Rest in Power Phil: a red teacher, singer, fighter

Phillip Lawrence Batton, a member of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) for more than half a century, who advanced the working class as a thinker, teacher, singer, and self-taught linguist, died on January 22 after fighting off a series of illnesses.
Phil was born in 1939 in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a segregated steel mill town just outside of Pittsburgh. He grew up in the shadow of where his father worked for most of his life. But were it not  for his talent for football, he might have followed his father to work at U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works. An athletic and fearless sophomore halfback on Clairton’s varsity football team, Phil incurred a serious head and neck injury that left him temporarily paralyzed. He recovered, and though his left side was atrophied, he never lost the graceful swagger to his stride and gestures.
Phil’s accident made him eligible for a free college education, and he seized the opportunity. The first person in his family to attend college, he graduated from California State Teachers College. Having taught himself Spanish as a teenager, Phil became fluent after living with a family in Mexico City in the summer of his junior year. Armed with his degree, Phil applied for teaching jobs at local schools, only to be rebuffed by racist administrators who’d ask, “What position did you come to apply for—janitor?”  
In 1963, Phil moved to New York City and East 100th Street. His roommate was Harvey Mason, who became a lifelong friend and comrade. Soon Phil became a Spanish teacher at JHS 117 and Harbor JHS for the Performing Arts in East Harlem—El Barrio. There Phil was radicalized by City College students who’d joined Progressive Labor Movement, a newly formed communist organization that took the lead in breaking the travel ban to Cuba, fighting back against police terror, and organizing anti-imperialist resistance to the Vietnam War. In the late 1960s, after PLM grew into Progressive Labor Party, Phil joined and became a club leader in the New York teacher work.
Phil made another huge contribution as a member of the PLP Singers, who created two memorable albums of anti-racist and communist songs in the early 1970s: “Power to the Working Class” and “A World to Win.” Phil’s rich bass-baritone voice anchored the group’s harmonies. His solos on songs like “Clifford Glover” and “They Shall Rule the Earth” were sweet and strong and lyrical, with unforgettable moments of understated emotion. He was always willing to rehearse and perform and spread the ideas of PLP through music.  
Though an unpretentious man of few words, Phil could sing or say or write them in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, or Chinese, all of which he’d learned on his own. He translated numerous articles into Spanish for CHALLENGE and other PLP publications. His astute critical analysis lives on in publication.
Phil continued to teach at JHS 117 until he retired and moved to Iowa City, Iowa, to study for a master’s degree in anthropology. Then he returned to New York to teach medical Spanish at physicians’ assistant certification programs at Bronx Lebanon Hospital and Harlem Hospital. Phil traveled several times to Brazil and once to Costa Rica. A person of boundless curiosity, someone who never stopped learning, he loved studying computer science, aviation, anthropology, Marxism-Leninism, and African and African-American history. He even built his own telescope to photograph the surface of the moon with his daughters. Phil’s love of music and film had a big impact on all of his children, but especially his eldest daughter, Rachel, who became a film and television producer.
Phil enjoyed a full social life and cherished his family and friends. His quiet charisma and jovial disposition made every room he entered a more wonderful place to be. He’d use his knowledge to spark conversation and inspire others, but never to dismiss or demean. He shared relationships with workers from all walks of life. He truly believed we are all equal.
Phil was married in 1970 to Barbara Watanabe, a fellow teacher and political organizer. They divorced in 2008, following a long separation, but remained close friends. He is survived by Barbara and their three daughters: Rachel Watanabe-Batton, Diana Emiko Batton-Fitzgerald, and Jennifer Tomiko Beaugris, his two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren.
After traversing the world near and far, Phil’s illnesses of late confined him to a Bronx nursing home. But his working-class spirit, his sense of who he was, remained strong to the end. On the last day of his life, Phil was comforted by the songs he’d recorded with the PLP Singers all those years before.