Leonard – he was always Lenny to me – Zeskind left a positive impression on all who knew him.
He was forthright, authoritative, knowledgeable, informative and crystal clear. He argued well, gleaning as much that was useful as he could in debate and argument. But he was never a pushover. And he seldom lost arguments.
Hard experience
These glowing characteristics were, in all likelihood, the concentrated results of hard experience in the movement against the US’s war against Vietnam, in the civil rights movement as a lifelong member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and as a factory worker on car assembly lines and in steel fabrication plants.
It was this concentrated experience that Lenny brought into the US human rights – anti-fascist – movement and enabled him to get a flying start in reviving his contacts in the trade union movement and amongst black people as Research Director of the Center for Democratic Renewal.
It was in this capacity that I first got to know Lenny. It was among the best things that had ever happened to me and commenced many years of collaboration.
He was forthright, authoritative, knowledgeable, informative and crystal clear. He argued well, gleaning as much that was useful as he could in debate and argument. But he was never a pushover. And he seldom lost arguments
Amongst Lenny’s numerous political attributes was his internationalism and steadfast understanding that the battle against fascism was international and needed anti-fascists to collaborate across borders. He had already had a long and fruitful collaboration with Martin Thériault in Canada.
Lenny turned that understanding into a central part of his political practice, conducting speaking tours, initiated by Searchlight, in England, Sweden and twice in Germany. The latter were visits to major cities for well-attended and well-organised meetings, organised by the local Antifa groups, and involved long hours on the road.
Momentous meeting
In Sweden, he got to know the late Stieg Larsson, Swedish correspondent for Searchlight for almost twenty years until his untimely death in 2004. Their meeting was momentous, not just politically but also because Lenny discovered, at long last, another dedicated fan of the radical US crime novelist, Andrew Wachss.
From that first meeting Lenny and Stieg collaborated for the rest of Stieg’s life.
In Germany, Lenny witnessed first-hand the tumultuous events of the post-Berlin Wall period, observing a “Monday night” demonstration in Leipzig and grasping quickly the right-wing tendencies there.
He soon found his allies in the speaking tours organised by Searchlight’s European editor and the Antifaschistisches Info-Blatt magazine, at that time led by Tommy D and Kassi L.
Lenny built up a strong relationship with them, with Fabian V and Axel H. in Kiel and with the late Klaus Harbart in Hannover and would always ask after them in the following years out of the tremendous respect he had for them.
Forging strong links
Lenny’s speaking style, speaking with a paragraph-by-paragraph translator, fascinated the German comrades. At one meeting, he wanted to present an exact quotation from a US nazi leader and didn’t have it.
He wasn’t deterred and walked off the platform through the audience to retrieve the precise text from the book table and continued his contribution from a walking position in front of the platform.
All these meetings in 1993 and 1994 forged strong links between Lenny and the Germans. The 1994 trip was especially memorable as Lenny brought with him a fellow speaker, the Vietnam veteran and Missouri farmer, Roger Allison. A real cowboy, complete with boots and Stetson.
The meeting audiences had never seen a real cowboy before and were awestruck at his account of the battle against white supremacy in rural America. Thanks to Lenny, prejudices were broken down. And, I think he, too, learned a lot.
There was nothing about Lenny that failed to impress but, for all that, he was a “movement man” always part of the living, practical, struggle and building up and educating networks of anti-fascists. Never out for personal glory, his commitment to the day-to-day activity and research for the practical struggle arguably delayed the publication of his book.
Absolute masterpiece
But when it was published in 2009, Blood and Politics…what a book! A book that will never be rivalled in its accuracy, its meticulous attention to detail, its sharpness and its clarity of vision.
The book was and is Lenny; every word carefully weighed; every fact fearlessly researched; an absolute masterpiece. It remains the go-to work for anyone wanting to understand white nationalism in the USA.
Lenny the person was quite remarkable. He was the classic auto-didact, a voracious reader who read everything from Karl Marx – his understanding of Kapital was amazing – to Greek philosophy to crime novels, not just reading them but grasping them thoroughly.
He was also a great teacher and patiently taught me and my young son how to fish for trout – once by necessity at a trout farm where you couldn’t miss! – and, not as “fun”, to shoot.
Those experiences were part of visits to Lenny and his comrade and life-partner, Carol’s, home in Kansas City. Their hospitality and generosity were wonderful. Lenny was a keen barbecue fan. He and Carol were always great fun and every guest became part of the family and was treated like royalty.
Lenny Zeskind will go down as a legendary figure. An absolute giant in the fight against fascism and all hate prejudices
Day trips with Lenny and Carol were a powerful lesson in seeing what had happened to crisis-hit industrial and rural America. Going to places like “St. Joe” with Lenny and Carol was an education, seeing the poverty at the time and being forcefully reminded of Bruce Springsteen’s songs about small town America.
Lenny Zeskind will go down as a legendary figure. An absolute giant in the fight against fascism and all hate prejudices.
It is truly heartbreaking to have lost Lenny, one of the True Greats in the post-war international anti-fascist movement.
He will abide in our memory.
Salud, Lenny!
