In honor of Russell Brodine’s 90th birthday, friends, family and admirers gathered at his home in Roslyn, Wash., and collected $700 for the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Fund Drive.
Russell and his wife Virginia moved from St. Louis to Roslyn in the late 1970s. They participated in many peace, environmental and local struggles in Roslyn and Kittitas County. Virginia passed away two years ago.
Both of Russell’s parents emigrated from Sweden at the turn of the last century, met in the U.S. and settled in Washington State. From the time he was a teenager, in the 1920s, the family subscribed to the Daily Worker (forerunner of the People’s Weekly World).
His first memory of political action on his part was attending a rally for Sacco and Vanzetti, two anarchists executed for planting a bomb, who were finally exonerated decades later.
A professional symphony bass player, lifetime member of the Musician’s Union, and lifetime reader and supporter of the paper, Brodine published his memoirs in a wonderful book, Fiddle and Fight (International Publishers, 2001). The book tells the story of the struggles of a musician’s life, union organizing and radical struggles of the ’30s through the ’70s.
Russell continues to be as active as possible, tells stories wherever he goes, and urges people to read the People’s Weekly World.
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