Bob Kasen, 1935-1995
Life of Integrity
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Bob Kasen, 1935-1999 |
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Labor Party organizer and founding member Bob Kasen died on February
15 from a thoracic aortic aneurysm.
A memorial service on February 17 was crowded with people — black, white, young
and old — who had been touched by Bob’s 35 years of organizing. Teamsters leader
Eddie Kornegay, LP organizers Tony Mazzocchi and Adolph Reed Jr., David Schlein of the
American Federation of Government Employees, and Cheri Honkala of the Kensington Welfare
Rights Union — as well as family members — all recalled with fondness Bob
Kasen’s tireless efforts to build the movement for economic and racial justice.
Although hundreds of Labor Party members have been in contact with Bob, few know his
long and fascinating history. Beginning in the early 1960s, he became active in the labor
and civil rights movements. He worked for the International Chemical Workers Union from
1965 to 1970 and was hired in 1970 by Walter Reuther to be public relations director for
the Alliance for Labor Action, an organization of unions pursuing a progressive political
agenda.
In 1972, Bob went to work for the Teamsters, and later for the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees. He was engaged in the effort to block George
Wallace’s campaign for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. Bob later
returned to the Chemical Workers Union as organizing director, public relations director,
and assistant to a succession of presidents.
Bob was very proud of his involvement in the Committee for Justice in Mississippi,
which between 1979 and 1980 brought together hundreds of organizations to support an
organizing drive by poultry workers in Laurel, Mississippi, touching off the largest union
demonstration in Mississippi history. Bob was also active in the National Anti-Klan
Network.
In 1981, Bob served as senior strategist for the campaign to elect Tony Mazzocchi as
president of OCAW. For the next ten years, he worked as an advisor, writer, and organizer
for a number of unions. In 1992, he began work on the founding of the Labor Party —
his chief project ever since.
Bob leaves behind a beloved family, including two children, two grandchildren, and his
adored wife Cecilia Perry, his partner in the struggle for justice. Cecilia, an attorney
and AFSCME staff member, carries on Bob’s passionate support for the Labor Party.
Bob loved people and he loved the movement for justice. He thrived on the nitty-gritty
of organizing, and was well known in the Labor Party for his friendly tenacity. "Bob
was the kind of man for whom everything was an opportunity," said his friend of 25
years, Eddie Kornegay. "If he found a cause, he would give his money — and he
would give your money, too!" Said another old friend, Tony Mazzocchi: "Bob could
have settled down into the life of a comfortable union bureaucrat. But instead he
deliberately chose the life of struggle for political and social justice and economic
rights. He chose instead the life of discomfort, the life of integrity."
As a Labor Party organizer, Bob liked to be on the phone, in the room, or at the table,
talking face-to-face with unionists. Labor Party members all over the country have been
gently tugged along by the promptings of Bob.
Bob’s humor and his steady, lifelong, one-day-at-a-time approach to organizing are
the essence of what it will take to build a powerful Labor Party. As Tony Mazzocchi said
at his memorial, "Bob always realized it would be a long, dogged struggle. But Bob
was an optimist."
Bob’s family suggests that those wishing to make a donation in his memory may do
so to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, P.O. Box 50678, Philadelphia, PA 19133, or to
the Labor Party, P.O. Box 53177,Washington, D.C. 20009. |
