Steve Wattenmaker was a socialist organizer and antiwar GI during the Vietnam War. In the 1970s and ’80s he worked as an industrial pipefitter and political organizer in an East Coast shipyard. He went on to help organize union workers in a series of high-profile battles — among them the Hormel meatpackers’ strike, Eastern Airlines flight attendants’ job actions, and the 1996 campaign to reelect progressive leadership in the historically mob-ridden International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In the early 1990s he became Planned Parenthood’s national media director and public campaign organizer. He lives in Washington, D.C.
In Pristine or Troubled Waters?
Against the Current No. 233, November/December 2024