Goodby to Winter

Snowbound in Manhattan, Feb. 13, 2014

I’ve always loved the snow, playing in it, making snow men, throwing snowballs especially sledding down the packed-snow streets of the quiet NY suburb where I grew up. And of course who doesn’t love snow days, those surprise holidays, official invitations to do what you want, no guilt?

A Brief Bio of Richard Greeman

Since my teens, I have been active in social justice struggles in the US and abroad. In the 1950’s and got involved in the Civil Rights, labor, anti-McCarthyite and ban-the-bomb movements, then in the ’60s and ’70s with the anti-Vietnam, student rebellions and black freedom marches, and in the 80s Central America solidarity, anti-nuke and environmental movements. In the ’90s in Russia, I helped found Moscow’s Praxis Research and Education Center for anti-totalitarian socialism (www.praxiscenter.ru). Today I divide my time between Montpellier, France and New York City, where I teach at the Brecht Forum.

My Political Education

I guess I was born a rebel. My parents were active Progressives (pro-Soviet until 1956) while my maternal grandfather, Sam Levin, an immigrant tailor from Russia, was a card-carrying member of Eugene V. Debs’ American Socialist Party. During his Presidential campaigns, Debs barnstormed the U.S. on a train called ‘The Red Special’ making whistle-stop speeches in every town and city, including Hartford, Connecticut. That’s how my grandfather got his autographed picture, a prized possession of his which I inherited along with his library of Socialist books. This makes me a ‘red-diaper’ grand-baby.