Brundy was born in 1944 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Her parents were school teachers. She attended Carleton College in Minnesota beginning in 1962. Like many others of her generation, Brundy became active on the campus in defense of the Cuban Revolution, in support of the civil rights struggle, and in opposition to the expanding U.S. war on Vietnam. She joined the Young Socialist Alliance in 1964 and then became a member of the SWP after moving to Minneapolis.

Brundy carried numerous leadership responsibilities and assignments in the party. For three years beginning in 1965 she worked as a volunteer in its recently established print shop in New York. From 1968 to 1970 she was part of the secretarial and household staff of retired SWP national secretary James P. Cannon in Los Angeles.

During the party’s 1972 election campaign, Brundy traveled as a secretary and aide to presidential candidate Linda Jenness. Along with her running mate Andrew Pulley, Jenness toured the country and internationally in a campaign that helped attract many youth to joining the Young Socialist Alliance.

Brundy then returned to New York and joined the office of Pathfinder Press, serving on its editorial, business, and promotions staff for five years.

Following the onset of the first worldwide capitalist recession since World War II, and the rise in working-class resistance to the takeback demands of the bosses, the SWP decided in 1978 to launch a turn to the industrial unions. The objective was to organize a big majority of the party membership and leadership to get jobs in basic industry and become active union members.

Brundy served as one of several regional field organizers for the SWP during those years, with responsibility for collaborating with branches and members of industrial trade union fractions of the party in Detroit, Toledo, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Indianapolis.

Brundy served as circulation director for the Militant in 1983–84. She was elected to the party’s Control Commission in 1975 and the following year delegates to the SWP convention voted her onto the party’s National Committee. She remained a member of the body until 1985.

Brundy resigned from party membership in Los Angeles, remaining a supporter of the party and its campaigns. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s.

In 1998 supporters of the Socialist Workers Party took on the challenge of converting Pathfinder’s arsenal of 350-plus titles from outmoded plate and film to modern digital technology. The campaign was named the Pathfinder Reprint Project. Brundy jumped into this activity, serving on the steering committee of the project for almost four years until failing health forced her to step down.

Brundy gave a talk on the project at an Active Workers Conference sponsored by the SWP and Young Socialists in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1998. "Everything that supporters have done is possible because of the class struggle and how the party is responding to it," she said. "We want to keep the books in print, and free up party members to talk to workers."

Anyone wishing to send a message to the meeting to celebrate Peggy Brundy’s life can do so by contacting the San Francisco SWP (sfswp@hotmail.com).

Meeting to Celebrate the Life of Peggy Brundy

Sunday April 6 New College Center, 766 Valencia St. (at 18th St.) San Francisco, CA Reception 1:00 p.m., Program 2:00p.m. For more information call: (415) 584-2135  
 
 
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