“Radium Girls” and The Starry Night — A Critique to Correct the Name of Victimized Female Workers (Part One)
Victimized female workers discussing their struggle plans
Editor’s Note: This article is divided into two parts. The first part concerns the “Radium Girls” incident itself, and the second part is a critique of The Starry Night. Unless otherwise specified, all materials in the following content are sourced from Kate Moore’s biography The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, written for the victimized female workers.
Preface
Recently, a clown named "Brown Bear" took my previous brief discussion on the reactionary nature of Lovecraft's novels and reposted it, thinking he could extract some straw from it to gain personal fame and fortune. I was initially reluctant to respond to his accusations. However, since his attack also coincides with an attack on the entire forum and the Marxist revolutionary line it upholds, and because I should take this opportunity to correct some previous expression errors, I decided to make some responses to his remarks.
In order to criticize "Brown Bear" and the other followers barking in the left and right circles, I have to involve the historical event of the "Radium Girls" to thoroughly critique Lovecraft's reactionary novel
The Starry Night. During this process, I collected many shocking materials that evoke strong hatred towards capitalism and the likes of "Brown Bear." Among them, I deeply felt the blood and tears of oppressed female workers—how they unfortunately fell into the trap of capitalist robbers, suffered severe physical and mental injuries unto death, and how they fought heroically to seek justice from the unscrupulous capitalists. For example, even if Lovecraft, as a clown, tried every means to obstruct people's understanding of the truth, the light of truth cannot be covered by clouds, and the struggle of female workers still achieved victory. The American bourgeois government was finally forced to recognize that the diseases suffered by female workers were occupational diseases caused by long-term exposure to related work, and ordered relevant enterprises to provide safety measures for all workers in contact with radioactive substances.
For instance, one piece of material states that while male workers had access to lead aprons that could barely shield against radium radiation, female workers had no safety measures at all. This undoubtedly proves that women, due to their lower social status, were marginalized in social production labor. Therefore, the victory of female workers' struggle is not only a victory for the proletariat but also a victory for oppressed women, marking a significant step forward in the pursuit of gender equality. All these made me realize further how this novel attempts to excuse the reactionary capitalist system, cover up the brutal exploitation and oppression of workers, and erase the righteous struggles of female workers, replacing them with disgusting mysticism and reactionary ideology.
Because of this, in the process of critique, I had to incorporate a large amount of collected materials to directly discuss various Marxist principles, such as class struggle theory, art critique theory, and women's liberation theory. This transformed the negative critique into a positive one, leading to the conclusion that this article is less about criticizing Lovecraft or "Brown Bear" and more about illustrating how capitalism is brutal to workers' lives and how reactionary Lovecraftian art whitewashes it. This made me realize that responding to "Brown Bear" and similar figures should never be driven by personal rivalry but should serve to spread Marxist ideas, awakening many petty bourgeois who are still deceived by reactionary bourgeois art. I believe that just this point alone gives this article a significance beyond mere debate, allowing everyone who sympathizes with the oppressed to understand the true, tragic, and moving history, and helping them clearly recognize the reactionary nature of Lovecraftian art.
"Radium Girls" Incident
The reactionary novel
The Starry Night was published in 1927, coinciding with the sensational "Radium Girls" incident across the United States. In 1898, French scientist Marie Curie discovered a new radioactive element, which she named "radium." Soon after, due to the luminous glow caused by radium radiation and the low cost of extracting radium, it was used by capitalist enterprises to produce luminous paints without careful or repeated testing. In the United States, the monopolistic United States Radium Corporation had been providing radium-containing products for the U.S. military since World War I, including luminous dials with radium-based luminous paint, establishing factories in several cities in New Jersey, recruiting workers to extract and apply radium. Among them, the factory in Orange, New Jersey, recruited many female workers to paint radium onto dials to produce luminous dials.
However, in order to save costs on protective measures, the insane United States Radium Corporation hired a large number of female workers who were completely unaware of the dangers of radium radiation, forcing them to work long hours in contact with radium-based luminous paint without any protective measures. It is easy to imagine that this caused the female workers to ingest far more radioactive substances than they could bear, leading to deadly health hazards.
*Female workers applying radium to dials*
Long-term exposure to radium radiation caused severe physical damage to the female workers. Due to the immense destructive power of radium radiation, the collagen in their bones was destroyed, and countless cells in their bodies were killed by the radiation, mutating into malignant tumors after multiple cycles of regeneration. Over time, more and more female workers experienced abnormal symptoms, suffering from a deadly disease later called "radium jaw." In January 1922, Mollie Maggia went to the dentist due to toothache but was misdiagnosed as a cavity and had her "decayed" teeth extracted without addressing the radiation-affected areas. Because no effective treatment was taken in time, the malignant tumor caused by radium radiation rapidly enlarged in Mollie Maggia's jaw, and her gums, jaw, and other parts quickly eroded into powder. After suffering radiation destruction in her jaw and inner ear, she sadly died in extreme pain just eight months after her first dental visit in September 1922. She died at the hands of capitalist robbers!
