H. Bruce Franklin
Template:TOCnestleft Howard Bruce Franklin is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.[1] He is the husband of Jane Franklin.
National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee
As of May 1964, H. Bruce Franklin English Stanford University, was listed as a sponsor of the Communist Party USA front, National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Venceremos
Founded in 1966 by Aaron Manganiello, the originally Latino left-wing protest organization was named for Che Guevera’s battle cry, “We will prevail!” By 1970, Venceremos had evolved into a multicultural Maoist/Communist revolutionary brigade that was a mainstay at any mid-Peninsula protest in those years. Under the leadership of Stanford Professor and Melville scholar H. Bruce Franklin (fired in 1972 for leading a student takeover of the university’s computerlab), Venceremos took an active role in community issues and demonstrations.
Revolutionary Union
Franklin was a founder of the Revolutionary Union, which later became the Revolutionary Communist Party.[2]
Origins of the Revolutionary Union
Students for a Democratic Society met in June 1969 in Chicago. By this time, S.D.S. had more than a hundred thousand members, making it the largest leftist organization in the United States. Its politics were anti-imperialist and somewhat Marxist, although anarchist currents existed in the organization, as well. During the convention, three ideological groupings became clear. One was led by the Progressive Labor Party faction and espoused a Maoist philosophy, another was the Weatherman faction, also Maoist, but also a follower of third-world revolutionary nationalism, and the third dominant grouping was Marxist-Leninist. This latter grouping was originally known as Revolutionary Youth Movement 2 (RYM 2). As time progressed, RYM 2 splintered into smaller formations, with one of the largest organizations calling itself the Revolutionary Union (RU).
R.U. began in the San Francisco Bay Area under the leadership of Jane Franklin, Bruce Franklin and Bob Avakian.[3]
Communist "Manifestivity"
On October 30 and 31, 1998 the Brecht Forum presented the "Communist Manifestivity -150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto" at at Cooper Union's Great Hall, New York.
One of the many workshops at the Manifestivity was;
Prisons: Repression and Class War; with Pam Africa, Panama Vicente Alba, H. Bruce Franklin, Bob Lederer and Cleo Silver.
Socialist scholars
At the 2000 eighteenth annual Socialist Scholars Conference in New York, Utopian visions with bite were the topic of a panel on science fiction and socialism organized by DSA. Authors Terry Bisson, Bears Discover Fire, and Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide, joined Rutgers professor H. Bruce Franklin and Australian critic Justine Larballestier. The Nation UN correspondent and NY Democratic Socialists of America member Ian Williams reported that the people at the panel were excited by the fact that “Sci-fi allows one to try out our ideas. Most socialist utopianism is boring, conflict-free, nothing to work out. Sci-fi adds back some of the clash of ideas, interests, reintroduces evil.” Next year we hope there will be other panels on detective fiction, movies, maybe sports.[4]
"Support Bill Ayers"
In October 2008, several thousand college professors, students and academic staff signed a statement "Support Bill Ayers" in solidarity with former Weather Underground Organization terrorist Bill Ayers.
In the run up to the U.S. presidential elections, Ayers had come under considerable media scrutiny, sparked by his relationship to presidential candidate Barack Obama.
- "We write to support our colleague Professor William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who is currently under determined and sustained political attack...
- We, the undersigned, stand on the side of education as an enterprise devoted to human inquiry, enlightenment, and liberation. We oppose the demonization of Professor William Ayers."
H. Bruce Franklin of the Rutgers University, Newark signed the statement.[5]