. A certain percentage also worked as skilled and semi-skilled workers in lighter industries such as carpentry, woodworking, and printing.