David Barkin's father

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think that David is still on the list.

April 6, 2000


      Solomon Barkin, 92,
      Economist in Labor
      Movement and Teacher

      By WOLFGANG SAXON

         olomon Barkin, a retired labor economist
         and professor emeritus at the University of
      Massachusetts who wrote prodigiously about
      working people, died on March 29 at his home
      in Leverett, Mass. He was 92.

      Professor Barkin spent 25 years in the labor
      movement, from 1937 to 1963, as director of
      research for the Textile Workers Union, now
      part of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial
      and Textile Employees. For the next five years,
      he was a manpower specialist and head of the
      social-affairs division of the Organization for
      Economic Cooperation and Development in
      Paris.

      He taught economics at Amherst from 1968 to
      1978, when he was given emeritus status. Then
      he was a visiting professor of economics at
      Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the
      Netherlands, and a senior Fulbright professor
      at Victoria University in Wellington, New
      Zealand.

      A native New Yorker, Professor Barkin
      graduated from City College in 1928 and
      received an M.A. degree at Columbia
      University in 1929. After stints as a City
      College instructor and assistant director of the
      State Commission on Old Age Security in
      Albany, he served on the labor advisory board
      of the National Recovery Administration and
      as a specialist in industrial economics in the
      Department of Commerce.

      His published work started in 1930 with a
      study of old-age security and extended into the
      1980's when he sat on the editorial boards of
      the Journal of Economic Issues and the
      French-language edition of Relations
      Industrielles, where he continued until 1991.
      He also helped edit periodicals like Technical
      Change and Manpower Planning, Arbitration
      Journal and International Labor.

      His experiences were reflected in the book
      "The Decline of the Labor Movement and
      What Can Be Done About It" (1961), in which
      he argued that unions were getting bogged
      down in administering contracts to the
      detriment of their role as instruments of
      change.

      His other books included "Worker Militancy
      and its Consequences, 1965-75" (1975). An
      updated edition, subtitled "The Changing
      Climate of Western and Industrial Relations,"
      appeared in 1983.

      Mr. Barkin is survived by his wife of 59 years,
      Elaine Rappaport Barkin; two sons, David, of
      Mexico, and Dr. Roger Barkin of Denver; a
      daughter, Amy Barkin of Bethesda, Md., and
      three grandsons.

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx