Si Gerson
Si Gerson, the last vital link to the Communist Party’s glory days in NYC politics in the 1930’s and 40’s, died last December at the age of 95. Si was a valued colleague and comrade, and I miss him. The CP will be hosting a memorial in Si’s honor on June 10th. Si was a journalist and political activist during the Popular Front era, when the CP enjoyed considerable mainstream clout as a partner in the American Labor Party, a New York coalition party consisting of labor activists, Socialists, Communists reform Democrats and liberal Republicans that effectively took back the city from Tammany Hall for a time. Bookended by a corruption scandal that forced Mayor Jimmy Walker to flee the city in 1932 and by the start of anti-Communist hysteria in 1947, the era saw New York City freed from the grip of Tammany Hall hacks through political and electoral […]