Roger Rader

Template:TOCnestleft Roger Rader (1929-2009) was a Tacoma Washington Communist Party USA activist.

In recent years he was active in Jobs with Justice, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Washington Network and with 97 year old James Cassidy was an active distributor of the Peoples Weekly World. He was predeceased by his former wife, Marge, his former wife Betty and his sisters Norma and Wanda. He is survived by his daughter Laurie, grandchildren Kendra and Quinn, and brothers Keith Rader, Neil Rader, Max Rader and Duwayne Rader.

Career and activism

Rader was active in United Boilermakers Local 502 and was a co-founder of the Boilermakers Old Timers Club. He also helped set up an unemployed workers’ center in Tacoma. He was drafted into the U.S. Army but broke his ankle and thus avoided deployment overseas. He later went to welding school and retired from the shipyard as a welder.

Washington State CP

In May 1995 The Communist Party USA newspaper Peoples Weekly World published a May Day supplement. Included was a page of greetings to Will Parry, sending "warmest greetings" for his 75th Birthday. Almost all of the more than 100 endorsers listed, were identified members or supporters of the Washington State Communist Party USA.

The list included Roger Rader.

Communist Party Labor Day call

The Communist Party USA paper People's Weekly World issued a statement to mark Labor Day 1995, entitled "We honor the dead and fight like hell for the living."

Of the more than 100 endorsers listed, almost all were identified members of the Communist Party USA.

Roger Rader, Tacoma Washington, was on the list.

Support for Obama

PWW writer, Tim Wheeler, said his mother once told him the Rader family, Guy and Bernice, and their seven children, were “Salt of the Earth,” solidly working class, always in struggle for union rights, civil rights and socialism. Roger and his family, he said, worked to elect Barack Obama and now were fighting for universal health care reform.

References

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