Last month we lost a dear comrade, Derek Pearl. Derek was many things to many people during his 87 years. In the jewelry trade he was known as an excellent gem setter and union militant. In the steel mills of Pittsburgh he was known as an expert welder-fitter and an antiracist. As a high school teacher of jewelry making and then social studies he was known for siding with his students. But to all workers, students and bosses he was known to have a deep love for the working class and implacable hatred for the capitalist class: he was known as a fighter and a communist. He was also a singer, a good dancer, and a lot of fun to be with.
Born to a working class Jewish family in England in 1937, his early childhood was dominated by WWII. Derek’s family spent most of the war in a northern English seaside town. Back in London, he was forced to leave school just under the age of 16. He apprenticed in gem-setting, then served an obligatory stint in the British Royal Air Force. When he got out he wanted to travel the world. In New York City he met Rita who became his wife of 60 years and they had two sons and now five grandchildren.
Union organizer joins Progressive Labor Party (PLP)
He worked in the jewelry trade as a diamond setter, developing a deep hatred of all kinds of unfairness. He had a way with people, an empathy with other workers of all ages, races and nationalities. He and Rita got to know the mostly Latin grinders and polishers working in that factory and built a strong relationship with them and their families. They elected him shop steward and he led strikes for better conditions. He was expelled from the union for leading a wildcat strike but he won his way back in and became a labor law precedent (Pearl vs. Tarantola). During this time he and Rita joined the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and began to get a deeper understanding of the capitalist system they were already fighting.
In 1975 the Pearls were asked to move to Pittsburgh to help lead the Party there. There he learned welding and worked in two different steel fabricating plants where he met much racism but was also very proud of the work he helped produce - massive doors for a dam in South America, doors for blast furnaces, and molding forms for the concrete in the Washington D.C. subway.
Derek and family moved back to NYC in 1981 as heavy industry in the Pittsburgh area declined and along with thousands of other workers, he was laid off. He began working once again in jewelry production in New York. In 1984 he made contact with British coal miners during their historic strike, winning some of them to the Party and spearheading support for the strike in the U.S.
Derek got his teaching certificate for vocational education in jewelry and welding in 1986. When NYC closed down vocational courses Derek got a B.S. degree at the age of 65 so he could teach history and economics. He got his M.S. degree at the age of 72 - just as he retired.
Militant antiracist fighter slugs klan
Over the years, Derek led and participated in many fights against racism. From the Astoria fight that stomped the White People’s Party, to helping lead the security squad that ran uphill to fight and scatter the gutter racists so that the Boston May Day march could take place, to stopping fledgling attempts by the Klan to organize in the Pittsburgh area, to helping organize the May Day March to integrate Marquette Park in Chicago (that park had been dominated and segregated by the American Nazi party). In 1999 Derek along with other comrades made headline news by flinging themselves through police lines to attack a group of klansmen who dared to march in New York City, Afterwards, students welcomed him back to his school as a hero.
Antiracist community organizer in Brooklyn
During the 1980s and 1990s Derek was also deeply involved in community organizing. A hospital worker and comrade lived in a Flatbush building that had drug deals occuring in the lobby. Together, he, Derek, Rita and others organized a tenants association that took back the building, taking control of building from drug infestation, and forcing the landlord to make much needed repairs. For years May Day buses left from the front of that building with a hefty contingent coming from within.
In his last years, Derek suffered several health problems and went through a gradual decline until he passed in September. We’ll miss you comrade. We’ll miss your fightback, your humor and your songs. Your communist life was a light in the lives of thousands of workers and students.
