Michael Myerson

{{Short description|American Communist activist and writer (born 1940)}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Michael Myerson | honorific_suffix = | image = Mike Myerson 1967.png | image_upright = | landscape =  | alt =  | caption = Myerson in 1967 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pronunciation = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1940  | birth_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | nationality = | other_names = | siglum = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley | occupation = | years_active = | era = | employer = | organization = | known_for = President of SLATE; co-author of John J. Abt's memoir | notable_works =  | title =  | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = Communist Party USA | movement = Communism | opponents = | boards = | criminal_charges =  | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse = {{marriage|Diane Burke|1961|1966|end=div}}<br />{{marriage|Laura Beth|1976}} | partner =  | children = {{flatlist| * Molly * Jesse }} | parents = Seymour and Vivian Myerson | relatives = | family = | awards = }}

'''Michael Gene Myerson''' (born 1940)<ref>{{cite web|date= |title= Search on 'Myerson, Michael, 1940-|url=https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/search?query=creator,exact,Myerson,%20Michael,%201940-,AND&vid=HVD2&facet=creator,exact,Myerson,%20Michael,%201940-&mode=advanced|publisher = Harvard University|access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> is an American writer and member of the Communist Party of the USA, best known for serving as president of SLATE (1961–1962) and co-authoring the memoir of Ware Group member and CPUSA counsel John J. Abt (1993).<ref>{{cite journal| last = Salmond| first = John| date= 1995| title= Book Reviews: Advocate and Activist : Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer| url= https://doi.org/10.2307/743977| journal = Law and History Review| doi = 10.2307/743977| jstor = 743977|access-date = 14 July 2020| url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| date = 1995| title= Book Reviews: Advocate and Activist : Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer| url = https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/labstuj20&div=63&id=&page=| journal = Labor Studies Journal| volume = 20| page = 99| access-date = 14 July 2020| last1 = Lannon| first1 = Albert Vetere}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| last= Sefton MacDowell| first= Laurel| date = 1995| title= Review: Advocate and Activist : Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer| url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/25143941| journal = Labour/Le Travail| publisher= Canadian Committee on Labour History| jstor = 25143941| access-date = 14 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| date= 1963| title= Communist Youth Activities| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BuZRAQAAIAAJ| pages = 1786, 1807–11, 1821| publisher = USGPO| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>

==Background== Michael Gene Myerson was born in 1940 in Washington, D.C.,<ref name=FreeSpeech>{{cite book| last1 = Myerson| first1 = Michael| author-link1 = Michael Myerson| last2 = Rubens| first2 = Lisa| date = 2014| title = Michael Myerson: Free Speech Movement Oral History Project| url = https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/myerson_michael_2014.pdf|publisher = University of California-Berkeley| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> the son of Seymour (died 1987) and Vivian Myerson (1911–2011).<ref name=Vivian>{{cite news| first = Elaine| last = Woo| title = Vivian Myerson, peace activist who won early victory against LAPD spying, dies at 100| newspaper = Los Angeles Times| url = https://www.wvgazettemail.com/vivian-myerson-peace-activist-who-won-early-victory-against-lapd-spying-dies-at-100/article_6fd0de8c-a7a5-5a6f-9bbd-701c2db25f7e.html| date = 16 May 2011| accessdate = 3 January 2021}}</ref> His father came from a Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox, Rumanian Jewish home in Chicago, who spent his life under the name "Mike."<ref name=FreeSpeech/> His mother's parents came from Ukraine and Lithuania.<ref name=FreeSpeech/> He has two brothers, Alan and Mark.<ref name=Vivian/> During World War II, they were living in Washington, D.C., where his father was an architect for the War Production Board and his mother an interior decorator.<ref name=FreeSpeech/><ref name=Vivian/> (He describes himself as a "child of a blacklisted set designer" during McCarthyism,<ref name=Jencks>{{cite journal| last= Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date = 1 April 2020| title= The Legacy of Clinton Jencks| url= https://monthlyreview.org/2020/04/01/the-legacy-of-clinton-jencks/| journal = Monthly Review| pages = 45–52| doi = 10.14452/MR-071-11-2020-04_6| s2cid = 216284044| access-date = 3 January 2021| url-access = subscription}}</ref>) whose mentor was CPUSA executive committee member Gil Green.<ref name=Portrait>{{cite journal| last= Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date = 18 January 2021| title = A Portrait of Gil Green| url= https://monthlyreview.org/2021/01/01/a-portrait-of-gil-green/| journal = Monthly Review| pages = 43–51| doi = 10.14452/MR-072-08-2021-01_4| s2cid = 234270096| access-date = 3 January 2021| url-access = subscription}}</ref>) In 1945, his family left Washington because his parents were both communists and moved to Los Angeles.<ref name=FreeSpeech/> (During the 1970s, his parents claimed that the police had harassed them at their home in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles. In 1977, his father sued the Los Angeles Police Department and in 1982 won an out-of-court settlement for $27,5000.<ref name=Vivian/>)

