The Volunteer, June 2003

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“...and that government of the people,by the people, and for the people,shall not perish from the earth.”ABRAHAM LINCOLN

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JOURNAL OF THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

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Vol. XXV, No. 2June 2003

The Vets take the stage while the band plays songs of struggle and protest at the New York annual reunion, April 27,2003. See page 3 for story.

Photos by Richard Bermack

NEH Funds Archives

The National Endowment for the Humanities hasawarded a two-year $262,662 grant to New YorkUniversity’s Tamiment Library to process to and pre-serve the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives—the mostimportant historical collection in the United States docu-menting American participation in the Spanish CivilWar. The grant will make it possible for the Library topreserve the archive and provide access to it.The project will arrange, describe, and conserve 333linear feet of manuscript and printed material, more than100 reels of microfilm, 5,000 photographs, 475 audio cas-settes, 89 reel-to-reel tapes, 150 hours of film and videotape, 120 posters, 6 paintings and oversized documents,and a large collection of regalia including buttons, badges, medals, uniforms, banners, and flags.After this work is finished New York UniversityLibraries will mount a Web-based exhibit describing thehistory of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the ALBAcollection. This will be followed by a schedule of regularexhibits and an annual lecture series hosted by NewYork University’s King Juan Carlos Center. The expecta-tion is that once the ALBA Archive is fully accessible,students and scholars from all over the world will cometo the Tamiment Library to use it.Lincoln vets and their families are invited to helpcontinue to build this important collection. This winterthe Archie Brown Papers were added to the Archive andthe Robert Colodny Papers will be coming soon.For information about making donations to theALBA Collection, please contact Julia Newman,Executive Director, ALBA, 799 Broadway, Rm 227, NewYork, NY 10003. Phone 212-674-5398; or email:exemplaryone@aol.com.Dear Editor,I met Harry Fisher in Madrigueras. A kind, gentle,sweet, strong, very determined comrade. He told themunicipal authorities about his stay in their town. Saidhe: “The first time in my life I felt that I had a family.”There were tears and abrazos.I salute Harry posthumously for the last time. Unabrazo fuerte.Gino BaumannCosta RicaDear Volunteer,I meet Bill Susman at the exhibit "Shouts from the Wall".I talked with him about what it was like to be a soldierand about his experience in the Spanish Civil War andWorld War II. He was very nice and he roughhousedwith me. He seemed really cool. I liked him a lot.Malcolm Lee, age 11.

2THE VOLUNTEER June 2003

The

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Journal of the

Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade

an ALBA publication799 Broadway, Rm. 227New York, NY 10003(212) 674-5398

Editorial Board

Peter Carroll • Leonard LevensonGina Herrmann • Fraser OttanelliAbe Smorodin

Design Production

Richard Bermack

Editorial Assistance

Carla Healy-London

Submission of Manuscripts

Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk.E-mail:

volunteer@rb68.com

Letters

WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORG

Make a donation on line. We now acceptcredit cards. Support ALBA's importantwork. Donations are tax deductible.

ALBA board member Burt Cohen congratulates JohnBrademas, President Emeritus of New York University andPresident of the King Juan Carlos Center and MichaelNash head of the Tamiment Library on receiving the NEHgrant.

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 3

Bill Susman

1915-2003

By Cary NelsonPhotos by Richard Bermack

There really were only twooptions—getting wounded or gettingkilled. This a young lieutenant in theLincoln Battalion realized as he start-ed up a steep hill in the Ebro valleynear Gandesa. The Americans andtheir Spanish comrades were caughtin a crossfire between two machinegun emplacements above them. Theidea that you could pass throughthat ricocheting rain of bulletsunscathed was not worth entertain-ing. But the Republic needed thehigh ground. The effort had to bemade whether or not it was realistic.As Bill Susman would learn overand over again in Spain, occupyingthe high ground morally did notguarantee possession of the equiva-lent geographical or political terrain.Like so many of his lifetime com-rades on the Left, he would learn thelesson repeatedly in the years tocome. But he did indeed live to scaleother mountains. On that day in 1938he was wounded in the elbow andcrawled behind a terrace to avoid being shot again. Carried out ofaction, he would live to win and losemany future battles, bearing withhim at once the knowledge that youare never wholly in control of yourown fate and that the only compen-satory leverage you have is never toexercise less than a maximum effort.Those of us who worked withBill over the years would come tofeel a certain awe at what a maxi-mum effort meant for him. Whenyou were in the crossfire between hiswill and his affection you were notlikely to forget the experience.He began life as a red diaper baby, born Samuel Susman toCharles and Anna Susman in NewHaven, Connecticut, on September25, 1915. They returned to their homein Bridgeport, Connecticut, whereBill spent his first years. The house-hold was a transit point for radicalspassing through the area. Both par-ents worked in clothing factories.Anna was active in the ILGWU, aswas Bill’s great aunt Sarah, wholived for some time in the household.Charles was a Socialist Party member when his son was born, and he became a charter member of the newCommunist Party. The marriage col-lapsed when Bill was about six yearsold; in 1929 Bill and his father movedto the Bronx. Bill was an honors stu-dent in high school, but nonethelessfelt restless.Susman entered the party’s junior Groups of America at age ten,then became a Young Pioneer. Theysent him to Chicago to attend thefirst national UnemploymentCouncils convention; immediatelyafter that he graduated into theYoung Communist League. By thattime, in a Bronx high school, he wassimultaneously taking courses at theParty’s Worker School. He was eagerfor adventure, for travel, and Leftpolitics had become central to hislife. He undertook some specialwork under the name WilliamDorno. The new first name stuck,and he became William Susman. Hedropped out of school and in 1934was assigned to help the strikingMaritime Workers Industrial Union.When the strike ended, he decided togo to sea.On the New York docks heshowed a skill he would employ suc-cessfully the rest of his life—choosing just the right words to tipan interaction his way. From on board ship they called out to the men below looking for work to say theyneeded a chef’s assistant. Never skip-ping a beat then or thereafter, Billproclaimed himself well seasoned.“Where have you worked?” “TheHotel Edison, the Roosevelt, theWaldorf.” It was the third claim, thetopper,that got him in trouble a fewdays out to sea, when the captaincalled down for a Waldorf salad. Billhadn’t a clue. In recompense theykept him at the job without quarter.He never quite got out of hisclothes, but when the captain camedown for a visit a few days later hetook a liking to the ship’s youngscullery scoundrel and invited himon deck to learn something about being a sailor. He had a steering les-son and adapted obliquely toanother task. Directed by a seamanwith a heavy Brooklyn accent to callout “The lights are bright, sir,” wheneight bells rang, thereby assuring allthat the running lights were on, Billheard the command through hisYiddish ears and for a time bellowed“Litza Britza.”After passing through thePanama Canal and disembarking onshore leave at San Francisco, he wasready to become involved in a WestCoast strike by way of the waterfrontYCL. Back in New York in 1936, hewent to sea again, joining the eastcoast strike when the ship docked inBaltimore. By then, a young CPmember, he was ready for a still

Continued on page 18

End of An Era

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