We join you in celebrating the life of Helen Scheer, a veteran cadre of the Socialist Workers Party. Alan first met Helen at the 1959-60 SWP cadre school, when he was selected by the Canadian comrades to study over several months Marx's Capital and the history of the United States.

Like everyone else at the school Helen found reading and assimilating the lessons of Capital a real challenge. Through her hard work, serious and disciplined study, she set a high standard and a good example for all of us to follow.... Her confidence in the working class to change society, her determination and dedication to build the SWP, are attributes that all communists can emulate, regardless of which country they live in.

Alan and Connie Harris

Communist League

London, England

I noticed Doug's fine article in the Militant about Helen was a little lean about the 1950s period when I personally knew her best. Maybe one of the following observations could be used to help broaden that out a little.

Helen Scheer was a totally up front politician. What you saw and heard is what she was, whether you knew her during the decade of the 1950s or the decade of the 1990s.... Among attributes that clearly stood out was she never seemed to lose a responsible political rhythm in her day-to-day life, and always seemed to be there when times were tough. That's mainly because Helen herself was quietly tough - as well as politically conscious. This combination stood her in good stead during the McCarthy witch-hunt which she actively fought against....

Helen was an active fighter and revolutionary who commanded respect because of her all-sided abilities and political consciousness. Without these attributes she could never have sustained an entire adult lifetime of communist political activity. This showed in another way during the socialist regroupment that followed the Khrushchev revelations or admissions of Stalin's crimes in the mid- 1950s. Helen became part of the numerous programmatic meetings and debates between members of different left political currents in Minnesota, in an attempt to win agreement on a common socialist program....

These brief examples of some of Helen's life and activity in the 1950s help shatter a myth held by many that the capitalist witch-hunt of that period devastated independent political thinking inside the United States. It's true carrying out communist political work was not always easy in that decade, but thanks to fighters like Helen it was definitely sustainable.

PS: I am really enjoying the opportunity to take a small piece of the Crown action!

Tom Leonard

Houston, Texas

I've been a supporter of the party, rather than a member, for about ten years now. But Helen had such a profound and positive impact on my life that I wanted to express my appreciation of her life and my solidarity with the meeting celebrating her life.

I can't remember exactly when or where I first met Helen. I'm sure that it was sometime in the early 1960s, and it was undoubtedly at one of the political activities I was involved in at the time. It might have been at the Minneapolis picket line against a Governor George Wallace speech where we protested the Jim Crow policies then in force in Alabama.... But whatever the occasion, she and Charlie, her companion, were an extremely important influence in my life. They used to put me up in their spare room when I came up from Northfield for a forum or a demonstration in the early sixties.... After the political events, where we participated side by side, Helen and I used to sit up talking about political matters..... They had a personal integrity and honesty that I had never before seen.

Peggy Brundy

Bay Area, California

Dear Charlie,

I was sorry to hear of Helen's passing.

The months I spent as a young person with you both and with Hank made a lifelong impression upon me. It was through that experience that I came to understand what set the Socialist Workers Party apart from any other political organisation I had ever met - a self-confident working-class cadre that was and is its heart and soul. It helped me to realise that this is what had to be emulated everywhere if the worldwide struggle against capitalism is to succeed....

Russell Johnson

Upper Hutt, New Zealand  
 
 
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