The grassroots work done at the Garment Worker Center is centered on workers and their workplace issues, Yet, when we didn’t give room to create a location for full richness of emotional feelings for men, we saw and heard from families that the men who were members were abusing alcohol, carrying out emotional violence and control of their families. It meant their involvement with the organization was reenforcing patriarchal violence at home and a reenforcement of what is considered ‘masculine’ or ‘tough’ behavior. Whereas, when we made room within for men to discuss their emotions beyond anger and when we discussed workplace oppression and how it triggered issues around their own experiences of abuse as children, many of the men were able to participate more con- sistently in meetings and able to obtain deeper involvement and support of their families.
