Waiting For Lefty

Fatt addresses the union, asserting that the men don’t even understand everything that the union does to help them. He introduces Tom Clayton, who has traveled two hours from Philadelphia to describe his own experience striking with his fellow cab drivers in Philly three months prior. Clayton enters from the audience. Amiably, he explains that he’s one of them, and that Fatt is correct that striking is pointless. A voice from the audience heckles him, and Fatt sends his henchmen to subdue him. But the owner of the voice breaks free and races up to the stage, announcing that Clayton is really named Clancy, that he’s a company spy. Fatt prepares to throw the man out, but the man insists, “I paid dues in this union for four years […]. I gotta right and this pussy-footed rat ain’t coming in here with ideas like that. You know his record” (24).

Hotly, the man in the audience says that he prove his claims. “Clayton” calls him a liar. But the man goes on to declare that “Clayton” had worked for two years in the coal fields, breaking up unions and putting about 50 men in jail. He’s been union-busting all over the east coast in different industries. He works for a company that supplies men to infiltrate and spy when workers start talking about striking and protesting. “Clayton” angrily denies this, and the man reveals that he knows “Clayton” because “Clayton” is his brother. Fatt is surprised to learn this, and the man orders “Clayton” to get out, announcing, “Too bad you didn’t know about this, Fatt! […] The Clancy family tree is bearing nuts!” (25) “Clayton” runs away through the aisles, leaving the man “isolated clear on the stage [as] the hero of the next episode” (25).

Dr. Barnes, an older gentleman, argues furiously on the phone about a decision regarding Dr. Benjamin, in which Barnes had been outvoted. Barnes starts to pour a drink for himself, but there’s a knock at the door. Hiding the bottle, Barnes admits Dr. Benjamin. Benjamin is upset because he was scrubbed and prepared to perform a hysterectomy on a patient named Mrs. Lewis, but the surgery had been hijacked by Dr. Leeds, who Benjamin calls incompetent. Sardonically, Barnes notes that Leeds is the nephew of a senator. Barnes tries to change the subject and then says that Mrs. Lewis is “a charity case” (26), the only reason that Leeds has been allowed to take her surgery. Barnes is concerned for the patient’s life and Benjamin says that he is also angry. Benjamin expresses frustration at “this flagrant bit of class distinction” (26), but Barnes warns him that those words could get him into trouble. Reluctantly, Barnes informs Benjamin that the hospital board has decided to close Ward C, a charity ward, and that Benjamin would be one of the employees caught in the staff cutbacks. Benjamin wonders why he’s losing his job when he has seniority, and Barnes explains that it’s “an old disease, malignant, tumescent. We need an anti-toxin for it” (27)

Understanding, Benjamin comments that he has seen this sickness—antisemitism—before. He recognizes that he's being fired because he’s Jewish. Benjamin thinks of his parents, who had sacrificed to get him through medical school. Barnes says, “Doctors don’t run medicine in this country. The men who know their jobs don’t run anything here, except the motormen on trolley cars. I’ve seen medicine change—plenty—anesthesia, sterilization—but not because of rich men—in spite of them” (28). Barnes receives a phone call, and they learn that Benjamin’s former patient has died on the operating table. Benjamin is stunned and angry, and Barnes urges him to pick up the cause and fight. Benjamin says that he had once considered going to practice medicine in Russia to take advantage of their socialized medicine. But now, he is determined to stay in America and fight the system with the working class, even if he has to work as a cab driver to do it. There’s a blackout.

Lights come up on the union meeting, and Agate Keller, an older worker, addresses the group. A voice in the crowd heckles him, making fun of his glass eye, but Agate asserts that his glass eye is a badge of honor—proof that he is working class, having lost the eye while working in a factory when he was only eleven. Agate criticizes union officers, and when Fatt’s men start to advance on him, he sarcastically says that he isn’t talking about this union. Agate claims that he couldn’t wear his union badge today because it had caught fire, having “blushed itself to death” from shame (30). Fatt and the gunman manhandle Agate, but he breaks away and continues to speak. Agate gives the communist salute, comparing it to “an uppercut to the chin” (30). He exclaims, “Christ, we’re dyin’ by inches! For what? For the debutant-ees to have their sweet comin’ out parties at the Ritz! […] Christ, they make ’em with our blood. Joe said it. Slow death or fight. It’s war!” (30) Agate praises those who have spoken out and points out that the bosses want to turn “reds” into monsters, but the men who had fed him and helped him had called him Comrade. Agate urges them to stop waiting for Lefty in case he never comes. Suddenly, a man makes his way through the audience and tells everyone that Lefty has been found behind the garages, dead with a bullet in his head. Agate calls to the men assembled to fight, even to the death. They all start chanting, “STRIKE, STRIKE, STRIKE!!!” (31).