==Career== In 1958, Myerson arrived as a sophomore at the University of California-Berkeley, where he took part in the Free Speech Movement. Almost from his arrival, he was on the executive committee of SLATE, an early New Left free speech organization based at Berkeley. In 1961, he became SLATE president through 1962. Shortly thereafter, he graduated and was kicked off campus.<ref name=FreeSpeech/>

In 1962, Myerson became chairman and executive of the United States Festival Committee Inc. to the Communist World Festival in Helsinki, Finland,<ref name=FreeSpeech/><ref>{{cite web| date= 3 February 1962| title = Communist International Youth and Student Apparatus| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4fbasUJy35AC| page = 47| publisher= USGPO| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> cited in a 1962 article in the ''Harvard Crimson'', and became embroiled in some controversy when he claimed that this festival was "Communist-dominated."<ref>{{cite journal| last= Feinberg| first= Lawrence W.| date = 24 February 1962| title = Myerson Asks American Students To Attend Helsinki Youth Festival| url= https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/2/24/myerson-asks-american-students-to-attend/| journal = Harvard Crimson| publisher= Harvard University| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> Myerson was member of the National Student Association (NSA) on its left-wing, unlike Tom Hayden and Al Haber, who were more centrist.<ref name=FreeSpeech/> In 1963, he joined a study ground he called a "W.E.B. DuBois Club" or "Marxist study youth group and equated with "Labor's Youth League... an arm of the Communist Party" and also state "to be in the Young Communist League was not to be in the Communist Party... I think it was an age thing."<ref name=FreeSpeech/> He helped for an "Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination" in the San Francisco Bay area to support the NAACP and CORE. Harry Bridges' daughter participated.<ref name=FreeSpeech/> In 1964, he protested the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater as well as US President Lyndon Baynes Johnson for his position on the Vietnam War.<ref name=FreeSpeech/>

Myerson became a "Vietnam expert" based on a popular pamphlet he wrote on the war. In 1965, he organized a delegation to an Anti-Vietnam War Congress in Helsinki. There, a delegation from the National Liberation Front (NLF) from North Vietnam invited him to visit, based on his pamphlet. In August 1965, he traveled there with three other Americans: Harold Supriano, Christopher Koch, and Richard Ward. After that, Myerson went on a six-month tour of the US and spoke out against the Viet Nam War.<ref name=FreeSpeech/>

[[File:International Publishers Exhibit. Participants include James S. Allen and Michael Myerson. Sep 1967 Slide 2.png|thumb|right|upright=1.2|Myerson (left) reviews an International Publishers exhibit with fellow Communists James S. Allen (right) and Jane Hodes (seated) at a fall book preview exhibition at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York City, September 1967]]

