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1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
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2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to |
3 | | learn of the death of Paul R. Booth of Washington, D.C., who |
4 | | passed away on January 17, 2018; and
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5 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was born in Washington, D.C. on June 7, |
6 | | 1943; he was greatly influenced by his parents, who were both |
7 | | Socialist Party members; his mother was a psychiatric social |
8 | | worker, and his father was an economist with the Department of |
9 | | Labor, who helped craft social security during the Roosevelt |
10 | | administration; he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in |
11 | | 1957 and from Swarthmore College in 1961; during his sophomore |
12 | | year, he attended a National Student Association conference and |
13 | | was so impressed with the Students for a Democratic Society's |
14 | | (SDS) founder, Tom Hayden, that he decided to form an SDS group |
15 | | at Swarthmore; the group grew into one of the largest in the |
16 | | country; and
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17 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was described as a rare "cheerful |
18 | | spirit" in the sometimes contentious drafting of the SDS 1962 |
19 | | manifesto, singing and telling stories to maintain morale; and
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20 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was a progressive activist who |
21 | | organized one of the first major rallies against the Vietnam |
22 | | War in Washington, D.C. in 1965; and
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1 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth met his future wife, Heather Tobis, at |
2 | | a University of Chicago sit-in protesting the selective service |
3 | | in 1965; after three days on the floor of the school's |
4 | | administration building, he asked her to marry him; from that |
5 | | day forward, he partnered with Heather on a significant number |
6 | | of projects, including the founding of the Midwest Academy, a |
7 | | training center that influenced thousands of organizers for |
8 | | unions, student and women's rights groups, and environmental |
9 | | peace, civil rights, and community organizations; and
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10 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth's politics were aligned with "the left |
11 | | wing of the possible," and he believed in a policy of "build, |
12 | | not burn," which kept "contact with ordinary people and |
13 | | mainline institutions"; and
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14 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth, a protege of community organizer Saul |
15 | | Alinsky, left SDS to become a labor organizer in 1966; he |
16 | | worked on environmental issues in Chicago and then became the |
17 | | research director for the United Packinghouse Workers of |
18 | | America; and
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19 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth served with the American Federation of |
20 | | State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for over 40 |
21 | | years, and he helped found AFSCME Council 31; he served as |
22 | | Assistant Director in the 1970s and rose to the position of |
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1 | | Executive Assistant/Chief of Staff for union Presidents Gerald |
2 | | McEntee and Lee Saunders; and
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3 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was instrumental in negotiating and |
4 | | administering the first contracts for the State of Illinois and |
5 | | City of Chicago employees, "further speeding the demise of the |
6 | | patronage system," according to a report from the Chicago |
7 | | Tribune; and
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8 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was the International Union's Area |
9 | | Director in Illinois in the late 1980s; he was one of the |
10 | | architects of the law that won collective bargaining rights for |
11 | | public employees in the state; prior to the passage of the |
12 | | Illinois Public Employee Labor Relations Act in 1983, there was |
13 | | no legal guarantee of the right to union representation for |
14 | | public sector workers; after the law passed, he worked as the |
15 | | Chief Strategist and organized drives across the state and |
16 | | country to help tens of thousands of public employees in |
17 | | cities, counties, school districts, and state universities |
18 | | gain union representation; and
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19 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was credited with organizing a |
20 | | coalition in Baltimore that successfully pressed for the |
21 | | country's first living-wage law; this 1994 law formed the seeds |
22 | | of the recent Fight for $15 movement, an issue that became part |
23 | | of the Democratic Party's 2016 national convention platform; he |
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1 | | was selected by Hillary Clinton to be a member of the committee |
2 | | that wrote that platform; and
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3 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth's impressive resume cannot capture |
4 | | everything he brought and meant to AFSCME in particular, and |
5 | | the union movement in general; his leadership helped the union |
6 | | grow and thrive, and become more diverse and dynamic; he was a |
7 | | gifted organizer, who combined passionate idealism with |
8 | | strategic smarts; and
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9 | | WHEREAS, Even on the day he died, Paul Booth worked on an |
10 | | article for the American Prospect and encouraged his wife to |
11 | | attend a demonstration on Capitol Hill, where she was arrested |
12 | | while protesting on behalf of "Dreamers"; and
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13 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth was known as a man of generosity, |
14 | | decency, and integrity, who, as a mentor and teacher, believed |
15 | | in paying it forward to the next generation of activists; and
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16 | | WHEREAS, Paul Booth is survived by his "powerhouse" wife, |
17 | | Heather; his loving sons, Eugene and Daniel; his five adored |
18 | | grandchildren; and his many friends and admirers; therefore, be |
19 | | it
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20 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL |
21 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of |