[Peace] In Memory, Honor, and Love of Gene Vanderport by Belden Fields

[Brian Dolinar]

This reflection on the life of longtime labor activist and revolutionary
Gene Vanderport written by Belden Fields for the Public i.

BD

http://publici.ucimc.org/in-memory-honor-and-love-of-gene-vanderport/


It is difficult to write about an untimely death of someone whom one has
known for almost half a century. Gene was my student, my comrade, and my
friend since the late 1960s. Only a couple of years after my arrival to
teach political science at the U of I in 1965, a young, bright eyed, highly
intelligent and articulate student showed up in one of my classes. It was
Gene. He was living in the Danvillle Collective and driving in to take his
classes. The Collective was a group of politically radical young people who
were living together at a time when such communes existed all over the
country. Gene was a very committed democratic socialist, a socialist in the
mold of Gene Debs. He and I shared that ideology. While Gene was radical in
his politics, he stood out as being more culturally conservative than many
of his radical peers in both his dress and his aversion to drugs.

Gene was very interested in the idea and practice of worker control over
the work place. So, one day he came to me and proposed an independent study
course in which he would go to Yugoslavia and observe and interview people
who were actually working in factories in which workers were in control.
This made Yugoslavia unique among the communist countries of Eastern
Europe. I thought this was very gutsy for someone of his age who had never
been out of the country before. I agree to it and it turned out to be a
wonderful, broadening experience for Gene. It reinforced his conviction
that workers did not just need to be objects in a factory production line
as portrayed in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. Instead, they had the
knowledge, experience, and commitment to run their own enterprises. He
became a proponent of both producer and consumer cooperatives that are not
uncommon today.

Gene was one of those great student protesters of the 1960s. He opposed the
war in Vietnam and the treatment accorded to Cuba by the US government. But
he was never just negative. He always envisioned, and fought for, a
democratic socialist future in the States.

After graduating from the University of Illinois, Gene took a job at the
Veterans Administration Hospital in his native Danville. There he became
active in the union and rose to its leadership. He was so successful in
that role that he was called to the Washington office of the union and sent
all over the country as an organizer. Anyone who knows anything about
unions knows that the job of a traveling organizer takes an enormous toll
on a person’s mind and body. So, after a number of years doing that, Gene
looked for a position that involved less travel, but also that permitted
him to live in a community in which one could develop roots. He looked back
home. He took a position as the Director of the Illinois Education
Association in this area. This permitted him to be close to his widowed
mother who lived in a house in the woods near Danville. They called it the
Green Cocoon.

While back here, Gene, along with others, including myself, created the
group Socialist Forum. Gene and I also served as coordinators of the Living
Wage Association of Champaign, which was successful in getting living wage
policies adopted in the city of Urbana and Champaign County. Gene was also
active in the Labor Coalition at the U of I. We, and Gene’s wonderful wife,
Germaine Light, were also were also very active in the Central Illinois
Jobs with Justice Coalition. We engaged in many strike and lock-out support
actions together. Gene was arrested in a sit-in supporting the Staley (now
Tate and Lyle) workers in Decatur. That arrest became a badge of honor for
him.

Gene and I were very close. He used to call me Dad. And, since I had no
other sons, he became kind of a son to me. He would always listen to what I
had to say, and sometimes he would do what I suggested. But Gene was his
own agent, a cooperative comrade in fights for social justice. The labor
movement lost a staunch fighter for workers’ rights.

I have lost a “son” a student, comrade, and friend over a span of over 50
years. Gene, his wife Germaine, my wife Jane, and I, liked to go to the
Gene Debs dinners in Terre Haute. Debs was hero to us, a democratic
socialist who had to run for the American presidency from a jail cell
because of his opposition to U.S. entry into the First World War.
Nevertheless, Debs got almost a million votes. I am so glad that Gene
Vanderport lived to see Bernie Sanders gain so many backers as an avowed
socialist. We never thought we would see the day that this would happen,
that the idea of socialism would no longer be taboo in American politics.

So my son, one more thing that I would advise you to do. Tell Gene Debs all
about it up there. Tell him how so many young people supported this
socialist. Make his day in eternity.

Love, peace, and justice be with both of you. Till we meet again.

Belden (Dad)
-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
briandolinar.com
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