St. Paul meeting salutes Jake Cooper

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SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 1990 19 About 75 people gathered on Oct. 21 at St. Paul's Macalester College to celebrate the life of Jake Cooper, lifelong socialist and union activist, a founder of the Socialist Workers Party, the Fourth International, and Socialist Action.

Jake died on Sept. 8 at the age of 74. The audience included Jake's wife, Lillian Cooper, some of their children, and son-in-law, as well as leaders of the P-9 strike, fellow socialists, labor leaders, and students from the college.

All the highlights of Jake's life were touched on by the speakers: his participation in the historic Minneapolis Teamsters strikes and northwest organizing drives of the 1930s, his role as a guard for Leon Trotsky in Mexico, his frameup conviction and imprisonment by the federal government in 1944 under the notorious Smith "Thought Control" Act, his recent activity in support of the courageous strike of Local P-9 against the George A. Hormel Company, and his lifelong dedication to the movement for socialism and against the betrayals of Stalinism.

"Meaning of solidarity"

The meeting was opened by Peter Rachleff, associate professor of history at Macalester and former chairman of the Metro Area P-9 Support Committee, who had worked closely with Jake on that strike and other projects.

One of the most moving talks was given by Kathy Buck, former financial secretary of Local P-9 during the strike. Kathy said, "Tons of food were delivered to Austin during the strike, but Jake did more than help feed our bodies. He fed our minds with challenging ideas. He gave us strategies to ponder, to consider, to think about to discuss.

"But most of all, he showed us the true meaning of solidarity. Solidarity is a commitment of standing behind someone that's fighting for the same thing that you are. Solidarity isn't hinged on political beliefs, religious beliefs—solidarity is a commitment to mankind."

V.R. Dunne, Jr., a longtime friend of Jake and the son of the great labor and socialist leader V.R. Dunne, described an incident he witnessed in the early '30s during the Depression in Minneapolis. The sheriff had evicted a family from their home and had moved all their belongings onto the street.

As the neighbors gathered around the weeping wife to comfort her, a truck suddenly roared up and a halfdozen members of the Federal Workers section of Teamsters Local 544, one of whom was Jake, piled out of the truck.

The unionists proceeded to move all the family's belongings back into the house. Then they took the family to the local relief office, where a demonstration was held demanding increases in rental allowances.

Bernie Hesse, a leader of his UFCW local who worked side by side with Jake during the P-9 strike, spoke for everyone at the meeting who knew Jake when he said, "I learned many things from Jake and one was loyalty. He was always loyal to the workers and he never forgot them."

Bud Schulte, 1984 strike in St. Paul against Iowa Pork by UFCW Local 4-P, told about how he first met Jake and other socialists during that strike and, through their influence, became convinced of the need to build a socialist society.

"I learned a lot from him," Schulte said. "My life changed in 1984 because of people like Jake. I was 36 years old at that time and most radicals would say beyond saving, beyond conversion, beyond being able to see another world. And Jake, along with others, taught me how to do that." "They'll be forced to fight"

Brian Schwartz, a young member of the Twin Cities branch of Socialist Action, had an especially close relationship with Jake from the time Brian joined the movement about four years ago. He said:

"Jake would reinforce my confidence in the working class and in Socialist Action. Jake would say, 'Our ideas are based on the fact that everything is changing. Capitalism's prosperity is coming to an end. The capitalists will attack the workers' living standards and the working class will be forced to fight. And Brian, haven't we always been there providing leadership and ideas for the workers?'' Pete Winkels, former business agent of Local P-9, told the audience: "What we were undergoing in Austin with our strike was held together by a thin line of people like