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

[Gus Wood]

Powerful article, Belden. Thanks so much for this.

Gus
On Jun 28, 2016 7:27 AM, "Sandra Ahten" <sandra.ahten at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>>>
>>
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