Biography
Joe Gilbert was a militant leader of the 1934 New York City taxi drivers' strike. On June 2, 1935 he was arrested in Newark, New Jersey as chairman of a banned performance of Clifford Odets's strike play 'Waiting for Lefty' at Ukrainian Hall; one of nine people seized in the police raid, he was held without bail over the weekend.
Joseph Gilbert appears in the National Civil Liberties Bureau's March 1919 compilation "War-Time Prosecutions and Mob Violence" among people convicted and jailed under World War I–era free-speech statutes — chiefly the Espionage Act, the Sedition Act, draft-obstruction charges, or wartime state and local laws. Per that record, on February 12, 1918 in Lakefield, Minnesota, he was sentenced: secretary Non Partisan League, 3 months on charge of unlawful assemblage. The NCLB — the direct predecessor of the American Civil Liberties Union — compiled these cases from April 1, 1917 to March 1, 1919 as a public record of the wartime suppression of free speech, a free press, and peaceful assembly.
Page 3 reports the criminal-libel prosecution of Sam Orner, Joseph Gilbert and William Gandall, leaders of the Taxicab Drivers Union of Greater New York, over Union Hackie allegations that Jerry Kamm improperly retained money assessed on drivers. The case was brought through Kamm and General Motors and dismissed by Magistrate Goldstein Monday August 20, 1934. The report characterizes it as an attempt to undermine the taxi union. It establishes prosecution and dismissal, without an individual physical-jail admission or time-served total. The taxi-union leadership context connects the printed Joseph Gilbert to the existing Joe Gilbert profile. This does not establish any identity connection to the inherited World War I Nonpartisan League entry. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n201-aug-22-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The June 30 issue individually identifies this taxi-union leader among those arrested on a disorderly-conduct accusation arising from an Arthur Garage union meeting the preceding week. The June 28 hearing was adjourned until July 31. This is a separate arrest from the Jerry Kamm criminal-libel summons and later dismissal; no exact arrest or physical release day is supplied. Daily Worker, June 30, 1934, page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n156-jun-30-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The June 2 Newark dispatch on page 2 names Gilbert among nine people held without bail after the Ukrainian Hall raid on Waiting for Lefty, and identifies the Fourth precinct at Seventeenth Avenue and Livingston Street. It says the arrest was last night, implying June 1, whereas the June 3 brief on page 3 also says last night, implying June 2. This same-issue relative-date discrepancy is retained without changing the existing case date. Ben Golden and Young Communist League organizer Joseph Brandt are specifically named; the ILD secretary is unnamed in the source, not Lee Stanton. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n132-NAT-jun-03-DW-Q.pdf
The June 26 report explicitly dates the Arthur Garage meeting arrest to June 20, 1934, after protest against Adolph Rabin’s dismissal for refusing the company union. The June 28 issue reports the June 27 hearing adjourned until June 28 by Judge Greenspan because the courtroom was packed with drivers. Disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic were the stated counts. These are developments in the existing Arthur Garage case, distinct from the Kamm criminal-libel case, and supply no physical release day. Sources: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n152-jun-26-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2 ; https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n154-jun-28-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
New Masses, June 11, 1935, printed page 27 / PDF page 30, dates the Newark Collective Theatre performance to June 1 and describes Gilbert as its chairman, arrested at Ukrainian Hall. It reports that all nine arrested people were denied bail, spent Saturday and Sunday in jail, and then eight were released on $25 bail each while ILD lawyer Harry Lipschutz was paroled. The charge was changed from unlawful assemblage to technical infringement of a minor city ordinance. No exact release day or final disposition is stated. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1935/v15n11-jun-11-1935-NM.pdf#page=30
