http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng58.html#anchor8686
May - June, 1998
“So long, Saul, old friend. We will miss your information on foreign events, the election predictions and the dinners Marion and I have had with you and Jennie. You took a lot with you when you left us. But you left a lot more behind that we will never forget.”
by Carl Shier
On Friday, March 13th, Chicago’s democratic left lost one of its champions, Saul Mendelson.
Saul Mendelson was a co-founder of the Debs Dinner in 1958. He was its treasurer for the first ten years and worked diligently to make it a success for 39 years. Saul received the Thomas - Debs Award in 1988.
Saul Mendelson was also a real believer in union movement. He fought for the right of teachers to bargain collectively and he was a member and leader of the American Federation of Teachers.
He was active in reform politics in Chicago, especially the campaigns for Harold Washington. He even ran for State Senator in 1970. He was the foreign policy specialist for the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA). Saul was the essence of the long distance runner.
Memorial services were held on March 29 and on April 2 by the Harold Washington College Chapter of the Cook County Teachers Union.
At the memorial service held at the 1st Unitarian Church on South Woodlawn, speaker after speaker recounted Saul’s contributions. The service was ably MC’d by a retired colleague, Bob Clark. I spoke first and was followed by Saul’s friend Deborah Meier, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient who is now starting a new school in Boston. Amy Isaacs, National Director of the ADA, spoke of what Saul had meant on foreign affairs to the ADA. Other speakers included Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, State Senator Barak Obama, Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and a good friend from New York, Myra Russell. The concluding remarks were made by an old friend, Harriet Lefley, who is now Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami Medical School.
The Saul Mendelson Memorial at Harold Washington College had colleagues speaking of what Saul had meant to the professors because of his union leadership as Chair of the Chapter. The event was organized by the present Chapter Chair, Mike Ruggeri.
For Jennie, his companion for 50 years and the mother of his children, and for all his friends, the two memorials were very important.
Saul Mendelson
You joined the Socialist movement at the age of 18. You chaired the Socialist Club at the University of Chicago. You taught and inspired students at DuSable High School. You fought in the civil rights struggles with the NAACP, with CORE, and with the Negro American Labor Council. You have held fast to your belief in democratic socialism.
You fought for collective bargaining for public employees and were the vice-president of the Chicago Teachers Union High School Division when the first collective bargaining contract was achieved. You became a professor at Loop College (now Harold Washington College) and were its union chair from 1969 to 1986 in the Cook County College Local. Five of the times your union was forced on strike, you were your chapter’s strike committee chair.
You have been active in reform politics for years, as chair of the state IVI-IPO, and presently as chair of the South Side IVI-IPO. You have served on the national board of the Americans for Democratic Action since 1966. You participated as an area coordinator in all stages of the 1983 and 1987 mayoral victories of Harold Washington and in Charles Hayes’ Congressional campaigns. This year’s Democratic Party Convention will be your third, and you go to Atlanta as a Second Congressional District delegate for Jesse Jackson.
You were one of the founders of this Dinner when it was known as the Debs Dinner and you served as its treasurer for ten years. On this seventh day of May, 1988, the Norman Thomas - Eugene V. Debs Award is given to you for living an active, dedicated life in the pursuit of the ideas and ideals of these two great socialists.
So from all this we know:
In the 1990’2, Barack Obama was a member of the Chicago New Party [ http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng42.html#anchor792932 ], which is a socialist party [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Party_(USA) ].
From the mid 1996 to 2005, Barack Obama attended about half a dozen meetings of the Chicago Democratic Socialist of America [ http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site%3Achicagodsa.org+obama+Town+Meeting&btnG=Search ], the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International [ http://www.dsausa.org/about/index.html ], and draws upon Marxism, religious and ethical socialism to bring about fundamental restructuring of our socio-economic order [ http://www.chicagodsa.org/democraticsocialism.html ].
During meetings of the DSA, Barack Obama has promoted the Marxist concept of a social wage, income redistribution, and the allocation of wages and jobs using labor law reform, public works and contracts [ http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng45.html ].
Barack Obama was the chief sponsor [ http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng96.html#anchor495069 ] of an Illinois bill to set up state-wide universal healthcare [ http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng94.html#anchor349979 ].
In its latest newsletter, the DSA supported Obama’s candidacy, claiming that if Obama explained what his real plans are he would not be elected [ http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng120.html ].