[Marxism] fwd: Irving Beinin, Presente!

[dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Irving Beinin, Presente!
(August 15, 1919 - October 8, 2005)

Irving Beinin, a life-long socialist and activist for
peace, justice and equality, passed away October 8,
2005 at the age of 86 in New York. Irving, ever active
in one struggle or another, in one organization or
another, suffered a stroke nearly three years earlier,
which progressively weakened him.

Irving was born in New York City, and except for a
brief period when he was in Chicago as an industrial
organizer, was a life-long New Yorker. As a teenager he
saw first hand the impact of fascism, anti-Semitism and
racism, and joined the socialist-Zionist youth
organization, Hashomer Hatza'ir. Irving became one of
its national leaders.  At this time Hashomer Hatza'ir
did not support a Jewish state in Palestine but rather
a bi-national state.

Feeling the impact of the momentous events of World War
II and the debate over their meaning for the future of
socialism, he left Hashomer Hatza'ir in 1942 because it
was leaning towards pro-Soviet orthodoxy. Shortly
thereafter Irving became a Trotskyist, joining the
Socialist Workers Party. Irving became a life-long
partisan of the international working class and a
supporter of revolutionary struggles and governments
around the world.

In 1949 Irving was sent to Chicago by the SWP to be an
industrial organizer. He lived in Hyde Park and worked
with a group of comrades, some of whom would become
part of the reform leadership of the US Steel
Southworks local of the Steelworkers, Local 65, nearly
a quarter of a century later. While in Chicago, in
1950, he campaigned for Congress on the SWP ticket on
an anti-Korean war platform. This campaign was managed
by a long-time comrade, Frank Fried.

Irving's experiences in Chicago, led him to join with
others in the SWP in an effort to turn the organization
to the side of the working class as it actually
existed, "warts and all."  These comrades saw hope in
the U.S. working class and trade union movement, and
were encouraged by the union of the AFL and CIO in the
midst of the McCarthy period. However, the SWP
leadership took a different position, and many of the
industrial cadres of that organization either left or
were expelled. Irving was among those who gathered
around the new magazine Monthly Review, beginning a
long relationship with the editors of this new Marxist
journal.

Returning to New York, Irving initially resided in
Queens and became an active supporter of the developing
civil rights movement and the ban-the bomb movement,
working in SANE, for a halt to the testing of nuclear
weapons.

Later, Irving moved to the Lower Eastside of Manhattan,
where he would become a community activist for nearly
four decades. He was an early member and leader of the
Lower Eastside Mobilization for Peace, LEMPA, the
community based peace organization. Linking the peace
and civil rights movements with those of housing
activism, the lower eastside was able to elect a
community activist to represent the neighborhood in the
City Council. Irving was a founding member of what
became the city-wide umbrella peace coalition, the
Fifth Avenue Peace Parade Committee. From the mid-60s
until the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, Irving was
part of the city-wide leadership of the anti-war
movement, as well as a participant in the numerous
national anti-Vietnam war coalitions.

During this period, Irving was the General Manager and
later, Business Manager of The Guardian (USA), the
radical independent weekly newspaper published between
1948 and 1992. The paper was founded by James Aronson,
Cedric Belfrage and John McManus, and grew out of the
1948 Progressive Party campaign of Henry Wallace.
During Irving's tenure, the paper grew along with the
New Left. It was the largest circulation left weekly
newspaper of the time.

When Irving left the Guardian in the early 70s, he
continued his involvement in his Lower Eastside
community, and became active in the Puerto Rican
Solidarity Committee. He helped fill Madison Square
Garden in the mid-70s for a rally for Puerto Rican
independence, and decades later would help lead a
community delegation to the Puerto Rican island of
Vieques, to demand the end of U.S. military testing.

Irving was one of the founders, along with Arthur Kinoy
and others, of the National Committee for Independent
Political Action, which helped explore and encourage
independent and third party candidates and campaigns
throughout the country. He was active in his
neighborhood for independent politics, as well as
supporting national third party efforts. These efforts
resulted in the formation of CoDA, the Coalition for a
District Alternative, the Lower East Side's progressive
community group, which elected its leader, Margarita
Lopez, first as a Democratic district leader and then
as a two-term City Council member.

Irving was a charter member of the Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, (CCDS),
becoming the coordinator of the Metro New York CCDS in
the mid-90s and a member of the National Coordinating
Committee of the CCDS. Irving and his wife Mimi, saw
the organization as the attempt to build a non-
sectarian, democratic and pluralist socialist
organization in the United States.

During the last years of his life, in addition to his
activities with CoDA and the CCDS, Irving was a
supporter of United for Peace and Justice, the anti-
Iraq war national coalition, and the National Coalition
for Jobs for All. For a period, he edited the national
newsletter for the jobs coalition.

Friends and co-workers describe Irving as a "model
activist" and as a dedicated humanitarian. Irving was
always concerned about others well-being, health and
welfare. Friends and comrades could always count on
Irving calling, visiting, or offering to help in any
way that he could.

We are inspired by his optimism and faith in the
possibility of a better world. His memory lives in the
hearts of his comrades, friends, and family. Irving is
survived by Mimi Shuldiner, his wife and comrade of
many years; Carl Norton, his stepson and Heidi DeCoo,
his daughter-in-law; and other members of the Beinin
and Fischer families.

Donations in memory of Irving Beinin may be made to:
The Monthly Review Foundation, the Center for
Constitutional Rights, The Center for Cuban Studies,
The Brecht Forum, Committees for Democracy and
Socialism, The Middle East Research and Information
Project, or United for Peace and Justice.

Plans are being made for a future memorial.






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