Memorial service will be held May 27, 2011 at 12:00 noon at Central United Methodist Church, Woodward at Adams in Detroit.
"the Detroit City Council mourns and honors Al
Fishman, one of our City's finest Peace, Civil and
Human Rights, and Labor activists, advocates and
champions, one of our true Citizens of the World."
Remembrances from: * Detroit City Council Memorial Resolution for Mr. Al
Fishman, Peace and Human Rights Activist * Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action * Pat Fry, National Co-Chair, Committees of Correspondence
for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) * Michigan Peace Action Network * Jack Lessenberry, Michigan Radio (91.7 FM - Ann
Arbor/Detroit; 91.1 FM - Flint; 104.1 FM West Michigan)
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Detroit City Council Memorial Resolution for Mr. Al Fishman, Peace and Human Rights Activist
[Adopted unanimously May 24, to be read at May 27 memorial meeting]
WHEREAS, Al Fishman was a leading peace and justice activist since being discharged from the U.S. Army in 1947 after which he organized countless picket lines, marches, rallies, teach-ins, and forums; and
WHEREAS, Al Fishman was involved in opposition to the Korean War, including the defense of Lt Gilbert, an African American officer who was court-martialed for refusing to order his men into a "suicide mission". He also served as the Michigan coordinator of the Vietnam Moratorium; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Fishman, as a supporter of human rights, participated in protests against the racist murder of Emmett Till; the racist frame-ups of Willie McGee, The Trenton Six and the Martinville Seven; the political frame-up of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. He was a member of the National Negro Labor Council and it's campaigns for jobs and helped force Black representation in trade union leadership. He was a member of the Michigan Congress Against Repression, participating in its activities against police brutality, and in the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression , and the campaigns to free Angela Davis and Rev. Benjamin Chavis; and
WHEREAS, Al Fishman, notwithstanding, the corrupt and undemocratic aspects of our electoral system - about which he spoke frequently - was a dedicated participant in the process of advancing peace and social economic justice through electoral politics. He was proud of the fact that he participated in breaking racist barriers in landmark campaigns to advance the political representation of African Americans, including the campaigns of Charles Diggs, William T. Patrick, John Conyers, Richard Austin, Erma Henderson , and Coleman A. Young. He was organizer and State Co-Chair of the New Democratic Coalition, which served as a unifying force for progressives in the Democratic Party. He was an active supporter of George McGovern for President; and
WHEREAS, Al Fishman was part of the campaign, led by the Honorable Erma Henderson, to eliminate redlining. He helped to organize the Michigan Coalition on Utilities and Energy, which opposed unwarranted utility rate increases; and
WHEREAS, In the spirit of the Ghandi-Martin Luther King teachings about non-violent resistance, he risked arrest in a number of peace and justice actions. He was arrested protesting apartheid at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., for protesting the Indonesian massacre in Dili, East Timor, for protesting the continuing development of nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Nevada, in support of the striking Detroit newspaper workers, and against the then imminent US invasion of Iraq; and
WHEREAS, Detroit's Al Fishman co-chaired a coalition opposed to the first Persian Gulf War. After the attack on the World Trade Center, he co-convened the twenty organizations of the Detroit Area Peace With Justice Network, which was part of dozens of protests against the war on Iraq; he led annual events to commemorate the horrors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and
WHEREAS, Since the early 1980's, he was a member of Peace Action - at that time called the Nuclear Freeze Campaign. He served Peace Action of Michigan for many years as a Co-Chair and as its representative on the National Board of Directors. He served as a member of the local Board of Directors, writing frequent articles for its quarterly newsletter; and
WHEREAS, Al was a member of the New Jewish Agenda, the first, and for some time the only, Jewish American organization that supported Palestinian statehood. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the Detroit City Council mourns and honors Al Fishman, one of our City's finest Peace, Civil and Human Rights, and Labor activists, advocates and champions, one of our true Citizens of the World.
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Al Fishman, Presente!
by Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action
Peace Action Peace Blog MAy 20, 2011
http://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/al-fishman-presente/
I just got word Al Fishman, former national Peace Action board member and longtime leader in Peace Action of Michigan and the Detroit peace and justice community, passed away. I don't know any details yet, just that he went to the hospital yesterday for a knee problem and had a massive heart attack.
I love Al. I've known him for close to twenty years, and in all that time he was one of the most indefatigable, consistent voices of conscience for peace, social and economic justice, and solidarity with peoples' struggles I have ever known. (A colleague reminded me Al's first arrest was for petitioning for nuclear disarmament in Stockholm, in 1950!)
He had a particularly keen understanding that the peace movement needed to work with and be in solidarity with people of color organizations and labor unions, as our struggles are inextricably linked. I disagreed with Al on politics once in awhile (Al, wherever you are, we can still argue next year about whether Peace Action should endorse Obama, in fact I'm counting on it!), but I never lost respect or affection for him personally, and never for a second doubted his opinions came from a place of integrity, sincerity, commitment and love.
My only regret is I didn't get to say goodbye to this wonderful man. I'm sure our national board co-chair, Helen Weber, and other Peace Action of Michigan folks will let us know how we can properly honor and celebrate Al's life.
Rest in peace my brother, you've certainly earned it.
Alvin Fishman, Presente!
Kevin
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Remembering Al Fishman
by Pat Fry, National Co-Chair, CCDS
May 23, 2011
Submitted to Portside by the author
The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS) is greatly saddened by the news that Al Fishman of Detroit, Michigan, a life-long stalwart for peace and justice, died suddenly last week. Al served in many roles over decades of struggle. Among them, Al was state chair of the New Democratic Coalition of Michigan that supported the anti-war candidacy of Eugene McCarthy and opposed the U.S. war on Vietnam from 1966-71. He was a member of the National Board of Peace Action, a leader of Michigan Peace Action and a member of CCDS' Peace and Solidarity Committee.
Al was a member of the Communist Party until he and hundreds of others left and formed the Committees of Correspondence in 1992. He was also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Al was also my co-worker at Wayne County Community College in Detroit in the early 1970s and a friend of nearly 40 years. He was also my dear comrade and mentor. It is fitting that he had a meeting arranged with Sen. Carl Levin's office this week. He often arranged group meetings with elected officials pressing for nuclear disarmament, an end to U.S. wars of aggression and was relied upon in matters of the peace movement by a number of elected officials. Al and his wife of 60 years who survives him, Marge Fishman, were instrumental in the campaign to elect Detroit's first African American Mayor, Coleman Young, in 1974.
Al will always be remembered for his clarity on two important issues of strategy for democratic advance: in order to make any significant progress for peace and justice, the two most important forces for change must be joined in the struggle - labor and the African American people's movement for equality. And secondly, the widest possible front must be formed targeting the far right-wing, particularly in the electoral arena.
Al lived his life until his very last days with this mission at the fore. He had been at a Peace Action meeting the day before he suffered a massive heart attack, complaining about a pain in his knee. His fellow Peace Action members urged him to go to the doctor the next day, where he died.
It is hard for me to believe that Al is not with us anymore. I so treasured my visits back home in Detroit to spend the afternoon with he and Margaret around the kitchen table, going through a couple pots of coffee, discussing the movement in Detroit and the world - always with optimism and resolve. I will miss him so.
There will be a memorial for Al at the church renowned for its place in the peace and justice movement - Central Methodist Church in downtown Detroit, Friday, May 25th at 12:00 noon.
Al Fishman, Presente!