A Little Lefty

There was a period in grad school when my friends called me Commie Sue. I was writing my dissertation about about writers who belonged to the CPUSA, I was reading lots of Marxist theory, and I was studying labor history. I listened to Utah Phillips, the IWW member, labor organizer, and folk singer, sing old Joe Hill songs. I had a collection of lapel pins that included several that sported Lenin's likeness, one of the Wobblies' Sabo cat, and one with Chinese characters on it that said labor and art. I was a little lefty wannabe.



My life on the far left was a figment of my imagination, but there was a little activist-Sue waiting to get out. When I started teaching at the university in 1998, I was supremely proud of the AAUP membership card that I still carry in my wallet. I felt a little radical somehow. When I got my tenure track job in 2003, I became more involved with the union, and I've been an active member ever since.

Today, I did something brand spanking new. I walked a picket line. Faculty in another AAUP chapter--one at a local community college--are on strike, and I spent a little time with some members of my chapter carrying a sign and walking with them in support. Tonight, I think I'll dig out an old Utah Phillips CD and reminisce about my old lefty self. My activism has turned out to be pretty tame stuff, but you have to do something. Right?

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