role-modelingsocialistbehavior

The Life and letters of Isaac Rab

karladorisrab

role-modelingSocialist behavior

The life and letters of Isaac rab

Published November 2010 byLulu.com

Printed in USA

The author gives her permission in advance to anyone wishingto reproduce or store this book in any form, or transmit it byany means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording orotherwise. It just might somehow help speed up the Revolution!

ISBN 978-0-557-52860-8

contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter One: Beginnings1893 -1915

Chapter Two: Rab becomes a revolutionary1915 -1921

Chapter Three: The Birth of Boston Local1921 -1932

Chapter Four: The Local in its Heyday

1932 -1947

Chapter Five: Changes1948 -1973

Chapter Six: The End of an Era1973 -1986

Epilogue

The Rab-Canter CorrespondenceSelected LettersA Sample of Rab’s Writings“Proletarian Logic”

“Our Practical Program”

“Requirements for Membership”

“A Rose by Any Other Name”

Fred Jacobs

“Is Labor the Cause of Inflation?”

“Is There Room for Differences of Opinionin a Socialist Party?”

“A Letter Not Fit to Print”

Obituary for Manlio Reffi

“A New Approach to Crime”

An Introduction to John Keracher’sHow the Gods were Made

“The Facets of Socialism”

“The Missing Ingredient”

Chapter Notes

Index

Abbreviations and Acronyms

acknowledgments

I would like to say “Thank you” to the following people for their help andsupport in the creation of this book:

To Dawn Albright, for giving me feedback early on about material thatneeded to be weeded out (and suggesting the addition of “Chapter Notes”where I couldput the extra material), andfor giving a final read to the finalversion; to Adam Buick, for reading the manuscript with a critical eye; toMardon (Coffin) Cooper, for making available a tape recording of the oralhistory she did with Rab in 1978, for taping her own oral history with meduring 2005 and 2006, for providing me with many photographs, and forher ongoing emotional support; to Trevor Goodger-Hill, for allowing me touse the poem “Rab’s Mathematics”; to Thomas Jackson, for reminiscing aboutDetroit Local in an email dated Jan. 17, 2006; to Peter E. Newell, forreading the manuscript at several points along the way, correcting errors andmaking welcome suggestions; to Ralph Roberts, for participating in oral his-tory about Boston Local; to Caroline (“Kari”) Rab, for participating in oralhistory especially about the family and Rab’s old age; to Bob Weisberg, forparticipating in oral history about Capen Street days and the Hecht House;to Bella (Polatnik, Alpine) Wheeler, for participating in oral history aboutCamp Nicht Gedaiget and about Symphony Road; and — most of all — toRon Elbert, for reading all the various versions of this text; for putting upwith me for the ten years it took me to write it; for his many helpful editorialsuggestions; and for his unwavering support, both emotional and technical,throughout the whole process.

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies in theworld, and that is an idea whose time has come.”

— Victor Hugo

RAB’S MATHEMATICSTo everyone’s protestationsagainst his socialist “utopia”with “one cannot changethe world into a moneylesscooperative world societywithout leaders or borders”he would invariably pointout the logic of mathematics:if every world socialist —between 50 and 100,000 atleast at present — followedhis dream of the goodlifeand convinced just one personand they in turn convincedjust one person the revolutionwould be here in a year —

“there is nothing as powerfulas an IDEA whose time has come.”

— Trevor Goodger-Hill

“The most important task facing humanity today is to spreadknowledge and understanding of the case for socialism.”

— Isaac Rab

preface

All over the world, we see anxiety about money, homeless people askingfor help, the pressures of earning a living putting extra stress on all kinds ofrelationships. These things are everywhere we look. They are hard to miss.

We are living in a society based on greed. Capitalism needs to keepexpanding until it eats up the whole world.

It isn’t very hard to recognize that no matter what our standing in thiscapitalist world — whether we’re on Welfare, we’re working for a livingand making it, or we have enough capital so we’re all set even if we don’twork — we are all adversely affected by the stress of living in this sick,greedy society.

What is much harder to recognize is that it doesn’t have to be this way.There is a viable alternative to capitalism. My grandfather, Isaac Rab,knew this ’way back in 1916.

Rab always said that the most important task facing humanity today isto spread knowledge and understanding of the case for socialism. Thislittle book in your hand is my contribution to that task. I am one of the“world socialists” referred to in the poem on the previous page.

The reason spreading knowledge and understanding of the case forsocialism is so important is that World Socialism can only come intobeing when huge numbers of ordinary people understand what it is, andwant it enough to commit themselves to making it work. That’s the onefactor lacking to establish World Socialism right now. All the other mate-rial conditions necessary for a socialist revolution, such as the techno-logical ability to produce abundance, are already in place. Once there isa general recognition that global capitalism is clearly not operating in theinterests of most people, and never could be reformed so that it would— and that a viable alternative to global capitalism does truly exist, therest will be easy.

