BY CHARLES HANLON
DETROIT - Some 40 people gathered at the International
Institute in Detroit November 29 to celebrate the life of
Helene Millington, a member of the Socialist Workers Party
since 1975. Millington died here October 21 at the age of 86
while hospitalized for heart surgery. People who had worked
alongside of Millington over the last decades came from around
Michigan, as well as from Chicago; Seattle; Toledo, Ohio;
Connecticut; Toronto; and Blenhem, Ontario. Two of Helene's
daughters were present. Around a dozen people sent messages to
the meeting, several of which were read to the meeting. An
article on Millington's life and political contributions
appeared in the November 16 issue of the Militant.
John Sarge, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party branch in Detroit and an auto worker, chaired the meeting and welcomed participants. "Millington's political activity spanned seven decades," Sarge said. "She came to Detroit in 1932 to escape the isolation of a small town in Indiana." She participated in labor struggles, the civil rights movement, and the anti-Vietnam War movement, prior to joining the party in 1975.
Robin Maisel, in a message to the meeting, said "When I lived in Detroit and Helene first came into contact with our movement and up to the time I left for Los Angeles in 1978, Helene was called `Sue.'... Around the time Sue came around the forums as a regular I mentioned to her that I was working at the old Square D plant. Sue had a friend who worked at Square D at the time of the 1954 strike. She knew the building well because she had gone with her friend to picket the plant. The cops took down the license plate numbers of everyone parked near the plant. She found her license plate number and name in her State police file. It was on a document with everything else blacked out with magic marker from September 1954."
At the age of 62 in 1975, Helene joined the Socialist Workers Party.
Jack Willey, a member of the SWP National Committee, who joined the party in Detroit, also spoke. Willey said he first met Helene in July of 1993 at a march to commemorate the 1963 giant march in Detroit led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which solidarized with the deepening struggle against Jim Crow segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, at the time. "I was fresh out of high school, a political activist, looking for a revolutionary organization to join. One that could actually lead a revolution in this country, knowing that this was the most powerful nation in the world. And as we began marching a friend and I came across a party election campaign table with signs and a number of people at it and one of them was Helene. The thing that struck me right from the beginning when I met Helene and the Socialist Workers Party was their serious attitude toward discussions with people like me and the way they carried themselves. This was my first contact with the party." Helene was 81 years old at the time.
James Harris and Arlene Rubinstein in a message to the meeting said, "Helene was one of those fortunate people that would always maintain her youthful outrage at the injustices of capitalism. She would never accommodate herself to them or seek out a separate peace for herself even in advanced age. Helene was outraged by capitalist injustice, but she wasn't embittered or demoralized by it.... Young people were especially attracted to her serenity and absolute confidence in the revolutionary capacities of working people. Those a little older were also attracted because after being around her some of her youthful enthusiasm would usually rub off."
Shelton McCrainey - from the Chicago branch of the Socialist Workers Party, a member of the United Steelworkers of America, and a Vietnam war veteran - told the meeting, "I joined the SWP when I worked at the General Dynamics tank plant near Detroit coming out of a strike.... The question in my mind at the time was if I was too old to join. This was answered when I met Helene, who was in her 60s. She was a true revolutionary, hardworking, full of energy, love, talking politics to young people. She helped me overcome my fears of rejection in selling the Militant." McCrainey talked about the UMWA strike at Freeman Coal Company in central Illinois and urged solidarity with the striking coal miners.
McCrainey recounted selling the Militant with Helene. He described her as a tireless salesperson of the socialist newsweekly at bus stops, at political events, at plant gates and in her neighborhood.
The chairperson recognized several participants in the meeting including two activists from Irish Northern Aid, a locked-out Detroit newspaper worker, and two activists from the Justice for Cuba Committee. One of Helene's neighbors from the retirement community where she lived came to the meeting and also sent a message. She had brought him to Militant Labor Forums in Detroit over the previous months.
Nan Bailey, a member of the SWP national trade union committee and a member of the International Association of Machinists in Seattle, also spoke.
Bailey spent several years in the Detroit SWP working with Helene, beginning in 1976. Bailey described Millington's participation in the fight to defend school desegregation in Boston in the mid-1970s. "Helene was one of thousands from around the country who traveled to Boston to participate in the May 17, 1975, march supporting school desegregation and protesting the violent attacks that racists were carrying out against Black students as they were being bussed to school."
"From that movement, to the United Farmworkers grape and lettuce boycotts, to demonstrations in defense of a woman's right to choose abortion, you would always find Helene on the front lines of the action," Bailey said. "She thrived on these opportunities to do mass work. And she was a leader among us in consistently and effectively introducing communist ideas to fighters we met in these struggles. She was the leading Militant subscription seller during every sub drive while I was in Detroit, and I'm sure she was one of the leading salespeople in the country," Bailey said.
"When the party made the turn to industry in the late 1970s, Helene enthusiastically supported that decision and worked in every way she could to help advance our work in the turn. Although she was already at retirement age and could not get a job in industry, she regularly participated in plant gate sales at plants we targeted to get jobs at in the Detroit area. The River Rouge UAW plant was her plant gate sale for some time."
"A few of the messages and comments here today have referred to Helene as unique. And she truly was an outstanding individual. But I want to submit that she was not unique. The conditions she faced in her lifetime, her decision to become a fighter on a number of important social questions, her conclusion in 1975 that joining the communist movement was the logical conclusion of what her political experiences as a fighter had taught her and the most effective way to advance those struggles. These are the same conclusions that so many women like Helene -and other fighters from all walks of life - are also reaching. And as the crisis of world imperialism deepens, many more will draw those conclusions. We can be confident that we can look forward to many Helenes joining the fight that Helene Millington put at the center of her life."
The meeting closed with a presentation by Naomi Craine, editor of the Militant. She reported on the success of the recent Red Weekend in the Pathfinder Building in New York City, which was organized for the installation of cutting edge computer-to-plate (CTP) equipment to cut costs and reduce labor time in the production of Pathfinder books. The installation of CTP is not just a good idea, but a necessity at this time to meet the needs of the communist movement and make the book production financially possible. She urged people to contribute to the Capital Fund whose goal is $550,000 -the amount needed to pay for the equipment and pay off loans on the printing presses. The money collected goes toward these capital expenses, not operating expenses. The aim is to collect $350,000 by the end of the year. Contributions of $2,800 were raised in a special collection to honor Helene's life.