Mark Lause
Template:TOCnestleft Mark A. Lause grew up in a small town blue collar family living quite literally at the gate of the factory where he parents worked. As a child, he saw them participate in the last gasps of the post-World War II strike wave. Initially radicalized by the class burden of the Vietnam War, he became active politically at college, where he joined the Students for a Democratic Society. During these years, the authorities also regularly used the power of the State against what was supposed to be their own people, thwarting the public will when inconvenient.
Lause concluded that the only real power the people have are their numbers and set about helping to mobilize them. When confusion about this in the SDS led to its disintegration, he rediscovered with thousands of others the tradition of socialism and class solidarity that had been actively suppressed through the 1950s. He joined the Young Socialist Alliance and the Socialist Workers Party, though his noisy discontent with their disinterest in regrouping a broad radicalism made his presence problematic. Early in its history, he became briefly involved in the International Socialist Organization, and became a founding member of Solidarity and left only when he realized that he was the only person in a meeting unhappy with the fact that everyone there had gray or white hair. Later, he came to share Peter Camejo’s hope that a revived movement would naturally coalesce in the context of constructing a mass independent Green Party.
As a professional historian, Lause has also focused his research on successful (and unsuccessful) movements of the nineteenth century. He remains active in his field and his workplace. Last year, local voters elected him their representative to the state committee of the Green Party of Ohio, where he continues to urge its reorganization so as to involve as many of its 100,000 voters as it can. He is also involved in helping to pull together a loose local network of socialists.[1]
Red Rose Collective
Bill Pelz joined the Chicago branch of the International Socialists (IS) at the beginning of the 1970s and soon became one of the best known leaders of the Left in Chicago. He was a founding member of the Red Rose Collective along with the historians Mark Lause and David Roediger, and a member of the New World Resource Center. Both Red Rose and New World were radical book stores and important local organizing and information centers.
North Star editorial board
In 2015, the North Star editorial board consisted of Jim Brash, Curtis Hinson, Matt Hoke, Mark Lause, Louis Proyect, Matt Roach.[2]
Cincinnati DSA Facebook group
Metro Cincinnati Democratic Socialists of America public Facebook group members, as of March 16, 2017, included Mark Lause.[3]
DSA Metro Cincinnati Members
Democratic Socialists of America - Metro Cincinnati Members Closed Facebook Group, June 2018.[4]
Members included Mark Lause.
Socialist Study & Education Group (Cincinnati DSA)
Metro Cincinnati Democratic Socialists of America Socialist Study & Education Group (Cincinnati DSA) Public Group.
Accessed May 26, 2018;[5]
- A group for educational discussion regarding socialism in the Greater Cincinnati area. Ran by Democratic Socialists of America, but anyone interested is welcome!
Members include Mark Lause.