In 1966, Myerson left the Berkeley area in 1966 and went to New York City, where his older brother lived. That year, he described himself, as a "non-Communist, pro-American, and pro-human" in ''The Chicago Defender''.<ref> {{cite news| date= 15 June 1966| title= DuBois Club Officer Opposes Viet Fighting| url=| newspaper = Chicago Defender| access-date = }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last= Rubinsky| first = Brian| date = October 2014| title = Working Class Internationalism: The American Communist Party and Anti-Vietnam War Activism 1961-1971 | url= https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/45662/PDF/1/play/| publisher = Rutgers University| page = 43 (84fn)| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> In 1967, he appeared in a photo a ''Daily Worker'' photo with Tom Hayden, Stanley Aronowitz, Juan Angel Silen, Paul Krassner, and H. Rap Brown (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin).<ref>{{cite web| date = 13 July 1967| title= Guide to the Daily Worker and Daily World Negatives Collection PHOTOS.223.001| url= http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/photos_223_001/dscref12105.html| publisher = New York University| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> In 1969, he was associated with an allegedly communist-affiliated Tri-Continental Information System.<ref>{{cite journal| title = ???| journal = American Opinion| publisher = Robert Welch, Inc.| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FY8fAQAAMAAJ| date = 1969| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> In 1970, he described much of these events in the book ''These are the Good Old Days''.<ref name=FreeSpeech/>

In 1977, Myerson was a member of the central committee of the CPUSA as well as executive director of the US Peace Council, an affiliate of the World Peace Council.<ref>{{cite book| first = Guenter| last = Lewy| title = The Cause the Failed: Communism in American Political Life| publisher = Oxford University Press| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hezKbKnXAUUC| page = 188| date = 1990| isbn = 9780199878987| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>

In 1992, Myerson left the CPUSA along with Herbert Aptheker, Angela Davis, Gil Green, and Charlene Mitchell,<ref>{{cite web| date = 1993| title = Crisis in the CPUSA: Interview with Charlene Mitchell| url = https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/cis/omalley/OMalleyWeb/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03006/07lv03075/08lv03082.htm| publisher = University of the Western Cape| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> and was affiliated with the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.<ref>{{cite web |title=Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the '90s |url=https://www.usasurvival.org/uploads/1/2/6/3/126369300/ccds_bckgrnd___committees_of_correspondence.pdf |website=usasurvival.org |publisher=Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism |access-date=28 September 2025}}</ref> In 1993, CPUSA counsel John J. Abt published his memoir, ''Advocate and Activist : Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer'', co-written with Myerson. In 1994, Myerson accused CPUSA leader Gus Hall of living a "good bourgeois life" including "an estate in fashionable Hampton Bays."<ref>{{cite news|first = Janny| last =Scott| title= Comrades Up in Arms; Ranks of American Communists Split Over Future of Their Party| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/21/nyregion/comrades-up-arms-ranks-american-communists-split-over-future-their-party.html| newspaper= New York Times| page = D27| date = 8 May 1997| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> In 1997, a ''New York Times'' obituary for Gil Green named Myerson as a "family friend."<ref>{{cite news| title= Gilbert Green, 90, Communist Party Leader Jailed for Conspiracy| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/08/us/gilbert-green-90-communist-party-leader-jailed-for-conspiracy.html| newspaper= New York Times| page = D27| date = 8 May 1997| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> Myerson also sorted Green's papers.<ref name=Portrait/>

==Personal life== On November 2, 1961, Myerson married Diane Burke; they divorced in 1966.<ref name=FreeSpeech/> Myerson married Laura Beth Myerson on March 17, 1976. They have two children together, Molly Myerson and Jesse A. Myerson

==Legacy== James W. Clinton wrote a whole chapter on Myerson in ''Loyal Opposition'' (1995).<ref>{{cite book| first1= James W.| last1= Clinton| title= The Loyal Opposition: Americans in North Vietnam, 1965-1972| publisher = University Press of Colorado| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PYhuAAAAMAAJ| date= 1966| isbn = 9780870814129| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>

