Beth Katz presente!
By Jerry
Goldberg
Detroit
Beth Katz, a Michigan Workers World Party member, died on
Sept. 2 at the age of 54. She was an active and militant
comrade who will be missed by the progressive community in
Lansing and throughout the state.
Beth became a revolutionary activist in her late forties,
but she brought the enthusiasm of a young person to the
struggle. In 1996, she attended her first national
demonstration, a protest in Philadelphia against cuts in
welfare and attacks on the poor. The demonstration took place
outside Clinton's "volunteerism"--i.e.,
privatization--conference. When the government set up
loudspeakers across the street to try to drown out the rally,
organized by the National Peoples Campaign, Beth went over and
cut their cables. She was arrested, but not before putting an
end to this government interference.
At age 52, during a strike in Lansing, Mich., Beth jumped in
front of a car carrying scabs out of Melling Drop Forge. When
the Klan rallied and was completely drowned out and encircled
by the people of Lansing in 1994, Beth helped bail out Lansing
youth picked up by the cops for opposing the KKK in their
city.
Beth lived in Lansing but came to Detroit to help petition
to put the living wage on the ballot here. She marched with
Workers World Party every June in the
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender pride march in Lansing. This
spring, during the U.S. war against Yugoslavia, Beth
single-handedly organized a dramatic protest in Lansing against
the war.
She made up lawn signs that read "Stop All Bombing," and was
successful in getting 250 of them put up in front of homes
throughout the city.
Beth was a strong environmentalist and very suspicious of
technology under capitalist control because of its destructive
effects on the environment. She even refused to own a
television. Yet she made sure the Peoples Video Network had a
weekly spot on East Lansing cable television and delivered
tapes for it each and every week. This year, she signed up
dozens of people in Lansing to get Workers World newspaper, and
she distributed the paper everywhere she went.
Beth was a puppeteer by trade. She used her puppet shows to
bring the humane values of communism to youth throughout
Michigan and the entire country. She traveled to Cuba in
support of the revolution and performed there as well.
Beth first met Workers World Party at an event in support of
Cuba around 1993. Her ideological grasp of the global class
struggle, and defense of Cuba, north Korea and all the
socialist countries, was striking.
While Beth was an activist through and through, she was also
a serious student of Marxism. She had an extensive library of
revolutionary works. These works are being donated to Workers
World Party, and will constitute a Beth Katz memorial section
in the Michigan Workers World building's library in
Detroit.
The party will truly miss Beth Katz and the energy and
dedication she brought to the working class struggle.
A memorial to honor her life will be held on Saturday, Oct.
16, 1999, at 2:00 p.m., at the Bailey Community Center, 300
Bailey, in East Lansing, Mich.
Mark Parker of Anti-Racist Action in Lansing contributed
to this article.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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