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| May
Day Celebration For David McReynolds; League to Honor Four-Decade Activist Career |
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NEW
YORK - April 20 - Do radicals retire?
Veteran pacifist and one-time Socialist Party presidential candidate David McReynolds
did January 1st, leaving the job he held since 1960 at the national office of
the War Resisters League. Yet even in retirement, McReynolds is busier than most
people with jobs, speaking to the media across the country about the war in the
Balkans, challenging economic sanctions against Iraq, and spending a day in police
custody to protest the New York police shooting of Amadou Diallo.
McReynolds muses, "Radicals don't retire in the sense that others leave a job
behind, they just find new ways to relate to the ideals that have always motivated
them." To honor his four decades of work and his continuing commitment to those
ideals, the War Resisters League is hosting a tribute on May 1—May Day, the traditional
worker's day.
A wide-ranging band of luminaries including social critic Barbara Ehrenreich,
poet Grace Paley, radical priest Daniel Berrigan, playwright Barbara Garson, columnist
Nat Hentoff, Southern organizer Mandy Carter, avant-garde jazz saxophonist Fred
Ho and fighting lawyer Arthur Kinoy will join the League in celebrating McReynold's
long and successful career with a gala dinner event. Featuring commentary by Ehrenreich,
poetry by Paley, music by Ho, emceeing by Carter, along with McReynolds' own reflections
on his work, the evening is expected to draw hundreds of well-wishers.
Among McReynold's accomplishments during the last 38 years:
• He was one of the first to burn his draft card to protest the Vietnam war;
• Called for unilateral withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in 1964
• Became the first peace activist to "come out" as openly gay in 1969
• Ran for Congress (1968) and president (1980) on the Socialist Party ticket
• Travelled the globe from Vietnam and Japan, to the former Soviet Union, Libya,
and Iraq
• Chaired War Resisters' International from 1986-1989
• Serves on board of directors of the International Bromeliad Society
McReynolds will be available for interviews before and after the May 1 event.
Sponsored by the War Resisters League, the 6:00 p.m. dinner will be followed by
an 8:00 p.m. program featuring Ehrenreich, Paley, Ho and Carter. Open to the public.
Donation $45 for dinner and program; $10 for program only.
Information and tickets: 212-228-0450.
What: Dinner and program honoring David McReynolds
When: Saturday, May 1, 1999; dinner at 6 pm; program at 8
Where: Saint Peter's Church, 619 Lexington Ave., entrance on 54th St.
Donation: $45 for dinner and program; $10 for program at 8 pm
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