Dan Leahy
Our Working Class Hero
There is no doubt
We were looking for a landing
From our working class angst
A rationale for our luck
For rubbing shoulders with college kids
Covering up our lack of confidence
With brazen talk and street smarts
We joined unions
With some hope of salvation
Satisfaction eluded us
Little education, less democracy, one big bureaucracy
Just when hope was dashed
We met this forceful, grumpy, charming man
He was brazen too and defiant
Taking on a 100 mile march with the woodworkers
Then telling us a story that connected the dots
He was both organizer and professor
Political operative and strategist
He offered us a path toward discovering our political self respect
He offered rules of engagement with our many perceived enemies
He gave us permission to be ourselves, as long as we learned to fight
Our Working Class Hero
Dan Leahy
He worked harder than us, his overnight manifestos, a legend
Every program, every campaign, every word rewritten, debated and rehashed
We knew home for Dan meant consulting with his muse, Bethany
Our home in part was the next campaign, the next fight, the conference
We achieved so much together
We created our own Labor Education Center
Tri-national conferences of teachers against NAFTA
Popular Education forums
Oral history projects with machinist workers
Video interviews, murals, and photos, new symbols, hats and jackets
Women’s schools, Black leadership forums, Labor Environmental conferences
Long before it was a popular trend
Deep dives into the political economy, labor and organizing
Most importantly safe spaces for workers to find their voice
All this
Guided by, pushed and shoved, challenged and pushed again
Paper, paper and more paper, we kept the binder industry afloat
We kept Ben Moores busy
We challenged Evergreen to live up to its mission
We spoke up at our union meetings
We convinced our unions to invest in labor education
All to deepen our understanding of the inherent mess
Capitalism has brought us
All because of
Our working class hero
Dan Leahy
There is no plaque or reward that can reflect a life’s work
There is no speech that can truly capture Dan’s impact
100s of organizers, inspirations for countless campaigns
How can we truly measure his impact on the world
We can only humbly and with great respect call Dan Leahy
Our Working Class hero
Who will forever fight for social Justice
With love and respect,
Helen Lee
