December 8, 2009
I met Tim in the early 1970s when, as a college student, I sought intellectual and political kinship in the Root and Branch orbit. Tim was already a close friend of Jeremy’s and, though he seemed an integral part of many conversations at which I lurked on the margins, he never seemed a participant in the grouplet’s organizational discussions. A truck driver at the time, with some sort of intellectual past in the Frankfurt School, Tim appeared to me as a kind of oracle who could voice what “the workers” were thinking. Of course, this was a matter of a twenty year old’s projections; he made no such claims himself. Rather, he was self-effacing without being cynical, humorous without being sarcastic, genuinely fascinated by complexity, and, most important to me, patient. His (and others’) generosity and hospitality towards me had a huge impact on who I have turned out to be, not only on the left (still with affinities for that peculiar niche on the outer margins where we felt most comfortable), not only as a student of the US working class, but also as a teacher and mentor, trying to offer generosity and hospitality to ensuing generations of young women and men.
Two stories have stuck with me all these years. Tim told me that, even though he was a critic of virtually everything his union, a Teamsters’ local, was doing, a critic of their leadership, and a critic of their structures, his workmates referred to him as a “strong union man.” That was some complexity for this twenty year old to chew on. A few years later, as Tim and Jeremy were about to embark on the journey to seek oral interviews that would become, in 1976, I think, COMMON SENSE FOR HARD TIMES, our shared mentor/touchstone/guru Paul Mattick, Sr., challenged them: “Why do you want to know what workers are thinking? They’ll think one thing today and something completely different tomorrow.” Even though neither they nor I had a thought-through response to his challenge, they departed anyway, conducted their interviews, and put their book together. And it was terrific. Even if their respondents might have changed their minds by the time the book hit the stands. More complexity.
I didn’t have much contact with Tim in recent years, though I read his postings and marveled at his continuing collaborations with Jeremy. He was often in my mind and my heart. And he will continue to be.
Peter Rachleff
St. Paul, Minnesota