The Passing of a Troublemaker

[Omaha Steve]

Frank Emspak, anti-war activist and labor leader, spent his life advancing workers’ rights.

by Paul Buhle June 20, 2024 2:47 PM

A unique figure within a unique generation of activists, Frank Emspak (born June 21, 1943 and died June 14, 2024) spent his final days as he always lived: offering inspiration and strategic advice to those around him. In this case, it was to his hospital caregivers who are currently grappling with a hard-pressed union struggle. He had a lot of useful things to say—which is to say he was himself to the end. His contributions to the labor movement, civil rights, and the struggle for peace will long be remembered.

Frank inherited his father’s legacy. He was the son of Julius Emspak (1906-1962), the leading figure in the dramatic rise of The United Electric Workers (UE) during the 1930s and 1940s. One of the largest of the CIO unions that changed the industrial landscape and with the largest percentage of women members, the UE had a powerful effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families.

As a militant leftwing union, it also delivered votes for Franklin D. Roosevelt in several crucial elections. During the McCarthy era, the UE was persecuted rather than rewarded for these efforts, and Julius Emspak died young of a heart attack after being compelled repeatedly to give testimony at hostile Congressional hearings. Frank once said about his father: “I don’t think I’d be doing what I’ve been doing without his influence.”

Frank took pride in his family’s immigrant origins. He recalled later in his 2023 memoir, Troublemaker: Saying No to Power, that his father’s family, Hungarian immigrants who settled in upstate New York at the dawn of the twentieth century, had been non-religious “freethinkers.” His mother’s family, Jewish socialists from Russia, arrived in the South.

FULL story at link above.

[czarjak]

1. Good Trouble(Maker)

Work for a living and vote Republican. Insanity. Did I mention retirees?