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Bill Sorro – Presente!: Beloved I-Hotel, Labor and Asian American Community Leader Passes On
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 : One of San Francisco’s most beloved community leaders Bill Sorro passed away on August 27th. Bill was a fierce activist in many labor, social justice, housing rights, and neighborhood struggles for many decades but is best known as a leader in the struggle to save and rebuild SF’s International Hotel (‘I-Hotel.') He was one of the warmest and most positive people I have ever met, who worked tirelessly nurturing younger activists like me and generations of others in our movements.
Over 35 years ago, Bill helped establish the I-Hotel Tenants Association which fought for years against the evictions of the mostly senior Filipino and Chinese tenants who were forcibly evicted from their homes on the night of August 4th 1977. Afterwards Bill worked with Emil De Guzman, Al Robles and others to establish the Manilatown Heritage Foundation which successfully secured the former I-Hotel site for low-income housing and the new Manilatown Center which opened in 2005.
Bill was born and raised in San Francisco's Fillmore District among African Americans and Asian Americans, and raised his family in Bernal Heights. He had a unique ability to bring diverse groups of people together around a common political agenda with humor and a collective sense of ‘Ohana’ or family. Sorro was a 25 year trade unionist, socialist and founding member of Ironworkers for Union Democracy in Oakland. He helped build the Asian American Movement as a member of the Kalayaan Collective and the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP.)Read More
Bill was born and raised in San Francisco's Fillmore District among African Americans and Asian Americans, and raised his family in Bernal Heights. He had a unique ability to bring diverse groups of people together around a common political agenda with humor and a collective sense of ‘Ohana’ or family. Sorro was a 25 year trade unionist, socialist and founding member of Ironworkers for Union Democracy in Oakland. He helped build the Asian American Movement as a member of the Kalayaan Collective and the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP.)Read More
For more information:
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?...
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Bill Sorro was a proud member of the Communist Party USA for years until the early 90's when most of the West Coast membership split off to form the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism .
This isn't in any way redbaiting . I'm a Red, though of a different Marxist tendency than Bill and his comrades . There are times when one can't open about one's ideology . One can be fired from most jobs of you're open about being a Communist or Anarchist . If you visit third world 'democracies'' like the Phillippines and are open you might ''disappear'' But you shouldn't conceal a late Comrades politics in their political obituary ! Let's don't let fear of latter day McCarthyism cause us to delete/censor a respected activist's history .
This isn't in any way redbaiting . I'm a Red, though of a different Marxist tendency than Bill and his comrades . There are times when one can't open about one's ideology . One can be fired from most jobs of you're open about being a Communist or Anarchist . If you visit third world 'democracies'' like the Phillippines and are open you might ''disappear'' But you shouldn't conceal a late Comrades politics in their political obituary ! Let's don't let fear of latter day McCarthyism cause us to delete/censor a respected activist's history .
Bill Sorro 1939-2007: This member of a chapter of the Democrats, namely the CP, endorsed Democrats. See http://www.roberthaaland.com/endorsements.html
and http://www.lelandyee.com/endorsers.html
More on his family and life may be found at:
http://www.calhum.org/programs/story_sorro.htm
and
http://www.manilatown.org/pdfs/portside082907.pdf
and http://www.lelandyee.com/endorsers.html
More on his family and life may be found at:
http://www.calhum.org/programs/story_sorro.htm
and
http://www.manilatown.org/pdfs/portside082907.pdf
For more information:
http://www.manilatown.org/pdfs/portside082...
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