Remembrances Archives - John Riddell https://johnriddell.com/category/history/remembrances/ MARXIST ESSAYS AND COMMENTARY Thu, 06 May 2021 11:42:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.10 https://i0.wp.com/johnriddell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/cropped-John-Riddell-Icon-Final-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Remembrances Archives - John Riddell https://johnriddell.com/category/history/remembrances/ 32 32 22825446 50 Years Ago: When Canada Suspended Civil Liberties https://johnriddell.com/2020/10/16/50-years-ago-when-canada-suspended-civil-liberties/ https://johnriddell.com/2020/10/16/50-years-ago-when-canada-suspended-civil-liberties/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2020 12:05:03 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=6232 Recollections of Montreal Under the War Measures Act By John Riddell: It was October 16, 1970, fifty years ago today. Turning on CBC radio over breakfast that day, I was startled to learn that the War Measures Act had been decreed across the entire country. The Canadian equivalent of martial law, War Measures were invoked […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2020/10/16/50-years-ago-when-canada-suspended-civil-liberties/feed/ 2 6232 Suzanne Weiss memoir available October 1 https://johnriddell.com/2019/09/24/suzanne-weiss-memoir-available-october-1/ https://johnriddell.com/2019/09/24/suzanne-weiss-memoir-available-october-1/#comments Tue, 24 Sep 2019 13:38:56 +0000 http://johnriddell.com/?p=5497 ‘Holocaust to Resistance’ tells of solidarity ‘then and now’ By John Riddell: Long a familiar figure in Toronto left rallies and action coalitions, Suzanne Weiss has now published a life story arching from her first years in France occupied by Hitler’s troops to present-day tasks of liberation and eco-revolution. Suzanne’s publisher, Fernwood, has organized a […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2019/09/24/suzanne-weiss-memoir-available-october-1/feed/ 2 5497 1958: My Search for Socialism https://johnriddell.com/2019/08/15/1958-my-search-for-socialism/ https://johnriddell.com/2019/08/15/1958-my-search-for-socialism/#comments Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:41:07 +0000 http://johnriddell.com/?p=5471 A Memoir (Part One) By John Riddell: I hear many negative comments from socialist friends these days about “Stalinism” or “Trotskyism.” The terms are not easy to evaluate. They relate to history, to the Russian revolution and its contradictory legacy, to events now almost a century in the past. Well, I come from those long-ago times. […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2019/08/15/1958-my-search-for-socialism/feed/ 3 5471 In memory of Fred Feldman https://johnriddell.com/2018/09/10/in-memory-of-fred-feldman/ https://johnriddell.com/2018/09/10/in-memory-of-fred-feldman/#comments Mon, 10 Sep 2018 14:35:09 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=5143 Including: A guide to Fred’s online writings A video of a New York discussion held in memory of Fred Feldman is now available on You Tube. Thanks to Dayne Goodman for passing on the URL.  By John Riddell: Fred Feldman, a widely respected socialist activist and long-time leader of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party, died August […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2018/09/10/in-memory-of-fred-feldman/feed/ 15 5143 A life for socialism: Bea Bryant (1922-2016) https://johnriddell.com/2018/03/19/a-life-for-socialism-bea-bryant-1922-2006/ https://johnriddell.com/2018/03/19/a-life-for-socialism-bea-bryant-1922-2006/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2018 19:59:20 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=5017 Marxist activist and community organizer By John Riddell: Half a century ago, the highpoint of my schedule as a socialist organizer in Toronto was the monthly hour-long drive up Bayview Avenue for an evening with Bea Bryant and her partner George in their Richmond Hill home. Their solidarity work in that sleepy and conservative suburb was […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2018/03/19/a-life-for-socialism-bea-bryant-1922-2006/feed/ 3 5017 Toronto socialism in the 1940s: A reminiscence https://johnriddell.com/2017/12/14/toronto-socialism-in-the-1940s-a-reminiscence/ https://johnriddell.com/2017/12/14/toronto-socialism-in-the-1940s-a-reminiscence/#respond Thu, 14 Dec 2017 14:20:19 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=4892 Allan Goldstein, a lifelong friend of the socialist movement, died in Toronto December 6, 2017, at the age of 88. Some years ago, he granted me an interview on his memories of the socialist movement in which he was active in his teenage years. I have transcribed it from cassette tape and provided some explanatory […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2017/12/14/toronto-socialism-in-the-1940s-a-reminiscence/feed/ 0 4892 Colleen Levis: For a labor alternative in Montreal elections (1974) https://johnriddell.com/2016/11/29/colleen-levis-for-a-labor-alternative-in-montreal-elections-1974/ https://johnriddell.com/2016/11/29/colleen-levis-for-a-labor-alternative-in-montreal-elections-1974/#respond Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:05:36 +0000 https://johnriddell.com/?p=3045 Introduction by John Riddell. Colleen Levis, a leader of the socialist movement in Canada and Quebec, died on October 14, 2016, at the age of 70. In her memory , I am republishing here an article she wrote in 1974, “Labor Alternative Needed in Montreal Civic Election.” Born in Calgary in 1946, Colleen Sharon Levis […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2016/11/29/colleen-levis-for-a-labor-alternative-in-montreal-elections-1974/feed/ 0 3045 Growing up with the Korean War: A memoir of 1950-51 https://johnriddell.com/2014/07/04/growing-up-with-the-korean-war-a-memoir-of-1950-51/ https://johnriddell.com/2014/07/04/growing-up-with-the-korean-war-a-memoir-of-1950-51/#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2014 17:01:43 +0000 http://johnriddell.com/?p=1902 The account that follows attempts to portray the Korean War as experienced by a young boy and by his father, R. Gerald Riddell, a Canadian diplomat. It does not attempt to draw a balance sheet of Canadian foreign policy in that period. It is followed by a tribute to R.G. Riddell written in 1951. — […]

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]]> https://johnriddell.com/2014/07/04/growing-up-with-the-korean-war-a-memoir-of-1950-51/feed/ 3 1902 Canada’s pipeline wars of the 1950s: a memoir https://johnriddell.com/2012/09/16/canadas-pipeline-wars-of-the-1950s-a-memoir/ https://johnriddell.com/2012/09/16/canadas-pipeline-wars-of-the-1950s-a-memoir/#comments Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:02:20 +0000 http://johnriddell.com/?p=1207 By John Riddell. The Canadian government’s present plan to build a pipeline carrying environmentally disastrous tar-sands oil through northern B.C. “has prompted an outpouring of opposition unlike anything seen in years,” wrote Les Whittington in the Toronto Star on September 9. He quoted Green Party leader Elizabeth May as saying the pipeline was unlikely to […]

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