[6 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1987 Gary Meseke, a…]
1987 1987-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 6
6 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1987 Gary Meseke, a long-time socialist and union activist, died in Baltimore, Md., on April 10. He was 44 years old.
Meseke first became politically active during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and early '60s in Maryland. In 1962, he joined the Baltimore chapter of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), the youth organization of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Two years later, he moved to Boston where he became a central organizer of the anti-Vietnam War movement.
In 1968, Meseke was the YSA organizer at Kent State University in Ohio. When the university administration attempted to outlaw the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from the campus, Meseke and the YSA organized "Concerned Citizens of Kent" to protest the administration's attacks on democratic rights. Soon after, the SDS was reinstated at Kent State.
Meseke was also a talented and experienced trade-union activist—mainly as a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1304. In 1977, he was active in the Ed Sadlowski Steelworkers Fightback campaign. He also worked at the Todd Shipyards in San Francisco for a number of years.
Meseke was an active member of the YSA and SWP for 17 years. Though he did not remain an organized member of the Trotskyist movement, his commitment to the struggles of working people everywhere never wavered. He became a sympathizer of Socialist Action after its founding conference in October 1983.
Meseke will be greatly missed by all those who knew him and worked with him.—The editors Alternative Press center 1987-88 Directory of Alternative and Radical Publications.
Over 300 periodicals listed; $2.00.
Write: Alternative Press Center, P.O. Box 33109. Dept. N, Baltimore, MD 21218.