Vito Marcantonio and Annette Rubinstein: "Beloved Comrades"

As it was with Vito Marcantonio, Annette Rubinstein saw her political and personal life destroyed and erased by Senator Joe McCarthy's crusade against progressive forces in America. 

In March 2017, the Vito Marcantonio Forum (VMF) held a symposium at the Mulberry Street Public Library entitled, "Beloved Comrades," which considered Rubinstein's relationship to the radical congressman from East Harlem and her influence upon the vibrant left-wing culture of the pre-McCarthy era. 

A candidate numerous times on the American Labor Party ticket, an aide to Marcantonio, an educator who was active in the American Peace Mobilization, Rubinstein was also a literary critic of impressive scope. 

Gerald Meyer, VMF co-chair, Hostos Community College Professor and author of "Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician," spoke about his friend, who died in 2007. 

“I do think that being on the left is a spiritual experience for all of us,” Meyer told the audience, “and it doesn't mean you have to believe in God. It just means that you believe in something far bigger than yourself.” 

Annette Rubinstein.

His research on Marcantonio led Meyer to Rubinstein and her Manhattan salon where political meetings, boards of left wing journals, and classes were convened.

“She taught, my guess, is 75 classes while never repeating the same topic,” Meyer recalled. “She was a genius.

Rubinstein held two dinners a week: one for family, the other for friends. She was, Meyer recalled, effective at mixing and matching her invitees for a maximum yield of intelligent conversation.

The child of socialist parents, Rubinstein graduated from NYU with a published doctorate at the age of 24. As a case worker during the Great Depression in East New York, “she made the break from socialism to communism.”

Added Meyer, “Communists are angry socialists.”

Denied a teaching position because she was Jewish, Rubinstein became the founding principal of Robert Lewis Stevenson High School, until she was blacklisted in 1953.

Author Stephen Siciliano reported back on his reading of Rubinstein's voluminous study, “The Great Tradition in English Literature from Shakespeare to Shaw.”

Georg Lukacs.

Siciliano reviewed the work of Marxist literary theorist Georg Lukacs, an important influence for Rubinstein. Both shared a conviction that a writer's commitment to the progressive causes of their time is an important factor in determining the value of the their work. A new Marxist aesthetic.

Also discussed was Rubinstein's analysis of the English Romantics and the virtues she found in the intense political activity that characterized the lives and work of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley.

The entire presentation can be found at this link.

"The Goodfather (A Novel): The Rising Fall of the Marvelous Marcantonio," can be found here: MARC LIVES