Myerson also appears in Phillip Abbott Luce ''The New Left'' (1966),<ref>{{cite book|first1= Phillip Abbott|last1= Luce|author-link1 = Phillip Abbott Luce|title = The New Left|publisher = D. McKay|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jeObAAAAMAAJ|pages = 134–138|date= 1966|access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> David Allen's ''The Dream of the New Left'' (1995),<ref>{{cite book|first1= David|last1 = Allen|title = The Dream of a New Left: A Geneaological Inquiry Into the Collapse of Sixties Radicalism, Volume 2|publisher=University of California Press|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=E1pMAQAAMAAJ|pages = 253, 292|date = 1995|access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> and Anthony Ashbolt's ''A Cultural History of the Radical Sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area'' (2015).<ref>{{cite book|first1= Anthony|last1= Ashbolt|title= A Cultural History of the Radical Sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area|publisher= Routledge|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RjA7CgAAQBAJ|pages = 52–53|date = 2015|isbn = 9781317321880|access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>

==Works== ;Books * ''These are the Good Old Days: Coming of Age as a Radical in America's Late, Late Years'' (1970)<ref> {{cite book| last= Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date= 1973| title= These are the Good Old Days: Coming of Age as a Radical in America's Late, Late Years| url = http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990061107120203941/catalog| publisher = Grossman Publishers| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> * ''Memories of Underdevelopment: The Revolutionary Films of Cuba'' (1973)<ref> {{cite book| last= Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date = 1973| title= Memories of Underdevelopment: The Revolutionary Films of Cuba| url= https://lccn.loc.gov/72093281| publisher= Grossman Publishers| lccn = 72093281| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> * ''Watergate: Crime in the Suites'' (1973)<ref> {{cite book| last= Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date = 1973| title= Watergate: Crime in the Suites| url= https://lccn.loc.gov/73087992| publisher= International Publishers| lccn = 73087992| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> * ''Nothing Could Be Finer'' (1978)<ref> {{cite book| last = Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date = 1978| title= Nothing Could Be Finer| url= https://lccn.loc.gov/78017407| publisher = International Publishers| lccn = 78017407| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> * ''The ILGWU: A Union That Fights for Lower Wages'' (1972–1983?)<ref>{{cite book| last= Myerson| first= Michael| author-link = Michael Myerson| date= 1973| title= The ILGWU: A Union That Fights for Lower Wages| url= http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990138679960203941/catalog| publisher = Grossman Publishers| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref> * ''Advocate and Activist : Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer'' (1993)<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Abt| first1 = John J.| author-link1 = John J. Abt| last2= Myerson| first2= Michael| author-link2 = Michael Myerson| date= 1993| title = Advocate and Activist : Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/92047040| publisher = Grossman Publishers| lccn = 92047040| access-date = 3 January 2021}}</ref>

;Articles * "The Legacy of Clinton Jencks," ''Monthly Review'' (2020)<ref name=Jencks/> * "A Portrait of Gil Green," ''Monthly Review'' (2021)<ref name=Portrait/> * [https://jacobin.com/2021/04/michael-tigar-sensing-injustice-book-review-angela-davis-bobby-seale "A Life on the Court's Left,"] ''Jacobin'' (2021) * [https://jacobin.com/2021/06/michael-myerson-memoirs-angela-davis-david-poindexter-trial-prosecution "During the 1971 Prosecution of Angela Davis, I Fought the Law — And I Won,"] ''Jacobin'' (2021) * [https://jacobin.com/2022/06/peace-demonstration-new-york-central-park-1982 "Forty Years Ago, a Million People Descended on New York's Central Park to Demand Peace,"] ''Jacobin'' (2022) * [https://jacobin.com/2022/10/good-rule-for-leftists-never-talk-to-fbi-bureaur-mccarthyism "A Good Life Rule for Leftists: Never Talk to the FBI,"] ''Jacobin'' (2022) * [https://jacobin.com/2022/11/michael-myerson-communist-party-usa-cuba-castro "A Real, Live Communist Who Wrestled With the Real, Live Communist Party,"] ''Jacobin'' (2022) * [https://jacobin.com/2022/12/michael-myerson-communist-party-usa-world-peace-council "I Was a Communist Party Activist for Decades — and I Don't Regret It,"] ''Jacobin'' (2022)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/myerson_michael_2014.pdf 2014 Oral History]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myerson, Michael}} Category:20th-century American writers Category:American activists Category:Members of the Communist Party USA Category:Communists from California Category:1940 births Category:Living people