It might sound like a waste of time to devote one’s whole life to tellingpeople what’s wrong with the world, and why and how to change it tomake it better. In fact, it might sound so impossible as to be pretty nutty.

But on the other hand, I remember Papa Rab saying, when we firststarted talking about these things together, “Just picture what it would belike. You know you’re no smarter than anyone else. Other people can dothe same as you. Picture what would happen if thousands and thousandsof people were doing the same thing as you are.” (He spoke in italics alot.) “Think what would happen then. Just multiply yourself by about amillion and imagine what an impact that would have.” Meaning, it hasto begin somewhere. That’s why the title of this book is Role-ModelingSocialist Behavior.

Papa spent his whole adult life role modeling socialist behavior: i.e.,spreading socialist knowledge and understanding every chance he got.That’s how a convinced socialist should behave, because if we all did that,why then we’d have socialism! So Rab would strike up conversations withanyone who crossed his path, and nine times out of ten, he’d bring thesubject of the conversation around to socialism pretty soon. He said thatwas planting seeds.

It’s a good touchstone to use, that concept of multiplying yourself by amillion or so. It’s especially handy when you vote, for instance. If youthink about it that way, it doesn’t seem so nutty to spend your life tellingpeople what’s wrong with the world, and why and how to change it tomake it better.

A word about me: Born into the Rab familyin 1940, I learned about socialism by osmosis,first at endless discussions around our kitchentable, later at WSP socials in our living room,then in meetings and classes at Headquarters.I can’t remember a time when I didn’t knowthat I was a socialist, in the same way I knewthat I was a little girl, that I was a Bostonian,that I was a Rab. Rab was my “Papa.”

For a long time, though, I didn’t really under-stand what being a socialist meant; or what“the movement” was all about; or even what“socialism” was. I remember walking homefrom Second Grade one day, when I noticedthat red flags had been put up all over theneighborhood. Joyfully, I announced to myfamily, “The Revolution has finally happened!”

“How do you know?” asked Papa. “They’ve put up scarlet banners! That’sthe Socialist flag!” I enthused. Patiently, I was made to understand that thoseflags were being used to warn people away from a construction site, and thatthe Revolution probably wasn’t going to happen for quite a long time.

Later on, when I was a bigger girl, I asked Rab to please explain to mewhat socialism was. He said it was three things: a science, a movement,and a system of society. He talked about the materialist conception ofhistory, the class struggle, and a classless, moneyless society based on thecommon ownership and democratic control of the means and instru-ments of production.

Well, that was quite a bit to digest all at once, but I tried. By the timeI officially joined the World Socialist Movement in 1962, I had a goodbasic understanding of the case for socialism. From then till now, I’vebeen doing my very best to speed the day when the Revolution doeshappen. You know, the only thing standing in the way at this point is thelack of a conscious majority of people who understand what socialism is,and are willing to commit themselves to making it work.

I hope that reading here about Papa Rab will inspire you to become apart of that conscious socialist majority.

CHAPTER ONE

Beginnings

1893 — 1915: Rab’s family in Navaradok; hischildhood in Boston; Ohio Northern University.

Rab’s parents, Sheppie Rabinowich and Sarah Friedberg Rabinowich,came from Navaradok shtetel, in Minsk-Gobernia, on the Russian-Polishborder. Sheppie’s father and grandfathers for generations back had beenrabbis in Navaradok, and Sheppie, in keeping with the family tradition,also studied to be a rabbi; but at the last minute, he decided that it isirrational to believe in a god. Therefore, he gave up on being a rabbi andbecame a lay teacher and a scholar instead. He was one of the few Jewishpeople in those times, in that place, who had papers to travel anywherehe wanted. And he considered himself a revolutionary socialist.

Sarah Friedberg was a young distant relative of his. They first met whenher family engaged him to tutor her. Like Sheppie, Sarah was already anatheist, and she was very bright. He convinced her of the importance ofestablishing a socialist society, and somewherein the midst of his teaching and their discus-sions, she fell in love with him despite the largedifference in their ages and the fact that theywere cousins of some sort.

I have no way to know how the Friedbergs orthe Rabinowiches felt about this marriage, butnot long afterwards, Sheppie and Sarah left forAmerica. Sarah was pregnant during that longtrip. They arrived in Boston in August 1893,and on December 22, Sarah birthed a son intheir new home, a small apartment above astable for horses in the North End.

They named him Isaac. From the beginning, they taught him that his lifewould make a difference in the world. They taught him that his familywas special because it held the tradition of ideas and understanding inthe highest regard. “Does he have a good understanding?” the familystill ask of one another today, discussing a newcomer. And in the yearswhen Sarah had become “Sarah Mutter” to Rab’s own small children, shewould always ask them, “What are you reading?” after she had bestowedher wet kisses on their cheeks.

The year after Rab was born, Eugene V. Debs led 60,000 workers inwhat came to be called the Debs Rebellion, outside Chicago. All thoseworkers participated in a work stoppage along the Western railway lines:the great Pullman strike of 1894. It was a mass action for socialism, well-organized and orderly.

