Motivated by the workers’ union, Harry Moshier, a Jewish-American from the Midwest, wanted to create a better future for Spain.
A Union Man
Harry Moshier was born to Jewish parents in Rockham, South Dakota on November 14, 1911. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Minnesota to farm in America’s Midwest. Moshier followed the political and occupational footsteps of his father, who had been involved in the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. Moshier himself was active in labor organizations such as the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC Union) and the Union of Electrical Workers. These unions aimed at countering the effects of unemployment and economic hardship during the Great Depression in the late 1930s. Moshier held various odd jobs, working in canned food factories and as a carpenter. In 1934, he was unemployed and participated in various labor strikes.
Labor and Leftist Movements
Moshier’s political commitments explain why he eventually joined the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. By 1936, Moshier had already expressed interest in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). He attended lectures with friends and read communist literature, like the CPUSA newspaper The Daily Worker. He was also affiliated with the SWOC, founded in 1936 during the height of the Great Depression and which organized the 1937 Little Steel Strike to improve the rights of workers.
Minneapolis Star, 6 April 1937
On April 6, 1937, Moshier participated in the “sit-down” staged by the Minneapolis People’s Lobby in the state capitol. They protested against conservative legislation and supported Governor A. Elmer Benson who, as a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, wanted to pass an unemployment aid bill. The front page of the local newspaper, the Minneapolis Star, showed several photographs of the sit-down, including one of Moshier sitting comfortably in a senator’s chair. For a full day and night, he and other protesters held the senators hostage. In the end, when asked to leave, they returned home.
On July 15, 1937, prior to leaving for Europe, Moshier signed up for the CPUSA. A month later, on August 14, he boarded the SS Champlain to fight fascism in Spain.
In Spain
Moshier spent nine months in Spain. He served with the 15th International Brigade as a member of the Lincoln-Washington Battalion and the 129th Brigade. According to his International Brigades personal file,he fought with the infantry in Aragon, Teruel and Levante. While serving at the front, he suffered from various illnesses and had to be hospitalized. To his family’s great anxiety, on April 8, 1938, the front page of The Minneapolis Tribune reported that Moshier was missing in action.
Minneapolis Tribune, 8 April 1938.
Moshier had not been killed, however. He was not even injured, but he was declared unfit for military service. With the rest of the signatories of the fan, Moshier spent several weeks near Valencia awaiting repatriation to the United States. He finally boarded the President Harding in Le Havre in late January 1939 and arrived in New York on February 4, 1939.
Two years after returning home, Moshier was drafted into the United States military. It is not clear whether he was called into service in World War II. He married Zelda Carlson on April 23, 1942 and started a family. Moshier moved to Big Lake, Minnesota and worked as a construction worker. He lived there for the remainder of his life. He died on September 15, 1979 and was buried at Minnesota’s Riverside Cemetery in Monticello.
FURTHER READINGS
Irving Bernstein. 2010 [1969]. The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941. Chicago, Ill: Haymarket Books.
Zac Farber. 2021. “People’s Pilgrimage, 1937,” MNopedia (Minnesota Historical Society).
SOURCES
M. W. Halloran. 1937. “Sit Siege in Capitol Ends.” Minneapolis Star. (6 April): p. 1.
“Harry Charles Moshier.” The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Biographical Database.
“Harry Moshier.” Personal File. RGASPI. Fond 545, Opis 6, File 950.
“Harry Moshier.” Obituary. 1979. St. Cloud Times. (17 Sept.): p. 45.
“Rebels Seize Power Center.” Minneapolis Tribune. (8 April 1938): p. 1.