Obituary - Ken Shilman
Former Socialist Workers' Party leader dies
Ken Shilman, a leader of the Socialist Workers' Party for many years, died September 7 of cancer at the age of 47. He was a member of the SWP National Committee from 1976 through 1984 and served on other leadership committees. He was also a branch organizer in Minneapolis; New York city; Seattle; St. Louis; and Morgantown, West Virginia. He resigned from the SWP in
1987, but did not lose his interest in
While serving in the US army in the South, he came in contact with the struggle against racial segregation. After his discharge from the military, he participated in the Freedom
Rides to the South organized by the
Congress of Racial Equality. He was arrested in Jackson, along with more than 100 freedom Riders, and put in the maxium security unit of
In his book Negroes with Guns,
Williams notes that Shilman was responsible for saving the life of a fellow rider, Richard Griswold, who was beaten in his cell by a prisoner, an attack instigated by the cops
Shilman saw the beating and "started yelling at the top of his lungs, demanding that Griswold be removed from the cell before he was ted that negative phenomena, similar to those in the Soviet Union, could be found in Albania. He spoke out against those who were inclined to "underestimate the factor of"...."the imperialist-revisionist encirclement"... "because relations and contacts with the world are increasing and expanding." Substantial grants of aid have been accepted in the last few years from West Germany, while the Albanian regime has been taking a more active role in Balkan affairs, perhaps anxious about the possible threat to its own stability if the crisis in Yugoslavia's Albanian populated Kosovo region were to get out of hand.
Evidently worried by the economic situation, Alia insisted that party membership should not be mandatory for all responsible posts and attacked workers who, if suspended from one job, "merely trot along to another enterprise, without turning a hair.....In my view" he continued, "these people can be left without work."*
After being released, Shilman eturned to New York and joine he national Committee to Aid the Monroe Defendents, who included Williams. About the same time, he joined the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Inspired by the fight against racism, in 1961, New York hospital workers, many of whom were Black, fought for union recognition. Shilman headed a Youth Committee for Justice for Hospital Workers.
In these activities, he came into contact the SWP and Young Socialist Alliance, which he joined. In 1968, he helped organized a teachin against the Vietnam war in Berkeley, California, which set the stage for a demonstration of 15,000 people, led by 500 Gls. He played a pioneering role in the campaign to involve Gls in the antiwar move-
In the late 1970s, the SWP decided to launch a campaign to reach coal miners. Shilman went to Morgantown, West Virginia, to help lead the work. He continued to play a major role in the SWP's trade union work after moving to Oakland, California, in 1984.
(Summarized from the September 22 issue of The Militant, the paper that reflects the views of the BULGARIA 5,000 demonstrate for ecology and democracy FRIDAY 3rd November saw the first independently organized rally to take place in Bulgaria since the birth of the Stalinist state, with four to five thousand people demonstrating outside government headquarters in Sofia. The demonstration was organized by the independent ecological movement Ecoglasnost, and had as its goal the presentation to the president of the Bulgarian parliament of a petition, signed by 11,500 people, protesting against various schemes menacing the environment. The march coincided with the final day of a 35 nation conference in Sofia on the protection of the environment. The demonstration quickly took on the character of a more overt challenge to the regime, with cries of "glasnost", "democracy" and "referendum"; Ecoglasnost's program
AROUND THE WORLD stresses that Bulgaria's environmental problems are linked to the lack of public and democratic control over economic policy. The police made no attempt to intervene, and the crowd dispersed peace fully after 15 minutes. The secretary of Ecoglasnost, Alexander Karakachanov, announced at the end of the demonstration that his organization would be establishing branches across the country. At the same time, the Discussion Club for the Support of Glasnost and Perestroika, an organization of reformist intellectuals founded a year ago, has been authorized for the first time to hold a public meeting * SRI LANKA Community workers disMR. M. LIONEL, an advice worker at the Legal Advice Center, Katunayeka, Sri Lanka, and Mr. M.M. Ranjith, an employee of Floral Green Ltd. (a company operating in the Katunayeka Free Trade Zone or FTZ), have disappeared since Friday 27th October. Their case is one amongst many thousands of disappearances in Sri Lanka today.
Mr. Lionel had worked as an advice worker at the Legal Advice Center since 1985. This center provides legal advice to FTZ employees because the government does not allow trades unions in this zone On 27 October Mr. Ranjith was asked by his employers to attend an internal disciplinary inquiry at the company premises at 4 p.m.. As lawyers are not allowed to attend such inquiries, Mr. Lionel accompanied Mr. Ranjith as an observer. Subsequent inquiries by Mrs. Lionel revealed that the two men had left the Floral Green premises at around 7.30 p.m..
According to information given by persons who do not want their identity disclosed, it appears that Lionel and Ranjith had been taken into custody by the police on their way home. They had been removed in a white Hiace van.
Two days previously, the Legal Advice Center's full-time lawyer, Mr. C. Kotelawala had been taken into custody whilst he was at home. Other lawyers intervened to secure his release, although he had been badly beaten and tortured whilst in custody. Mr. Kotelawala had tried to send word to Mr. Lionel about this incident but his message arrived only after the disappearance of Lionel and Ranjith.
The background to these disappearances is that the employers are trying to take advantage of the prevailing situation to eliminate worker activists with the aid of the police. Neither man was directly or indirectly linked with the JVP or other armed groups. Last year, the Legal Advice Center handled a total of 86 complaints from workers.In the first three months of this year the Center had already received 570 compare This is possible he ter 27 employers are trying to prevent the Center