The Volunteer the Volunteer

“...and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” ABRAHAM LINCOLN TheThe VVolunteerolunteer JOURNAL OF THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE Vol. XXV, No. 2 June 2003 The Vets take the stage while the band plays songs of struggle and protest at the New York annual reunion, April 27, 2003. See page 3 for story. Photos by Richard Bermack Letters Dear Editor, I met Harry Fisher in Madrigueras. A kind, gentle, sweet, strong, very determined comrade. He told the municipal authorities about his stay in their town. Said he: “The first time in my life I felt that I had a family.” There were tears and abrazos. I salute Harry posthumously for the last time. Un abrazo fuerte. Gino Baumann Costa Rica ALBA board member Burt Cohen congratulates John Dear Volunteer, Brademas, President Emeritus of New York University and I meet Bill Susman at the exhibit "Shouts from the Wall". President of the King Juan Carlos Center and Michael I talked with him about what it was like to be a soldier Nash head of the Tamiment Library on receiving the NEH and about his experience in the Spanish Civil War and grant. World War II. He was very nice and he roughhoused with me. He seemed really cool. I liked him a lot. NEH Funds Archives Malcolm Lee, age 11. The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a two-year $262,662 grant to New York WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORG University’s Tamiment Library to process to and pre- Make a donation on line. We now accept serve the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives—the most important historical collection in the United States docu- credit cards. Support ALBA's important menting American participation in the Spanish Civil work. Donations are tax deductible. War. The grant will make it possible for the Library to preserve the archive and provide access to it. The project will arrange, describe, and conserve 333 linear feet of manuscript and printed material, more than The Volunteer 100 reels of microfilm, 5,000 photographs, 475 audio cas- Journal of the settes, 89 reel-to-reel tapes, 150 hours of film and video Veterans of the tape, 120 posters, 6 paintings and oversized documents, Abraham Lincoln Brigade and a large collection of regalia including buttons, badges, medals, uniforms, banners, and flags. an ALBA publication After this work is finished New York University 799 Broadway, Rm. 227 Libraries will mount a Web-based exhibit describing the New York, NY 10003 history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the ALBA collection. This will be followed by a schedule of regular (212) 674-5398 exhibits and an annual lecture series hosted by New York University’s King Juan Carlos Center. The expecta- Editorial Board tion is that once the ALBA Archive is fully accessible, Peter Carroll • Leonard Levenson students and scholars from all over the world will come Gina Herrmann • Fraser Ottanelli to the Tamiment Library to use it. Abe Smorodin Lincoln vets and their families are invited to help continue to build this important collection. This winter Design Production the Archie Brown Papers were added to the Archive and Richard Bermack the Robert Colodny Papers will be coming soon. Editorial Assistance For information about making donations to the Carla Healy-London ALBA Collection, please contact Julia Newman, Executive Director, ALBA, 799 Broadway, Rm 227, New Submission of Manuscripts York, NY 10003. Phone 212-674-5398; or email: Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk. [email protected]. E-mail: [email protected] 2 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 End of An Era Bill Susman Bill spent his first years. The household was a transit point for radicals 1915-2003 passing through the area. Both par- By Cary Nelson ents worked in clothing factories. Photos by Richard Bermack Anna was active in the ILGWU, as There really were only two was Bill’s great aunt Sarah, who options—getting wounded or getting lived for some time in the household. killed. This a young lieutenant in the Charles was a Socialist Party mem- Lincoln Battalion realized as he start- ber when his son was born, and he ed up a steep hill in the Ebro valley became a charter member of the new near Gandesa. The Americans and Communist Party. The marriage col- their Spanish comrades were caught lapsed when Bill was about six years in a crossfire between two machine old; in 1929 Bill and his father moved gun emplacements above them. The to the Bronx. Bill was an honors stu- idea that you could pass through dent in high school, but nonetheless that ricocheting rain of bullets felt restless. unscathed was not worth entertain- Susman entered the party’s ing. But the Republic needed the junior