Vol. 73/No. 25      June 29, 2009

Militant/Jacquie Henderson

Tom Leonard speaking at Militant Labor Forum, February 21 in Houston. He introduced film Black Soldiers Blues, about fighting racism in World War II.

In 1943 as a young radicalizing worker, Leonard joined the merchant marine. He then became a member of the National Maritime Union, participating in trade union resistance during and after World War II.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s he shipped to the Pacific, experiencing the impact of the anticolonial struggles in the region, including the victory of the 1949 Chinese revolution. He learned firsthand about the assault against trade unions by U.S. forces occupying southern Korea at the outset of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Through his work in the maritime industry, Leonard met members of the SWP and joined the party in 1951.

Over the course of the next 58 years Leonard was actively involved in building the communist movement as a leader of the work of SWP branches and trade union fractions. He joined actions in defense of the Cuban Revolution, the massive working-class movement for civil rights, the protests of the women’s liberation movement, and—from 2006 on—in the protests of millions of workers, both immigrant and U.S.-born, for immediate legalization of all immigrants. He remained active to the end, building the Houston branch of the party.

For the past decade and a half with the help of the Maritime Project Fund, Leonard prepared materials on his experiences and the systematic communist political work carried out by SWP fractions in the maritime industry in the 1940s and 1950s. Through the final years of his life he presented talks and classes in cities around the country on the party’s rich history in the U.S. class struggle and its lessons for today.

A fuller report on Leonard’s political contributions will appear in an upcoming issue of the Militant.

Celebrate the life and political contributions of Tom Leonard