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The socialist movement stands on the shoulders of our veterans— those who fought the cops and company goons to build unions in this country; those who stood fast against the McCarthy witchhunt; those who marched against racism, North and South; those who welcomed the Cuban Revolution; and those who rejoiced as the anti-Vietnam War protests signaled the awakening of a rebellious youth movement Our heroes were forged in these struggles. They have paved an honorable path for the present generation to follow.

Capitalism attracts the Oliver Norths, Lee laccocas, and Ivan Boeskys who are valued because they have climbed over and above others. We ask nothing more than what you are able to contribute. We ask nothing less than a commitment to justice and equality-the was held on Feb. 4.

Milt Genecin, known in the socialist movement as Milt Alvin, died in Los Angeles on Jan. 26 after surgery for a broken hip. His health had been failing in recent years. Milt would have been 81 years old on March 3.

Milt was born in 1908 in Sebastopol, a Black Sea port in Czarist Russia, to an upperclass Jewish family. They came to the United States because the quota for Jews in good schools was filled.

After Milt graduated from high school, he went to work on Wall Street, and there he made money as a stock broker. But the 1929 crash-when Milt was just 21—made him question the American economic "facts of life." In his search for answers, he went to the public library and discovered Marxist writings there.

When Milt began to espouse some of the ideas he had been reading, a friend called him a "Trotskyist." Thereupon, Milt decided to find out exactly what a Trotskyist was. He soon met some of the followers of Leon Trotsky, whose group in the United States was called the Workers Party.

At that moment, the Trotskyists were about to enter the Socialist Party (SP). A large and youthful left wing had been growing inside the SP, providing a fertile field for a revolutionary program to take root. Milt joined the SP with the Trotskyists.

A couple of years later, the Trotskyists were bureaucratically expelled from the Socialist Party, but they took a majority of the SP youth with them. In 1938, Milt became a founder of the new Trotskyist organization, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

Milt was drafted into the army during World War II. After the war, a large wave of militancy came about in the labor movement. Milt was a member of the New York City SWP branch at the time, but soon went to Toledo, Ohio, to build the branch there. He became the branch organizer, an educator, and a builder of the party's national auto fraction.

Milt moved to Los Angeles during the 1950s. He was able to make a significant financial contribution to the party and carries a lot of the credit for keeping the party afloat during the witchhunt McCarthyite years.

He also served on the national committee of the SWP and was a frequent contributor to the party's public journals and its internal discussion bulletins. Even after the debilitating disease of emphysema took his health and physical strength, he continued to contribute as a writer and a teacher.

International The following message was sent to the memorial meetings for Milt Alvin in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The Fourth International salutes and pays tribute to the life of Comrade Milt Alvin, a founding member of the Fourth International, a life-long revolutionary socialist. Comrades such as Milt helped to keep the revolutionary concepts of socialism alive for the future generations.

He is now gone, but his life's achievements will be remembered and his vision of a socialist world will endure.

Long live his memory. Long live the Fourth International.—Livio Maitan, for the United Secretariat of the Fourth International Following are major excerpts from a message sent to the memorial meetings for Milt Alvin.

The Fourth International Tendency and Bulletin in Defense of Marxism, like Socialist Action, are dedicated to the Trotskyist Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution, and to the struggle for the working-class party in this country based on that program.

Our antecedents are in the history of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Therefore, it is appropriate for us to pay tribute to the memory of Milton Genecin [Milton Alvin], an influential leader in the SWP in the postworla war i years until his expuision for Trotskyism in 1983.

Students of the history of American Trotskyism will benefit from reading articles by Milt Alvin in The Militant, Fourth International, International Socialist Review, and Intercontinental Press-all SWP publications at different times over the past 40 years.

Also, articles by the same writer appeared in Socialist Action and most recently in Cahiers Leon Trotsky, September 1988, published in Grenoble, France.

Alvin also contributed regularly to the SWP internal discussion bulletins through the years. His contributions to the internal life of the SWP are a record of the tasks and perspectives of the party at every juncture of its post-war history.

He was prominent in the national committee, always present at its plenums and national conventions, where he invariably assumed responsibility on sub-committees and organizational tasks at most gatherings.

His political contributions were equally consistent. He always came prepared with careful reports and observations on party activity, and the changing political scene. Never shy in advancing his own opinions about what needed to be done, Milton counted himself among those who took "the long view of history."

He was never demoralized by an unfavorable turn in the class struggle nor discouraged by some temporary setbacks in SWP activity in the electoral arena or union field. He was profoundly convinced that the party, with its program for restructuring society, would surmount all obstacles.

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He took the long view of history