SR1685 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1685 LRB100 21295 ALS 39525 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Paul R. Booth of Washington, D.C., who passed away on January 17, 2018; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was born in Washington, D.C. on June 7, 1943; he was greatly influenced by his parents, who were both Socialist Party members; his mother was a psychiatric social worker, and his father was an economist with the Department of Labor, who helped craft social security during the Roosevelt administration; he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1957 and from Swarthmore College in 1961; during his sophomore year, he attended a National Student Association conference and was so impressed with the Students for a Democratic Society's (SDS) founder, Tom Hayden, that he decided to form an SDS group at Swarthmore; the group grew into one of the largest in the country; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was described as a rare "cheerful spirit" in the sometimes contentious drafting of the SDS 1962 manifesto, singing and telling stories to maintain morale; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was a progressive activist who organized one of the first major rallies against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. in 1965; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth met his future wife, Heather Tobis, at a University of Chicago sit-in protesting the selective service in 1965; after three days on the floor of the school's administration building, he asked her to marry him; from that day forward, he partnered with Heather on a significant number of projects, including the founding of the Midwest Academy, a training center that influenced thousands of organizers for unions, student and women's rights groups, and environmental peace, civil rights, and community organizations; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth's politics were aligned with "the left wing of the possible," and he believed in a policy of "build, not burn," which kept "contact with ordinary people and mainline institutions"; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth, a protege of community organizer Saul Alinsky, left SDS to become a labor organizer in 1966; he worked on environmental issues in Chicago and then became the research director for the United Packinghouse Workers of America; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth served with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for over 40 years, and he helped found AFSCME Council 31; he served as Assistant Director in the 1970s and rose to the position of Executive Assistant/Chief of Staff for union Presidents Gerald McEntee and Lee Saunders; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was instrumental in negotiating and administering the first contracts for the State of Illinois and City of Chicago employees, "further speeding the demise of the patronage system," according to a report from the Chicago Tribune; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was the International Union's Area Director in Illinois in the late 1980s; he was one of the architects of the law that won collective bargaining rights for public employees in the state; prior to the passage of the Illinois Public Employee Labor Relations Act in 1983, there was no legal guarantee of the right to union representation for public sector workers; after the law passed, he worked as the Chief Strategist and organized drives across the state and country to help tens of thousands of public employees in cities, counties, school districts, and state universities gain union representation; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was credited with organizing a coalition in Baltimore that successfully pressed for the country's first living-wage law; this 1994 law formed the seeds of the recent Fight for $15 movement, an issue that became part of the Democratic Party's 2016 national convention platform; he was selected by Hillary Clinton to be a member of the committee that wrote that platform; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth's impressive resume cannot capture everything he brought and meant to AFSCME in particular, and the union movement in general; his leadership helped the union grow and thrive, and become more diverse and dynamic; he was a gifted organizer, who combined passionate idealism with strategic smarts; and

WHEREAS, Even on the day he died, Paul Booth worked on an article for the American Prospect and encouraged his wife to attend a demonstration on Capitol Hill, where she was arrested while protesting on behalf of "Dreamers"; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth was known as a man of generosity, decency, and integrity, who, as a mentor and teacher, believed in paying it forward to the next generation of activists; and

WHEREAS, Paul Booth is survived by his "powerhouse" wife, Heather; his loving sons, Eugene and Daniel; his five adored grandchildren; and his many friends and admirers; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Paul R. Booth and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Paul Booth as an expression of our deepest sympathy.