‘Iron Man’ turns 94
Celebrating Ted Dostal's decades of struggle
By Martha Grevatt
Cleveland
This month, members and friends of Workers World Party's
Cleveland branch honored their comrade Ted Dostal on his 94th
birthday.
Comrade Ted is a founding member of WWP. Along with
Frances Dostal, he was a founder of the Cleveland branch.
From his 26 years as a leader of the Steel Workers union
in Youngstown, Ohio, to his most recent activism in defense
of death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ted's life
represents well over six decades of committed revolutionary
struggle in the communist movement.
Along the way, Ted attended and organized hundreds of
demonstrations in support of the anti-war and Black
liberation movements, and twice went to jail for these
efforts. He was active in seniors' issues and marched
alongside the women's movement and the lesbian/gay/bi/trans
movement. Nicknamed "the Iron Man" by his enemies on the
local police Red Squad, Ted has been one of the top signature
gatherers in every Workers World Party election campaign.
Since 1998 Ted has been in and out of hospitals and
nursing homes, suffering broken bones, pneumonia and
congestive heart failure. Yet in August 1999 he attended
meetings and made phone calls to organize against a Ku Klux
Klan rally.
As late as last November, he came downtown in his
wheelchair to demand a stay of execution and a new trial for
Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Many activists came to Ted's birthday party, representing
the diversity of progressive struggles he has been a part of
over the years. Messages also poured in from comrades across
the country.
The essence of these messages can be summed up succinctly:
"Ted Dostal, you are an inspiration."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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