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SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3learn of the death of Paul R. Booth of Washington, D.C., who
4passed away on January 17, 2018; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was born in Washington, D.C. on June 7,
61943; he was greatly influenced by his parents, who were both
7Socialist Party members; his mother was a psychiatric social
8worker, and his father was an economist with the Department of
9Labor, who helped craft social security during the Roosevelt
10administration; he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in
111957 and from Swarthmore College in 1961; during his sophomore
12year, he attended a National Student Association conference and
13was so impressed with the Students for a Democratic Society's
14(SDS) founder, Tom Hayden, that he decided to form an SDS group
15at Swarthmore; the group grew into one of the largest in the
16country; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was described as a rare "cheerful
18spirit" in the sometimes contentious drafting of the SDS 1962
19manifesto, singing and telling stories to maintain morale; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was a progressive activist who
21organized one of the first major rallies against the Vietnam
22War in Washington, D.C. in 1965; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Paul Booth met his future wife, Heather Tobis, at
2a University of Chicago sit-in protesting the selective service
3in 1965; after three days on the floor of the school's
4administration building, he asked her to marry him; from that
5day forward, he partnered with Heather on a significant number
6of projects, including the founding of the Midwest Academy, a
7training center that influenced thousands of organizers for
8unions, student and women's rights groups, and environmental
9peace, civil rights, and community organizations; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Paul Booth's politics were aligned with "the left
11wing of the possible," and he believed in a policy of "build,
12not burn," which kept "contact with ordinary people and
13mainline institutions"; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Paul Booth, a protege of community organizer Saul
15Alinsky, left SDS to become a labor organizer in 1966; he
16worked on environmental issues in Chicago and then became the
17research director for the United Packinghouse Workers of
18America; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Paul Booth served with the American Federation of
20State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for over 40
21years, and he helped found AFSCME Council 31; he served as
22Assistant Director in the 1970s and rose to the position of

 

 

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1Executive Assistant/Chief of Staff for union Presidents Gerald
2McEntee and Lee Saunders; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was instrumental in negotiating and
4administering the first contracts for the State of Illinois and
5City of Chicago employees, "further speeding the demise of the
6patronage system," according to a report from the Chicago
7Tribune; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was the International Union's Area
9Director in Illinois in the late 1980s; he was one of the
10architects of the law that won collective bargaining rights for
11public employees in the state; prior to the passage of the
12Illinois Public Employee Labor Relations Act in 1983, there was
13no legal guarantee of the right to union representation for
14public sector workers; after the law passed, he worked as the
15Chief Strategist and organized drives across the state and
16country to help tens of thousands of public employees in
17cities, counties, school districts, and state universities
18gain union representation; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was credited with organizing a
20coalition in Baltimore that successfully pressed for the
21country's first living-wage law; this 1994 law formed the seeds
22of the recent Fight for $15 movement, an issue that became part
23of the Democratic Party's 2016 national convention platform; he

 

 

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1was selected by Hillary Clinton to be a member of the committee
2that wrote that platform; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Paul Booth's impressive resume cannot capture
4everything he brought and meant to AFSCME in particular, and
5the union movement in general; his leadership helped the union
6grow and thrive, and become more diverse and dynamic; he was a
7gifted organizer, who combined passionate idealism with
8strategic smarts; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Even on the day he died, Paul Booth worked on an
10article for the American Prospect and encouraged his wife to
11attend a demonstration on Capitol Hill, where she was arrested
12while protesting on behalf of "Dreamers"; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Paul Booth was known as a man of generosity,
14decency, and integrity, who, as a mentor and teacher, believed
15in paying it forward to the next generation of activists; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Paul Booth is survived by his "powerhouse" wife,
17Heather; his loving sons, Eugene and Daniel; his five adored
18grandchildren; and his many friends and admirers; therefore, be
19it
 
20    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL
21ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of

 

 

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1Paul R. Booth and extend our sincere condolences to his family,
2friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further
 
3    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
4presented to the family of Paul Booth as an expression of our
5deepest sympathy.