Sheppie, a member of the Socialist Labor Party during his first years inthe United States, left it to join Debs’s organization in 1899. By thattime, he had established himself as an importer of his own special brandof tobacco, which he sold at “Sheppie’s Blue Store” on Washington Streetin the South End, and distributed to other smaller stores in the area.

Sheppie worked hard, and Sarah relieved him at noon so that he couldrest, although her family, like his, had been well-to-do in Navaradok andthe Rabinowiches of Boston always had a maid. As soon as Rab was oldenough, he also helped out in the store. “I used to go over the route totake orders and to deliver bundles,” he told us later.

The family considered itself to be special, but this had nothing to dowith material possessions: it was a matter of what they valued as impor-tant. Sarah used to say that highbrows talk about ideas; middlebrowstalk about events; only lowbrows talk about other people. The Rabino-wich family talked about ideas. Sheppie’s Blue Store became a gatheringplace for discussions. Later, as an adult, Rab bragged, “My parents wouldpreach socialism to the customers.”*

“Because of my parents’ friendships and discussions with a coterie ofinspiring persons in the neighborhood, I spent time with such personsas Wm. Monroe Trotter ... Not only did I spend time in his store, but Iaccompanied him on his walks doing errands on behalf of The Guardian. ”(Trotter was a well-known Black radical; The Boston Guardian, which hehad founded in 1901, was a protest newspaper with the motto “For everyright, with all thy might.”) Rab felt he had a deep bond with Trotter, but“many theoretical differences.”

Another Black radical whom Rab remembered only as “Mr. Cook,” wasat the Blue Store so often he was “practically a member of the family. Butwhen Marcus Garvey loomed on the horizon” [this would probably nothave been until Rab was in high school], “ [Mr. Cook] became an ardentsupporter of his cause. You can picture the discussions. But in no way didit interfere with personal relations. [All the people at the discussions] hadone thing in common: [they were] genuine human beings.”

A few of them, some White and some Black, also considered themselves tobe socialists. Through Sheppie’s influence, in 1909, these people formed aLocal of the Socialist Party of America, the party of Eugene V. Debs.

Sarah and Sheppie presided over discussions where ideas of all sorts werediscussed, but the most important were ideas about social change. Rab,being somewhat frail as a child, was often home from school, listening tohis parents — and especially his mother — expound their radical ideas.

It is clear from his memories that mother and son were kindred spirits.

For his part, he loved and admired her more thananyone else. When he was in his early seventies, hewrote of her: “Sarah... my mother... was the pio-neer revolutionary socialist in the family. She wasfree from religious superstitions, unqualifiedly.Both Comrades Kohn and Baritz visited myparents in Boston, while I was still in Detroit.It was my father who had originally convincedher of socialism while they were still in Russia,but in his later years he became enamored of theRussian bug and the Jewish problems.’ He neverswallowed the religious nonsense, clarity on this wastoo deeply ingrained.”*

Sheppie was a joiner. He was a founding member of orga-nizations ranging from the Workmen’s Circle (the old Arbeiter Ring) tothe Communist Party of America. Although Rab loved and respectedhim, he was critical of him for letting his emotions carry him from oneorganization to another: “Away back in 1893, my father was a member ofthe Socialist Labor Party, then he jumped withthe other Kangaroos into the Socialist Party ofAmerica when it was formed in the 1899 - 1900period. In 1919 he became a charter memberof the Communist Party, to which he belongeduntil his death.”*

Rab told me when I was still quite little that hismother had instructed him how to live his life.She told him, “You are a socialist. Even thoughit isn’t fair, people are always going to judgesocialism by the way you behave. So your lifemust be exemplary.”

Rab’s sayings came back to me, as I watched hisbrain die during the 1980s. How many neuronscan be lost and still let the mind retain an adagelike “The Devil takes care of his own!” (Rabalways said that with a mischievous smile whensomething went well.)

Often, in a discussion that was in danger of turning into an argument, hewould say: “Please! Don’t believe a word I say!” Papa always wanted you toquestion everything, to keep an open mind while looking around you, thento make up your mind based on what you had found out for yourself.

He loved to point out the distinction between being “open-minded” andbeing “broad-minded.” “Broad-minded” people will accept an idea thatseems vaguely on the right track, even if it isn’t demonstrably valid; abroad-minded thinker might thus be willing to compromise on mat-ters of principle. If you ever thought that the Americans for DemocraticAction, for instance, or the Students for a Democratic Society, wereorganizations that might actually accomplish something significant, thatwould indicate you were “broad-minded” because neither the ADA northe SDS were primarily focused on eliminating capitalism — whereas,obviously, real democracy (which surely must involve the ability to makemeaningful choices about one’s own life) is impossible within the frame-work of capitalism.

If, on the other hand, you kept an “open” mind, sooner or later you had tobecome convinced of the case for scientific socialism. “There are only threethings a person can be,” he told me: “a fool, a knave, or a socialist.”

Rab was very clear that there is no such thing as “socialistic.” A thingeither is Socialist, or it is not.