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

Tue Jun 28 12:26:14 UTC 2016

As per Beldon and I discussion, this was read on WEFT last night on CU
Progressive News. Thanks for taking the time to write it Beldon. It is a
beautiful tribute.

Sandra

Sandra Ahten

<http://kevinelliottcounseling.com/>

On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 12:15 AM, James Kilgore <jjincu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Beautiful piece, Belden. Thanks so much for sharing this history and your
> personal connections with Gene.
>
> In solidarity,
> James
>
> James Kilgore
> Research Scholar
> Center for African Studies
> University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)
> Author of *Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key
> Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time*
> <http://www.understandingmassincarceration.com/>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 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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