Biography
Irving Aarons organized Local 1250 of the Department Store Employees Union during the strike against May's Department Store in Brooklyn. Police arrested him and other union leaders in November 1935, and prosecutors sought conspiracy indictments under New York's revived anti-conspiracy law. Bail was set at $1,000. On April 1, 1936, prosecutors changed the charge to coercion; Aarons, Clarina Michelson, Elsie Monakian and Pearl Edison faced trial in the Court of Special Sessions.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 4: The May’s strike report lists Michelson, Aarons, Monokian and Edison as arrested in November 1935, originally accused of conspiracy to interfere with business. It says the grand jury declined that accusation and a coercion prosecution followed. Trial was scheduled for May 12 in Special Sessions, Part 1, before Solomon, Rayfiel and Hoffman. Three years was possible exposure, not an imposed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Page 4 names Clarina Michaelson, Irving Aarons, Elsie Monokian and Pearl Edelson as the May’s strike coercion defendants scheduled for May 12. These spelling variants are retained in source context and matched to the existing strike cohort. The ILD says the grand jury rejected Geoghan’s conspiracy approach and he then pursued other counts. This is a pretrial defense report, not an imposed term or proof of physical discharge. A pre-existing separate Elsie Monokian record is flagged in the audit; this publication uses the older, fuller Elsie Monakian identity and performs no consolidation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n111-NY-May-08-1936-DW-Q.pdf
