Harry DeBoer

{{Short description|American Marxist labor organizer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} [[Image:Leon Trotsky and American admirers. Mexico - NARA - 283642.tif|thumb|right| Leon Trotsky with Harry De Boer (left) and James H. Bartlett and their spouses in Mexico in 1940.|400px]]

'''Harry DeBoer''' (1903–1992) was an American labor organizer and Trotskyist. He was born in Crookston, Minnesota,<ref name="redriver">{{cite web |url=http://www.wellredusa.com/pamphlets.asp |title=Wellred USA Online Store |work=wellredusa.com/pamphlets.asp |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822060113/http://www.wellredusa.com/pamphlets.asp |archivedate=2007-08-22 }}</ref> and worked in the Minneapolis coal yards. DeBoer became one of the leaders of the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934{{spaced ndash}}a particularly well-organized action that resulted in the shutting down of most commercial transport in the city.<ref>{{cite book |last=Valelly |first=Richard M. |year=1989 |chapter=New Deal Labor Policy and the Minneapolis Strikes of 1934 |title=Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=103–118 |isbn=9780226845357}}</ref> A leading member of the Socialist Workers Party, DeBoer was prosecuted together with many other SWP leaders under the Smith Act for opposing the US involvement in World War II. He found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison.<ref>{{cite book |last=Haverty-Stacke |first=Donna T. |year=2016 |chapter="If That Is Treason, You Can Make the Most of It": November 18–December 8, 1941 |title=Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since the Age of FDR |publisher=NYU Press |pages=109–138 |isbn=9781479849628}}</ref> In 1987, DeBoer authored the essay "How to Win Strikes: Lessons from the 1934 Minneapolis Truckers Strike" (also translated into Danish and German), in which he sought to disseminate the tactics used in the Minneapolis strike for the benefit of a new generation of socialists.

In his later years, DeBoer was a member of the Committee for a Workers' International before the 1992 split.

== Notes == {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026191633/http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/strikes.html |date=October 26, 2009 |title=HOW TO WIN STRIKES by Harry DeBoer }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081014092320/http://www.marxist.dk/Home.php?Page=Artikel&ArtikelID=1976 Hvordan strejker vindes (HOW TO WIN STRIKES in Danish) by Harry DeBoer] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbRINIxvtBs Speech at 1985 Militant Rally]

{{DEFAULTSORT:DeBoer, Harry}} Category:1903 births Category:1992 deaths Category:American anti–World War II activists Category:Minnesota socialists Category:Members of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) Category:People from Crookston, Minnesota Category:People convicted under the Smith Act