*Cartoon depicting female workers suffering from radium radiation "death god"*
Around the same period, more and more female workers, like Mollie Maggia, developed similar symptoms such as hair loss, loose teeth, destruction of bones in certain parts of their bodies, and even cancers like skin cancer, cataracts, and laryngeal cancer. These are common symptoms after long-term exposure to nuclear radiation. If Mollie Maggia's death can be seen as an exception, then the increasing number of similar cases gradually reveal the truth. Merely these patients working in the U.S. Radium Corporation are enough to prove the point.
*Victims of radium radiation deadly destruction*
Can this be called an unintentional mistake by the capitalists of U.S. Radium Corporation? Is it just a tragedy caused by humans' failure to properly understand nature, and therefore no one should be blamed? No, this is absolutely not the case. The capitalists of U.S. Radium Corporation and their bourgeois engineers and scientists knew well the dangers of radium. They used various means to protect themselves from radium radiation, carefully avoiding areas with radiation, and chemists in the factory used lead shields, masks, tweezers, and other protective equipment when conducting chemical experiments with radium to avoid harm. However, for female workers, they used a different story. They claimed that the luminous paint they contacted was completely harmless, and even when the brushes soaked in luminous paint lost their sharpness, they induced female workers to contact the brushes with their lips and tongues to maintain the tip's sharpness. Almost all female workers were deceived, mistaking that they were only dealing with harmless luminous paint, and even applied luminous paint on their nails and faces for fun, or used it as makeup! Could this be considered a harm caused by radium itself? If not for the heartless capitalists cutting costs, disregarding human lives, and deliberately deceiving female workers into contact with deadly radium radiation, would such tragedies occur?
Regarding the reality that female workers suffered from various fatal diseases due to radium radiation, the capitalists of U.S. Radium Corporation not only showed no remorse but actively concealed the truth. To prevent the conspiracy from being exposed, they used their privileged status to force all doctors and dentists who treated the female workers not to disclose medical examination data, and spread rumors claiming that the diseases caused by radiation were due to improper use of X-ray machines by medical staff during treatment. They even shamelessly fabricated vulgar rumors, openly slandering the sick female workers as dying of syphilis caused by promiscuity, barbarically humiliating them as immoral women!
**"The despicableness of the means perfectly proves the despicableness of the purpose."**[^1] The eagerness of U.S. Radium Corporation's capitalists to cover up the truth about female workers' illnesses, even spreading such vicious rumors, vividly illustrates how crazed their harm to workers is.
Under the brutal persecution of U.S. Radium Corporation, female workers had nowhere to seek justice and no way to speak out. They endured the slander of the capitalist media, which labeled them as merely "sick" and unreasonable troublemakers, suffered the despicable humiliation of patriarchal society calling them immoral women, yet still had to bear the severe damage to their bodies alone. Capitalism is our disaster!
Female Workers' Justice and Rights Struggle
*Victimized female worker giving testimony in court surrounded by other victimized workers*
But, **where there is oppression, there is resistance**.[^2] Faced with the heinous crimes of U.S. Radium Corporation, the female workers did not succumb but actively launched righteous rights protection activities, widely exposing their suffering to society, and striving to unite the oppressed classes and strata for support. In 1925, a female worker named Grace Fryer attempted to sue U.S. Radium Corporation, but no lawyer dared to risk offending the monopoly capital. She did not give up but persisted in fighting for two years, attracting widespread attention and support from the American people. Besides Fryer, more and more victimized female workers, under the pressure of vulgar rumors from the patriarchal society, stood up to accuse U.S. Radium Corporation of their brutal persecution. Ultimately, four victimized female workers joined Fryer in filing a collective lawsuit against U.S. Radium Corporation.
In the then American society, women’s status was especially low; bourgeois public opinion openly promoted women as only suitable for dressing up and catering to men’s lust, and workers were regarded as "talking tools," with almost no democratic rights. The right to assemble and strike was severely restricted, and unions were almost entirely controlled by the worker aristocracy. Despite these circumstances, these victimized female workers dared to challenge such a giant as U.S. Radium Corporation, demonstrating their extraordinary courage. Their fighting spirit is truly admirable.
Thanks to their relentless efforts, good news kept coming: in 1927, U.S. Radium Corporation was forced to shut down its factory in Orange due to public opinion pressure. Fryer finally found a progressive lawyer sympathetic to the victims to help her sue U.S. Radium. During the evidence collection, she also received assistance from some progressive scientists and democrats, enabling the victims to prove from a pathological perspective that radium radiation was deadly, and that long-term exposure to luminous paint was the main cause of severe health damage and unnatural death among female workers. Although the court, siding with the bourgeoisie, delayed the trial for several months, the case was finally forced to open in January 1928.
