Tag Archives: obituary personal

Sy Khan Presente!

Palestine, talks,

Talk at Sayad Khan’s funeral!

by Peter Bohmer, January 17, 2025, Los Angeles.

Sayad Khan (Sy) was my close friend who lit up every room he was in. We have been close friends since he moved to Olympia in 2009, one year after his wife, Savvina, whom he loved so much and was so proud of, and who loved him so deeply.  He brought LA to Olympia and Olympia to LA. In his last few days, Sy could hear us tell him how important he was to us and occasionally grip our hands or rub our cheek. The ICU at the hospital said he had more visitors, family and friends than anyone ever had before.

I remember Sy spending Christmas day with us at our Olympia home, three weeks ago. My four kids, one of whom is here today, my two grandchildren and my brother adored his kindness, his interest in them, his sense of humor and his liveliness.  We watched the Lakers play Golden State and he teased me like he often did about switching from a Laker fan to the Warriors.

I worked closely with Sy in the Palestine Action of South Sound (PASS) where he took the lead in raising tens of thousands of dollars for the children of Gaza and helped organize many of our demonstrations and events and was a magnetic emcee. He was emotionally, intellectually, personally and tirelessly involved in supporting the Palestinian people and against the U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza.  His ability to talk to people with different views and respectfully educate them was impressive. Sy was an active member of the Islamic Center of Olympia and played a major role in connecting its members to the movement for justice and peace in Palestine. We took part in the weekly Free Palestine vigils in downtown Olympia. Working together made us even closer. I have lost a brother.

He  mc’ed and dj’ed many events for many community groups and gatherings and was in constant demand.  Sy  was on the board and an active and valued member of the Rachel Corrie Foundation, named for Rachel Corrie. Rachel was a young Olympia resident murdered by the Israeli military in Gaza in 2003 while peacefully trying to stop a home demolition. Sy was a close friend of her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie.

Sy was active in and a leader in many communities. He did a weekly radio show on KAOS with music from the South Asian diaspora and participated in a lively and beautifully dressed South Asian dance troupe.  He worked at Sandy Flats, where he helped manage the 24 apartments for formerly homeless people and of course, interacted in a profound and humane way with all the tenants and staff. Sayed connected these diverse subcultures and made every person he interacted with feel special. They were all special to him.

Sy was the rock and center of his large extended family, a totally devoted and loving son of his mother, Rahil Khan, his wife, Savvina Chowdhury, his son Muhammad Khan, and his brother, Sage Khan.                  

Sy positively affected so many people. He was charismatic, kind, and caring, who brought out the best in all of us, a leader in the best sense of the word.

Sy, I miss you so much and will always miss you. You will never be forgotten. You live on in the memory of all of us.

Sy Khan Presente!

Dan Leahy

Events, personal, Talks, , ,

Dan Leahy Presente!

Comrade, Dan Leahy!

by Peter Bohmer,

(Given at Dan’s memorial, April 15, 2023)

Dan Leahy is a close friend, a community leader, committed to furthering labor and other social movements, for global justice and to a world beyond capitalism. I will talk today about Dan’s interconnected roles as an inspiring and effective teacher and organizer.

Both as a teacher and organizer, he demonstrated his respect for working class people, his deep understanding of the current conjuncture, excellent preparation and follow through, sharp political economic analysis and great strategic thinking and interconnected practice. When Dan taught, he was teaching organizing skills and when he organized, he was teaching and sharing his in-depth knowledge of history and social movements.

I had the honor of teaching with Dan at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Evergreen State College five times between the early 1990’s to 2008. He was student centered, always prepared, often sharing charts that succinctly focused on what was most important, e.g. his chart on different labor movements. His mentoring of first-generation college students was exemplary. Dan made a major difference in many, many students lives. 

Let me share our teaching together in fall, 1999 through winter, 2000, a 32 credit program called, Political Economy and Social Movements with 75 students. Cynthia Adcock was the third faculty member. 

Dan had researched the World Trade Organization (WTO), reading like he always did its key documents. He concluded it was a global bill of rights for transnational corporations, Dan did the same careful reading when we taught a class on NAFTA, six years earlier.

