Lifetime Social Justice Award

Friday I attended a Conference at Stony Brook University on “How Class Works.” Under the leadership of Professor Zweig, this has become a biennial international event. I participated in a panel discussion of the Labor Movement After WWII. That same evening at a banquet I was given an award for “Lifetime Contribution to Social Justice for Working People.”

In my many years in a variety of organizations I have been given awards, but never paid much attention to them. Why? Because I always had a strong feeling that my accomplishments were highly dependent on those around me who made my achievements possible. This award was different as it reflected on a whole lifetime of social action.

My old friend Stanley Aronowitz spent many hours on a Friday night traffic crawl to get to the Conference to introduce me to the attendees. He cited my book, “Wasn’t That a Time,” MIT Press, for those interested in my life story in the struggle for social justice. Stanley and a group of new social justice fighters are working on a new Left Manifesto. I sure look forward to that.

In accepting the award I told a very enthusiastic audience that my social action consciousness came from my German Anarchist father who jumped ship to stay in the US, specifically Brooklyn NY, to avoid service in the Kaiser’s army. Growing up in a world of socialist dreamers taught me the importance of seeing social injustice wherever it was, and the need to take action against it.

I told the audience of my earliest experiences of sitting on my father’s shoulders while welcoming Eugene Victor Debs when he came out of prison; of the 1927 candlelight vigil in Union Square for Sacco and Vanzetti who had been put to death that very night; of my time in the UAW; the TUUL Plumbers Helpers Local; the International Association of Machinists from which I was expelled three times; and in Montana for the Mine MIll & Smelter Workers.

In looking at our present situation, my plea to the gathered was for all of us to recognize the emerging energy crisis and its implications for working people. The Independent truck drivers road blocks protesting over $5 a gallon for Diesel is just the tip of the iceberg. The cost of all commodities that are oil dependent are about to go sky high. This will bring severe deprivation for those who can least afford it. Gasoline, food, heating oil, kerosene for cooking, plastics, medicines, and so many other everyday things are dependent on oil.
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If we don’t find constructive ways for people to direct their bitterness and rage over the skyrocketing cost of living, they will turn on each other. This is precisely what we witnessed in South Africa in the last few weeks. Black Citizens of South Africa turning on Blacks from Zimbabwe, Malawi, and other neighboring countries to vent their rage over their own frustration on innocent people who are also in desperate straights trying to find a place to make a living.

It is our responsibility to develop ideas about how to deal with this emerging crisis. Organizing people in support of those ideas is the social justice agenda for our time. To my pleasant surprise that brought the whole hall to its feet in applause. For a brief moment I thought I was back in 1938 making a speech to the unemployed on a street corner in the Bronx.

I thank the “How Class Works 2008 Conference” for that opportunity. And I do so heartily hope we can rise to the occasion.

I especially thank Kate for her support of the conference logistics. N.H.W.Y.