*Five victims from the New Jersey "Radium Girls" incident—Grace Fryer, Quinta MacDonald, Albina Larice, Edna Hussman, and Katherine Schaub*
In court, the struggle continued. Even though the crimes of U.S. Radium were irrefutable, they still tried every means to distort facts and slander the female workers. The hired lawyer Markley aggressively questioned all scientists and witnesses providing scientific support and testimony for the female workers, using various cunning tactics to doubt their academic qualifications or credibility, and attempted to induce the female workers to make false statements. He foolishly thought that sophistry could cover up his capitalist master's heinous crimes, and looked down on the "uncultured" and "unscientific" female workers, believing they had no way to resist his distortions and slanders.
**"The most contemptible are the cleverest, and the noble are the most foolish."**[^3] Contrary to Markley's arrogance, the female workers responded with simple yet powerful counterattacks. The first to speak, Edna Hussman, whose arm was severely damaged and even too weak to raise her hand to swear, still bravely appeared in court to testify despite her suffering and pain, exposing the darkness of U.S. Radium with her personal experience. Fryer recounted her tragic experience in court, paying attention to every detail, combining logical reasoning with sincere emotion, and even demonstrating the entire process of applying paint with a brush touching her lips. Her touching and clever accusations drew praise from the reporters present and defeated Markley's accusations. Following her, other female workers also appeared one after another, providing irrefutable testimony with their personal experiences. One of them recalled, "I thought this painful and terrible experience... would never end," feeling extremely distressed, but when she thought about "what else can we do to fight for the justice we deserve," she gathered her courage again, endured the pain, and persisted to the end. Ultimately, Markley was defeated in the debate, and the crimes of U.S. Radium were confirmed.
Seeing that they could not dominate through force, and with their defeat in court evident, the company was forced to attempt an out-of-court settlement to end the matter. Capitalist entrepreneurs exploited the female workers' lack of experience and spontaneous class consciousness, trying to reach an out-of-court settlement before the verdict, suppressing further resistance. After negotiations, the female workers accepted an out-of-court settlement: each would receive $10,000 (about $138,606 today), a lifelong pension of $600 (about $8,316), and the company would cover all medical and litigation expenses before and after the settlement.
For these five female workers, this was undoubtedly a huge victory, securing them a worry-free life in their remaining days. For the entire proletariat, their victory proved that persistent struggle can turn all reactionaries into paper tigers. It inspired the fighting spirit of all proletarians, tarnished the reputation of U.S. Radium, and caused its business to plummet. Many other victimized female workers saw hope for victory and launched lawsuits against U.S. Radium. In Ottawa, Illinois, victims working at a radium dial manufacturing company—Radium Dial Company—also began to resist. One victim named Catherine Donohue filed a lawsuit against Radium Dial in 1934, and after four years of arduous struggle, she finally won the case in 1938.
*Six victims from the Ottawa "Radium Girls" incident—Helen Munch, Marie Rossiter, Marguerite Glacinski, Mrs. Olive Witt, Frances O'Connell, and Maxine Smith*
Until then, U.S. Radium still refused to admit its heinous crimes, and other workers in the factory continued long-term contact with radium radiation without safety measures. The U.S. bourgeois government did not officially recognize the dangers of radium radiation, nor did it force relevant enterprises to provide effective safety measures for workers exposed to radioactive substances. However, from then on, American women began to refuse to work in radium dial factories, avoiding being deceived like their unfortunate sisters.
After the outbreak of World War II, due to the surge in demand for radium dials for wartime needs and the labor shortage caused by the war, the U.S. bourgeois government was forced to establish a series of safety standards to prevent workers from radiation harm, requiring all relevant enterprises to provide effective protective measures for workers in contact with radioactive substances, and officially recognizing radium poisoning as an occupational disease. Many victims had already died early due to worsening health, but their righteous struggle ultimately achieved victory. They forced the bourgeoisie to make concessions, securing rights for themselves and the entire proletariat. From then on, all workers in industries involving radioactive substances had safety measures, and incidents of workers dying from radiation ceased.
Undoubtedly, these achievements should be credited to the female workers who first stood up to challenge private ownership and patriarchy, openly fighting the bourgeoisie. They demonstrated to society that women are not powerless ornaments to be toyed with by men, nor are they inferior "cheap labor" earning meager wages. Instead, they are a large, united, and courageous backbone within the proletariat. Without the struggle of working women, workers' production safety cannot be guaranteed, and the victory of socialist revolution for the ultimate liberation of the proletariat and all humanity would be impossible. Their struggle should not be forgotten or buried in the dust of history, nor should it be used as a tool by reactionary writers like Lovecraft to gain fame. Their experiences should teach us this truth—only the oppressed are the most powerful, and only through persistent struggle can the oppressed achieve final victory.
[^1]: Engels,
Conditions of the Working Class in England,
Marx & Engels Collected Works, Vol. 2, 1957.
[^2]: Mao Zedong, quoted from
People’s Daily, May 22, 1968.
[^3]: Mao Zedong,
On Education Revolution by Chairman Mao, People's Publishing House, 1967.
[^4]: The U.S. court requires witnesses to swear an oath before testifying to ensure the truthfulness of their testimony.
