Bill Friedland

Folksinger and labor activist Bill Friedland was born in Staten Island, NY, in 1923. The son of Russian immigrants active in the Jewish labor organization the Workmen's Circle, he found himself attracted to Trotskyism while a student at Wagner College, and as a result of his growing proletarian leanings he accepted a factory job following graduation. In time, Friedland allied with the Trotskyite splinter group formed by Max Shachtman, who viewed Soviet-styled Communism as the catalyst behind yet another class-ruled society. Seeking to establish a "third camp," the Shachtmanite...