Gordon Haskell
Template:TOCnestleft Gordon K. Haskell was the first president of the Association for Union Democracy. He has been active in union and political struggles for sixty years. In the late 1990s He was honored (together with his wife, Rachel Haskell ) as "Democrat of the Year" in Santa Cruz County, California.[1]
Haskell died in October 2002 of a heart attack
Socialist activism
Haskell's socialist activism went back to the Upton Sinclair campaign for Governor in California and back to the various Shachtmanite political organizations—the Workers Party and the Independent Socialist League. For many years, he was co-editor, with Hal Draper, of the ISL’s newspaper Labor Action. He also had a stint working for the American Civil Liberties Union.[2]
Independent Socialist League
Prominent members of the Independent Socialist League included Hal Draper and Ann Draper, Julius Jacobson and Phyllis Jacobson, Max Shachtman, Al Glotzer, Herman Benson, Gordon Haskell, Ernest Rice McKinney, Saul Mendelson, Deborah Meier, Don Chenoweth, Sam Bottone, Joe Friedman (Carter), Paul Bernick, Jack Rader, Carl Shier, Lewis Coser, Ernest Erber, Stanley Plastrik, Irving Howe, B.J. Widick.[3]
Democratic Socialists of America
Leo Casey first met Gordon Haskell when Michael Harrington persuaded him to come out of retirement to work as the DSA organizational director. Casey joined Maxine Phillips, Holly Graff and Haskell as the first four full-time national directors in the newly formed Democratic Socialists of America.[4]
As at August 5, 1989, Gordon Haskell, Santa Cruz, California, was listed as a possible California Local Representative for the Democratic Socialists of America.[5]
California DSA “Key” list
In 1993 Gordon Haskell of Santa Cruz, California was on a list of “Key’ California Democratic Socialists of America contacts.[6]
Democratic Party
In Brooklyn and later in Santa Cruz, where he re-retired, Gordon and his wife, Rachel, were stalwarts of the local reform Democratic Party club.
In Brooklyn, they played a central role in mobilizing DSA to force an anti-gay clubhouse politician, Tom Cuite, who had kept civil rights legislation out of the City Council for years, into early retirement in the face of sure defeat by Stephen DiBrienza.[7]
In 2001, both Gordon and Rachel Haskell served on the Santa Cruz Democratic Party Central Committee.
Association for Union Democracy
In 2008 Gordon Haskell was listed on the Advisory Board[8] for the Association for Union Democracy.
References
- ↑ http://www.laborers.org/Dissent_Haskell.html
- ↑ http://www.dsausa.org/dl/Winter_2002.pdf
- ↑ TYR, April/May 2013]
- ↑ http://www.dsausa.org/dl/Winter_2002.pdf
- ↑ Possible California Local Reps. for August 5, 1989 Palo Alto Meeting
- ↑ CA DSA Key list January 24 1993
- ↑ http://www.dsausa.org/dl/Winter_2002.pdf
- ↑ http://www.uniondemocracy.org/Home/aboutaud.htm#staff