Beth Semmer
Template:TOCnestleft Beth Semmer was the wife of William Massey.
Revolutionary couple
Five years after joining the Socialist Workers Party in the 60s, William Massey met, and became the partner of a Young Socialist Alliance recruit, Beth Semmer. The two had been together as friends and comrades for 50 years at the time of William’s death. They married in 1986 and Bill made a speech that concluded with, “Not the church not the state we alone decide our fate.” Beth was talking politics, singing songs like Jimmy Roger’s “Hobo Bill’”to him and holding his hand to the end.
The couple had begun questioning the politics of the SWP in the early 1970s. They were expelled in 1974 and Bill began hunting for a new party immediately. After participating in a march against racism in Boston with Workers World Party and hearing Vince Copeland, one of the founders of WWP, he joined them in 1975. It only took a couple of weeks to persuade Beth to follow.[1]
North Americans in Support of Angola
The Angola Support Conference ran from May 28 - 30, 1976 in Chicago. The event was sponsored by the U.S. Out of Angola Committee and the National Conference of Black Lawyers.
Beth Semmer of the Workers World Party was a delegate at the conference.[2]