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Progressive Action Roundtable: A forum for progressive groups in the Greater New Haven Area where actions and ideas may be publicized so that others are aware of peace, health, justice, energy, environmental and other issues for the common good.

Archive for category Memorial

This issue dedicated to Ruth Emerson

Jun 1

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This issue is dedicated to Ruth Emerson, long-time New Haven activist and humanitarian, who passed away on April 25 at Connecticut Hospice in Branford. The PAR Planning Committee gives our sincere condolences to her family and friends. In addition to being a PAR subscriber, for many years she was a PAR proofreader. All who knew Ruth will greatly miss her. Her intelligence coupled with her fierce sense of justice and sense of humor made her a most remarkable activist and a wonderful friend and colleague in the struggle for a more peaceful and just world.

Please join family and friends for a memorial service on June 26 at 2 p.m. at The People’s Center,

37 Howe St. New Haven. For information, contact Sherman Malone (203) 675-4770. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Haiti Marycare, Inc., 55 King St., Danbury, CT 06811 or Defending Dissent, 1100 Wayne Ave. #1020, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

George Fishman: A Life With A Purpose

Nov 20

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– By Joelle Fishman, CPUSA

A memorial celebration of the life of George M. Fishman took place Sunday, Sept. 6 at the New Haven People’s Center, 37 Howe St. at 2 p.m. A lifelong working class scholar, teacher and activist, George passed away peacefully at home on June 30, at age 92.

Since they moved to New Haven 13 years ago, George and wife Edie have been active participants in the labor movement and community for peace and justice.

Born to immigrant parents in Philadelphia on January 6, 1917, George earned a PhD in history from Temple University.  From 1938 to 1941, he worked in a Works Projects Administration (WPA) teaching unit that pioneered in African American life, history and culture. During World War II, he served as a radio-man aboard a Landing Ship Medium in the Pacific and was awarded four medals.  He then taught social studies, history and mathematics in the public secondary schools of Philadelphia and in New Jersey.

In 1952 during the McCarthy period, he lost his teaching position in the general purge of progressives, including Communists, labor activists and civil rights advocates, from public life.  He worked at Campbell’s Soup in Camden, NJ, and became a union shop steward and leader of Local 80A, United Packinghouse Workers of America, CIO, for eight years.  He returned to teach in Philadelphia in 1968, when the school system repudiated past discriminatory practices and all teachers were invited back.

In 1985 living in Highland Park, NJ, he was a candidate for Governor of New Jersey on the Communist Party ticket, highlighting the needs of public education, especially of multiracial urban schools.  In 1994, George and Edie received the Ida B. Wells Community Service Award from the NAACP.

On his 90th birthday in 2007, George wrote, “The turning point in my life was registered some 70 years ago when in a time of world crisis with the advance of fascism and the decay of economic and social conditions in the U.S., I was able to become a member of the Young Communist League.

“It was not only that through the Young Communist League I met my comrade in arms Edie and that we have continued arm in arm over these years. But through the Young Communist League and the Communist Party I was able to become part of the working class movement…for employment, for peace, in the struggle against racism and the struggle against fascism.”

George lived an exemplary life with a purpose. He is survived by wife Edie, daughter Joelle and son-in-law Arthur Perlo. Messages and contributions to the People’s Weekly World or the New Haven Peoples Center in George’s name can be sent to: Edie Fishman, 120-M Wooster St., New Haven 06511 or call (203)772-1992.