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