role-modeling socialist behavior The Life and letters of Isaac Rab karla doris rab role-modeling Socialist behavior The life and letters of Isaac rab Published November 2010 by Lulu.com Printed in USA The author gives her permission in advance to anyone wishing to reproduce or store this book in any form, or transmit it by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. It just might somehow help speed up the Revolution! ISBN 978-0-557-52860-8 contents Acknowledgments page viii Preface page 1 Chapter One: Beginnings page 4 1893 -1915 Chapter Two: Rab becomes a revolutionary page 14 1915 -1921 Chapter Three: The Birth of Boston Local page 28 1921 -1932 Chapter Four: The Local in its Heyday page 50 1932 -1947 Chapter Five: Changes page 79 1948 -1973 Chapter Six: The End of an Era page 119 1973 -1986 Epilogue page 136 The Rab-Canter Correspondence page 141 Selected Letters page 164 A Sample of Rab’s Writings page 426 “Proletarian Logic” page 426 “Our Practical Program” page 428 “Requirements for Membership” page 433 “A Rose by Any Other Name” page 436 Fred Jacobs page 437 “Is Labor the Cause of Inflation?” page 439 “Is There Room for Differences of Opinion in a Socialist Party?” page 440 “A Letter Not Fit to Print” page 443 Obituary for Manlio Reffi page 445 “A New Approach to Crime” page 446 An Introduction to John Keracher’s How the Gods were Made page 449 “The Facets of Socialism” page 456 “The Missing Ingredient” page 457 Chapter Notes page 458 Index page 482 Abbreviations and Acronyms page 492 acknowledgments I would like to say “Thank you” to the following people for their help and support in the creation of this book: To Dawn Albright, for giving me feedback early on about material that needed to be weeded out (and suggesting the addition of “Chapter Notes” where I couldput the extra material), andfor giving a final read to the final version; to Adam Buick, for reading the manuscript with a critical eye; to Mardon (Coffin) Cooper, for making available a tape recording of the oral history she did with Rab in 1978, for taping her own oral history with me during 2005 and 2006, for providing me with many photographs, and for her ongoing emotional support; to Trevor Goodger-Hill, for allowing me to use the poem “Rab’s Mathematics”; to Thomas Jackson, for reminiscing about Detroit Local in an email dated Jan. 17, 2006; to Peter E. Newell, for reading the manuscript at several points along the way, correcting errors and making welcome suggestions; to Ralph Roberts, for participating in oral his­ tory about Boston Local; to Caroline (“Kari”) Rab, for participating in oral history especially about the family and Rab’s old age; to Bob Weisberg, for participating in oral history about Capen Street days and the Hecht House; to Bella (Polatnik, Alpine) Wheeler, for participating in oral history about Camp Nicht Gedaiget and about Symphony Road; and — most of all — to Ron Elbert, for reading all the various versions of this text; for putting up with me for the ten years it took me to write it; for his many helpful editorial suggestions; and for his unwavering support, both emotional and technical, throughout the whole process. “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.” — Victor Hugo RAB’S MATHEMATICS To everyone’s protestations against his socialist “utopia” with “one cannot change the world into a moneyless cooperative world society without leaders or borders” he would invariably point out the logic of mathematics: if every world socialist — between 50 and 100,000 at least at present — followed his dream of the goodlife and convinced just one person and they in turn convinced just one person the revolution would be here in a year — “there is nothing as powerful as an IDEA whose time has come.” — Trevor Goodger-Hill “The most important task facing humanity today is to spread knowledge and understanding of the case for socialism.” — Isaac Rab preface All over the world, we see anxiety about money, homeless people asking for help, the pressures of earning a living putting extra stress on all kinds of relationships. These things are everywhere we look. They are hard to miss. We are living in a society based on greed. Capitalism needs to keep expanding until it eats up the whole world. It isn’t very hard to recognize that no matter what our standing in this capitalist world — whether we’re on Welfare, we’re working for a living and making it, or we have enough capital so we’re all set even if we don’t work — we are all adversely affected by the stress of living in this sick, greedy society. What is much harder to recognize is that it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a viable alternative to capitalism. My grandfather, Isaac Rab, knew this ’way back in 1916. Rab always said that the most important task facing humanity today is to spread knowledge and understanding of the case for socialism. This little book in your hand is my contribution to that task. I am one of the “world socialists” referred to in the poem on the previous page. The reason spreading knowledge and understanding of the case for socialism is so important is that World Socialism can only come into being when huge numbers of ordinary people understand what it is, and want it enough to commit themselves to making it work. That’s the one factor lacking to establish World Socialism right now. All the other mate­ rial conditions necessary for a socialist revolution, such as the techno­ logical ability to produce abundance, are already in place. Once there is a general recognition that global capitalism is clearly not operating in the interests of most people, and never could be reformed so that it would — and that a viable alternative to global capitalism does truly exist, the rest will be easy. It might sound like a waste of time to devote one’s whole life to telling people what’s wrong with the world, and why and how to change it to make it better. In fact, it might sound so impossible as to be pretty nutty. But on the other hand, I remember Papa Rab saying, when we first started talking about these things together, “Just picture what it would be like. You know you’re no smarter than anyone else. Other people can do 1 2 ROLE-MODELING SOCIALIST BEHAVIOR the same as you. Picture what would happen if thousands and thousands of people were doing the same thing as you are.” (He spoke in italics a lot.) “Think what would happen then. Just multiply yourself by about a million and imagine what an impact that would have.” Meaning, it has to begin somewhere. That’s why the title of this book is Role-Modeling Socialist Behavior. Papa spent his whole adult life role modeling socialist behavior: i.e., spreading socialist knowledge and understanding every chance he got. That’s how a convinced socialist should behave, because if we all did that, why then we’d have socialism! So Rab would strike up conversations with anyone who crossed his path, and nine times out of ten, he’d bring the subject of the conversation around to socialism pretty soon. He said that was planting seeds. It’s a good touchstone to use, that concept of multiplying yourself by a million or so. It’s especially handy when you vote, for instance. If you think about it that way, it doesn’t seem so nutty to spend your life telling people what’s wrong with the world, and why and how to change it to make it better. A word about me: Born into the Rab family in 1940, I learned about socialism by osmosis, first at endless discussions around our kitchen table, later at WSP socials in our living room, then in meetings and classes at Headquarters. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know that I was a socialist, in the same way I knew that I was a little girl, that I was a Bostonian, that I was a Rab. Rab was my “Papa.” For a long time, though, I didn’t really under­ stand what being a socialist meant; or what “the movement” was all about; or even what “socialism” was. I remember walking home from Second Grade one day, when I noticed that red flags had been put up all over the neighborhood. Joyfully, I announced to my family, “The Revolution has finally happened!” Preface 3 “How do you know?” asked Papa. “They’ve put up scarlet banners! That’s the Socialist flag!” I enthused. Patiently, I was made to understand that those flags were being used to warn people away from a construction site, and that the Revolution probably wasn’t going to happen for quite a long time. Later on, when I was a bigger girl, I asked Rab to please explain to me what socialism was. He said it was three things: a science, a movement, and a system of society. He talked about the materialist conception of history, the class struggle, and a classless, moneyless society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instru­ ments of production. Well, that was quite a bit to digest all at once, but I tried. By the time I officially joined the World Socialist Movement in 1962, I had a good basic understanding of the case for socialism.