He who closes his eyes sees nothing, even in the full light of day. Leopold Trepper.
Where are we Leonard, in this moment in time?
“We are at the end of the beginning. “
Before I met Leonard, I knew of him through his written work and role organizing against the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations in the US South. The year was 1990 and here in so-called Canada, we were in the midst of the Kanesatake Resistance, commonly known as the Oka Crisis, in which the Canadian military turned its weapons against the Mohawk people of Kanesatake and Kahnawake. The 78-day military siege brought with it attacks by organized white supremacists. Rodney Bobiwash, an Anishinaabe activist had taken the lead on pushing back against the surge in organized white supremacists – Ku Klux Klan, Aryans and assorted neo Nazis that were attacking Indigenous resisters. Leonard reached out when he recognized the potential flash point beyond Quebec and Ontario, into and from the Pacific Northwest.
What I was expecting was not the man I met. The man I was expecting was larger than life, a master of wielding research and intelligence against some of the most dangerous humans of the 20th century. Who I met was a kind and gentle person who took a genuine interest first in who and how I was. That became a consistent thread over the next 35 years.
While history speaks of the ‘grunge era’ that marked Seattle and Portland in the ‘90s, there was another movement – the call to create an all White homeland in the region that brought increasing numbers of white supremacists and with them, violence throughout the Northwest and extending into Canada. Though it began much earlier, it was growing rapidly. There was a group in Portland, Oregon, called the Coalition for Human Dignity that, along with Anti-Racist Action and others, was confronting white supremacists and the Christian Right, building fierce community defenses along the way. Leonard would send me packages of their materials, along with encouraging me to reach out. He was convinced that what is now known as the Northwest Imperative extended beyond the border and into Western Canada. And with that, international cooperation amongst resistance to it should grow to meet that threat. Leonard made an official visit to Vancouver, BC, in November 1992 as a keynote speaker at an International Hate Crimes conference. He brought with him Jonathan Mozzochi of the Coalition for Human Dignity, and in so doing, the trajectory of history altered course. By way of that introduction, I found lifelong comrades and the love of chosen family. And with that, the work of resisting white supremacy and assorted bigotries grew to encompass the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, Montana, California, and Western Canada.
Over the years, our paths would cross in person in the oddest of places. Atlanta, Spokane, Great Falls, along with Portland and Seattle. I always felt out of place, a little star struck, as a Canadian – the events that brought us together also brought giants of antifascist resistance and human rights struggles. The moments that come to mind with Leonard aren’t the dramatic ones, though there were many of those. It was listening to CT Vivian preach one Sunday in Atlanta and learning from Leonard the meaning behind “Go Down Moses”. His choosing to sit with me and the women of the Mississippi Delta Catfish Workers Union when there was a whole room wanting his ear.
I recall a moment in November 1995. The Oklahoma bombing happened earlier that spring, and the exhaustion of those like Leonard, at the forefront of helping make sense of that and what led to it, was omnipresent. We were driving North through Portland — Leonard, Graeme Atkinson (International Editor of Searchlight Magazine), Jonathan Mozzochi, and I when Leonard insisted on stopping at Tower Records. A minor skirmish ensued as we were running late, but Leonard prevailed, Jonathan stayed with the car, and I went with Leonard and Graeme to search for the new Bruce Springsteen release, The Ghost of Tom Joad. It was one of many moments when I wondered how I possibly ended up in such fine company, and the amusement of knowing those in the record shop had no idea who these two were. Fearsome anti – fascists but also real everyday people.
And so it was, in July 2023, that I found myself with Jonathan and Chuck in long conversations with a new generation, that would lead back through time and to Devin and Leonard. We had to sort out a presentation he was to give. I tasked myself with asking him one question. Leonard had encyclopedic knowledge of white nationalism, not just American, across the Global North. He was well into being an expert by the time I met him, and he enhanced his understanding and body of work exponentially in the decades that followed.
One question. There was weight to the task of choosing just one. I knew I could ask Leonard plenty of questions after, but this moment in time, to choose one question that may help others, it felt important to choose wisely. As I thought about it, I kept returning to Leonard himself. For all his written work, there is the organizer side of Leonard. The one who would sit and talk with ordinary people facing extraordinary horror and hate. He had a grounded sensibility that gave folks space to believe they could endure, they could resist, they weren’t alone, and that collectively, they would find their way through. His written works are the details and road maps.
The question became obvious.
“Where are we, on the historical timeline?”
“At the End of the Beginning”
The beginning of what?
“War”
Weeks later Gaza, and the Trump election that followed. And with it a spectre of fascism larger in scope and scale that any of us had ever witnessed. Leonard had dedicated his life to documenting the trajectory that brought us to this moment. He leaves us with a treasure trove of written work and a pathway forward made solid by generations of international comrades. For me, his gift is family, we walk together.
O partigiano
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao
The Canadian.
