Obituary: Lenny, Communist Fighter Till the End

Soy communista, toda la vida
Y communista he de morir
—Bella Ciao, Italian anti-fascist song

Lenny Dick was a communist his entire life. His parents (a carpenter and a math teacher) were active members of the Communist Party and Lenny grew up in a family committed to revolutionary, anti-racist, working class struggle. When he died from a heart attack on August 26, at the too-young age of 68, he was on his way to a barbecue for CUNY students and professors. The day before, Lenny was enthusiastically talking about a planned rally at Bronx Community College about the expiring union contract. He was already making plans to invite faculty and students.
Lenny joined the Progressive Labor Party at Columbia University, where he was a member of Students for a Democratic Society and took part in the famous 1968 sit-in against Columbia’s racist expansion into Harlem and its war research for the military. After college, Lenny became a Junior High School math teacher in East Harlem, where he was devoted to his students and opposed to a racist, segregated educational system.
In the early 1980’s, Lenny was teaching at Morris High School. Author Jonathan Kozol cited it as a prime example of racist neglect of minority students. Located in a working-class Bronx neighborhood, Morris HS was both segregated and falling apart -- an old building with leaking roofs, vermin, and live wires hanging dangerously in the auditorium. Large classes and few resources to help students, left many behind in reading and math. Many dropped out before graduating. Lenny worked with members of student government to demand improvements. When no one would listen, the students organized a walkout and rally outside the school.
Lenny had three young children and was his family’s only breadwinner. The students asked him to join them and speak at the rally. Lenny knew he could face disciplinary action, but he felt obligated to join the students. Hundreds walked out and demonstrated (forcing the Department of Education to begin making some repairs), and Lenny was there. The DoE rewarded him by taking away his state teacher’s license, so he could never teach in a public school again.
Lenny then taught math at a religious school for affluent students, not where he wanted to be. But he kept organizing. When Eleanor Bumpurs, a 66-year old grandmother living in a Bronx public housing complex failed to pay less than $400 in rent, a special unit of the NYPD broke down her door. Startled, Eleanor picked up a butter knife and turned to the six heavily armed officers, who killed her with a 12-gauge shotgun. Members of PLP organized rallies against this racist murder. Lenny was in the thick of it. He became friends with Eleanor Bumpurs’ daughter, Mary, and invited her to speak at the Progressive Labor Party’s communist May Day March in Washington, DC, which she did.
When Lenny retired from high school teaching, he began teaching math as an adjunct at Bronx Community College, which he loved. He was teaching working class students and he was in a union again (the Professional Staff Congress). Although he had graduated from an Ivy League college and was very knowledgeable about math (as well as being an excellent chess, poker and Scrabble player), Lenny was never an elitist. He loved his long conversations about politics and life with all kinds of people he met, and was just as comfortable talking with a school cleaner or secretary, as with a professor. He gave Challenge to everyone.
When workers at the Bronx Stella D’Oro bakery went on strike for many months, Lenny was a regular on the picket lines, bringing professors and students with him. He talked for hours to the strikers from dozens of different countries. Many appreciated the strike support, the discussions about communism, and receiving Challenge newspaper. Lenny helped organize support for the strike.  Workers spoke at campus union meetings, and the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) faculty union donated money to the strikers. Lenny helped organize a Christmas party at Hostos Community College for the strikers‘ children, and helped bring busloads of NYSUT teachers from other cities to the picket line. Strike captains would meet with Lenny and other Party members at the bar across the street to discuss strike strategy and communism, including the possibility of seizing the plant.
Ramarley Graham, an unarmed, Black teenager, was murdered in his home by cop Richard Haste. He had done nothing wrong. The cop went unpunished. When hundreds of anti-racists, including many PL’ers, marched, Lenny organized PSC members to attend. He became friends with Ramarley’s parents, Constance and Frank, sitting in their living room, discussing everything from citywide protests to personal difficulties. That was Lenny—good comrade and friend, strong fighter against a rotten, racist system.
On campus, Lenny fought hard against racist tuition increases for students and for better pay and working conditions for adjuncts and other campus workers. He marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan explaining they were not “mistakes” but the outgrowth of imperialism. Lenny particularly loved bringing anti-war resolutions to the national teacher conventions and doing battle with the union leaders who supported U.S. aggression around the world.
In June of this year, parents, students and teachers at Park Slope Collegiate held a rally on the last day of classes to support the principal and teachers under attack by the DoE for their anti-racist efforts. Although it was hot and he was walking slowly, Lenny was there. He said how proud he was of the teachers and students who were fighting against racist segregation.
Lenny was a mentor to many with tons of political experience, but he was always modest, and often said that many previous communists had sacrificed much more than he had. Lenny always tried to balance the need for patience with a sense of urgency. He was always trying to push the class struggle forward, and to remind people that we can only end capitalism with collective struggle, which means building the communist Progressive Labor Party. He did that for a half century. He will be deeply missed.