Usually in this academic program, we focused on the U.S. in the fall and the global political economy in the winter. For that year, Dan suggested so that students would understand the significance of the WTO, we switched the order. We studied the global economy including the WTO in the fall, so our students would be prepared to understand and protest the coming WTO ministerial, which was scheduled to begin November, 29th, 1999.

For our students but even more so for organizers against the WTO in the Pacific Northwest, Dan conceptualized and took the lead in organizing a weekend conference on the WTO and its destructive impact, such as further reducing democracy.

He prepared like he always did for this and other conferences, information packed loose-leaf binders for the more than 150 attendees, and the conference like all the ones Dan organized, ran smoothly and the learning was impressive.

We brought our entire class up to Seattle for that historic week at the end of November 1999. Dan had found places for students to stay and shared with the students, detailed plans for maximum learning but also safety. He did this also learning from students.

The handout, Dan wrote included the daily list of protests but also events that supported the WTO and we asked students to go to at least one pro WTO event, which were being organized by the Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft and other big business in Seattle.

On the first day, which was the most successful one in stopping delegates from getting to the hall where they were meeting, I saw students and young people who had been at the Evergreen teach-in, a month earlier, argue with arrogant EU delegates who assumed the ignorance of young protesters. They were wrong, This reminded me of Dan’s wisdom and strategic thinking in organizing the teach-in. We blocked their entrance to WTO which eventually was cancelled.

Many of us were arrested, tear-gassed and clubbed and Dan supported us  with his continuing presence and financially. Dan is very generous.

So that participants in that intense week of actions could reflect and debrief on what was has been called the Battle in Seattle and made news around the world, Dan rented and filled the Capitol theater the following Friday. The speakers were organizers and participants in these significant actions, which significantly raised awareness of neoliberalism and the WTO. Seattle became known around the world for our direct action against the WTO.

To preserve the historical record, which is important to Dan, he hired Stephanie Guilloud, to collect and edit and publish, Voices from the WTO, reflections by participants in this powerful action. (added after talk)

This is just one important example of  Dan’s thinking through the many steps to make  this a successful action, dotting all of the i’s and crossing the t’s.

Dan has been a truly good friend for 35 years. I miss him. I have learned so much from Dan. So have many others. Let us honor Dan Leahy by organizing at a local, national and global level for a socialist world.

                                      Dan Leahy Presente!

P.S.. For more about Dan’s life, see http://danleahy.org

Rest in Power, Dan Leahy

personal, Reflections on Current Events, Writings

Dan Leahy, a great human being, an inspiring and effective organizer, a builder of left institutions, and a great teacher, inside and outside of the classroom died of pancreatic cancer, December 10, 2022. Dan was also a community and neighborhood organizer, an excellent researcher of the power elite, a wonderful father, husband and friend.

With Dan’s advice and consultation, two his closest friends, Melissa Roberts and Stephanie Guilloud, created a website about his life, his organizing and relevant lessons for those of us committed to creating a just world, danleahy.org. I strongly recommend you check it out, whether you knew Dan or not.

Just one example of Dan’s effectiveness was the leading role he played in stopping the operation of two nuclear power plants in the early 1980’s, near Olympia, where we both live. They still stand there, almost fully constructed but never producing nuclear power.

I had the honor of teaching with Dan at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Evergreen State College five times. He was student centered, always prepared, often sharing charts that synthesized Dan’s insightful political economic analysis and his strategic insights. Many of these informative charts are on his website. His mentoring of first-generation college students was exemplary. He made a major difference in many, many students lives. 

I also observed Dan giving talks, classes and organizing workshops and conferences, when teaching groups of workers. He always challenged these workers in a respectful manner to understand more deeply the political economic context of their working conditions and the society in which they lived. He presented in an accessible manner lessons from history for these workers and students to work collectively to build and confront power and to further economic and social justice. He also created spaces for workers to share experiences and learn from each other.  

Besides being a good friend, I have learned so much from Dan. So have many others.

Let us honor Dan Leahy by organizing at a local, national and global level for a non-capitalist world.

Dan Leahy Presente!