Groups of America at age ten, high ground. The effort had to be then became a Young Pioneer. They made whether or not it was realistic. sent him to Chicago to attend the As Bill Susman would learn over first national Unemployment and over again in Spain, occupying Councils convention; immediately the high ground morally did not after that he graduated into the guarantee possession of the equiva- Young Communist League. By that called down for a Waldorf salad. Bill lent geographical or political terrain. time, in a Bronx high school, he was hadn’t a clue. In recompense they Like so many of his lifetime com- simultaneously taking courses at the kept him at the job without quarter. rades on the Left, he would learn the Party’s Worker School. He was eager He never quite got out of his lesson repeatedly in the years to for adventure, for travel, and Left clothes, but when the captain came come. But he did indeed live to scale politics had become central to his down for a visit a few days later he other mountains. On that day in 1938 life. He undertook some special took a liking to the ship’s young he was wounded in the elbow and work under the name William scullery scoundrel and invited him crawled behind a terrace to avoid Dorno. The new first name stuck, on deck to learn something about being shot again. Carried out of and he became William Susman. He being a sailor. He had a steering les- action, he would live to win and lose dropped out of school and in 1934 son and adapted obliquely to many future battles, bearing with was assigned to help the striking another task. Directed by a seaman him at once the knowledge that you Maritime Workers Industrial Union. with a heavy Brooklyn accent to call are never wholly in control of your When the strike ended, he decided to out “The lights are bright, sir,” when own fate and that the only compen- go to sea. eight bells rang, thereby assuring all satory leverage you have is never to On the New York docks he that the running lights were on, Bill exercise less than a maximum effort. showed a skill he would employ suc- heard the command through his Those of us who worked with cessfully the rest of his life— Yiddish ears and for a time bellowed Bill over the years would come to choosing just the right words to tip “Litza Britza.” feel a certain awe at what a maxi- an interaction his way. From on After passing through the mum effort meant for him. When board ship they called out to the men Panama Canal and disembarking on you were in the crossfire between his below looking for work to say they shore leave at San Francisco, he was will and his affection you were not needed a chef’s assistant. Never skip- ready to become involved in a West likely to forget the experience. ping a beat then or thereafter, Bill Coast strike by way of the waterfront He began life as a red diaper proclaimed himself well seasoned. YCL. Back in New York in 1936, he baby, born Samuel Susman to “Where have you worked?” “The went to sea again, joining the east Charles and Anna Susman in New Hotel Edison, the Roosevelt, the coast strike when the ship docked in Haven, Connecticut, on September Waldorf.” It was the third claim, the Baltimore. By then, a young CP 25, 1915. They returned to their home topper,that got him in trouble a few member, he was ready for a still in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where days out to sea, when the captain Continued on page 18 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 3 Fighting for Peace Legacy of the Lincoln Brigade By Mark Jenkins at that time, still recov- ntil the middle of February, ering from surgery). the large urban campus of the Before long there was a UUniversity of Washington in second meeting with Seattle was quiet as a mouse. The over a hundred people 35,000 students and nearly 3,000 fac- on campus. ulty members seemed to be asleep as The next week a far as the looming war in Iraq was cold but very success- concerned. ful rally took over A few miles north of the campus, “Red Square,” the 87 year-old Brigade vet, Abe largest open space on Osheroff, heard the snoring. He the UW campus. became very upset. While in the Twelve hundred peo- midst of excruciating pain from a ple, mostly university herniated spinal disc, followed by personnel, gathered in delicate and dangerous surgery to the wind and rain. repair his spine, and a challenging Representatives from recovery period, he doggedly contin- faculty, students, and ued —even escalated his activism— staff declared they serving as the catalyst, mentor, were “breaking the strategist, and taskmaster for what silence” and began has become one of the largest anti- speaking out against war efforts on any college campus in the war.

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