Sender Garlin (April 4, 1902 – December 6, 1999)
[
][
] was an American journalist pamphleteer, and writer.
Career
Background
Sender Garlin was born in
Bialystok, Poland, on April 4, 1902. His family left the country in 1906 to escape pogroms. Among his six siblings were
Tiba Willner[
] Sam Garle
, and Charles Garlen.
In the U.S., his family lived in
Burlington, Vermont, and
Glens Falls, New York
Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls ref ...
, where his parents ran a bakery. Garlin studied at the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
,
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's Law School, Albany Law School, the
New School for Social Research, and the
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...
.
One of his professors was
Scott Nearing
Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, pacifist, vegetarian and advocate of simple living.
Biography
Early years
Nearing was born in Morris Run, Tioga Coun ...
.
[
] Garlin told historian
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
:
Reading The Appeal to Reason and the writings of Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...
, Sender at thirteen or fourteen considered himself a socialist. He said: "In later years, it was Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
who recreated me with his criticism of this cruel, unjust society... No one has refuted his fundamental critique."
New York
Garlin worked on the staff at the ''
Daily Worker
The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were ...
'' newspaper for 17 years (1927-1943) and was associate editor (1950-1952) of
New World Review. He was a founding editor of ''
Partisan Review
''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affiliated Joh ...
'' magazine and a charter member of the
American Newspaper Guild
The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practices ...
.
He was also a member of the
John Reed Club
The John Reed Clubs (1929–1935), often referred to as John Reed Club (JRC), were an American federation of local organizations targeted towards Marxist writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist and activist John ...
.
University of Colorado
For the ''Worker'', he covered the Moscow purge trials and the trial of the
Scottsboro Boys and the
Gastonia textile strike of 1929.
He also reported on the
Minneapolis General Strike of 1934.
Interviews included:
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
,
Emma Goldman,
Lucy Parsons
Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons (born Lucia Carter; 1851 – March 7, 1942) was an American labor organizer, radical socialist and anarcho-communist. She is remembered as a powerful orator. Parsons entered the radical movement following her marriage ...
,
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...
,
Nadezhda Krupskaya, and
Olga Knipper
Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (russian: Ольга Леонардовна Книппер-Чехова, link=no; – 22 March 1959) was a Russian and Soviet stage actress. She was married to Anton Chekhov.
Knipper was among the 39 o ...
-Chekhova.
He wrote the ''Daily Workers obituary cum condemnation of
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
in 1941.
John Fleming described him as follows:
Sender Garlin was a long-time literary apparatchik of the American Communist Party. He ended his days at a great age only quite recently as an elder statements of progressive community in Boulder, Colorado. He had a long association with ''The Daily Worker'', ro which he was for a time their man in Moscow. Later, he had a literary column in that paper called "The Constant Reader" in which he took notes of books to be praised or blamed.
As features editor for the ''Daily Worker'', he oversaw "Woody Sez," the column penned by
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...
. Guthrie's column was "not considered strategic or basic" but did demonstrate that the CPUSA was "interested in the people."
He also worked for the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, managed the New York Heart Association's public affairs, and was editor of the Legal Brief of Physicians.
Boulder
In 1980, Garlin and wife Martha Millet Garlin (a poet) moved to Boulder from New York City to be near their son, Alexander Garlin. He founded the Social Issues Forum on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Through this organization, he brought Left and Liberal speakers to the campus. In 1982 he joined the university's Cultural Events Board. Speakers he helped to bring include:
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
,
Michael Parenti
Michael John Parenti (born September 30, 1933) is an American political scientist, academic historian and cultural critic who writes on scholarly and popular subjects. He has taught at universities as well as run for political office. Parenti i ...
,
Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...
,
Ann Fagan Ginger
Ann Fagan Ginger (born July 11, 1925) is an American lawyer, teacher, writer, and political activist. She is the founder and Executive Director Emerita of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley, California.
Personal and Professiona ...
, and
Milt Wolff (last commander of the
Abraham Lincoln Battalion in the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
). He was also active in political groups, including the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Left Hand Books, and the Rocky Mountain Peace Center.
Death
Garlin died at his home on December 6, 1999 at age 97. He was survived by wife Martha Millet Garlin, daughter Emily, son Alexander, granddaughter Annelise, son Victor, and granddaughters Amy and Rachel.
Influence
In his 1952 memoir,
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938) ...
recalled that in 1925
''there had once passed across the Columbia campus a high-strung, red-headed boy from an upstate college. He had slept overnight on the bare floor of a friend's room in one of the residence halls. He talked incessantly in a voice like a teletype machine; and what he talked about was the Soviet Union and Communism.
''His name was Sender Garlin. I thought that Sender Garlin would probably know where to find the Communist Party. Presently I located him''.
Garlin said that, in fact, there was no Communist Party. For reasons of expediency, the Communist Party which had just come up from underground, now called itself the'' Workers Party. ''He was not sure that he knew how to contact it or that he knew anyone in it. But if it turned out that he did, he would mention my name, and a man might presently come to see me."
''I decided that Garlin knew exactly where to find the Communist Party and was telling me that he would put me in touch with it''.[
]
While reporting for the
Bronx Home News, he introduced Chambers to
Harry Freeman, younger brother of
Joseph Freeman (who succeeded Chambers as editor of the ''
New Masses
''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both ''The Masses'' (1912–1917) and ''The Liberator''. ''New Masses'' was later merged into '' Masses & Mainstream'' (19 ...
'' magazine, while Garlin's younger sister, Tiba Willner (1906-1999), worked for many years at the ''New Massess'' as its promotional manager.
).
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
described Garlin's impact on him in the obituary he wrote.
Works
*
* ''The "Real Huey P. Long'' (pamphlet, 1935)
* ''The Real Rickenbacker'' (pamphlet, 1943)
* ''The Truth About Reader's Digest'' (pamphlet, 1943)
* ''Is Dewey the Man?'' (pamphlet, 1944)
* ''Enemies of the Peace: Profile of the 'Hate-Russia' Gang'' (pamphlet, 1945)
* ''Red Tape and Barbed Wire: Close-Up of the McCarran Law In Action'' (pamphlet, 1952)
* ''William Dean Howells and the Haymarket Era'' (occasional paper, 1979)
* ''Three American Radicals'' (book, 1991)
[
]
References
External sources
Alternative Radio Sender Garlin, "The Life and Times of Joe Hill" (audio)
Tamiment Library - Oral History - Sender Garlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:GArlin, Sender
1902 births
1999 deaths
People from Białystok
Members of the Communist Party USA