Candace Cohn, an activist and revolutionary socialist in the 1960s and 1970s, was a key leader and editor of the rank-and-file newspaper in the events described here. One of the first women accepted into the carpenters’ union, she was also one of the first women to enter the steel mills in the 1970s. She was a member of the International Socialists, the predecessor to today’s International Socialist Organization. She became a labor and civil rights lawyer in the 1980s, and wrote “The Assault on Civil Liberties” in ISR 22 (March-April 2002). This article presents, in the context of the broader rank-and-file movement, a case study from her experience at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works (United Steelworkers of America Local 1557), when women entered the mills and were forced by the companies to fight for their existence.