Harriett Machado (1931-2007)

Comrade H (the name she liked to use on line) was born Harriett Bradlin in Detroit, Michigan, and died Harriett Machado, on September 20,2007. All of us who knew her mourn her passing, and have felt her loss to this organization during the past few years as her final illness overtook her.

At the age of 16, Harriett became one of the comrades in the revitalized Detroit Local that resulted from I. Rab's organizing visit there in 1947. There, she worked side by side with Irving Canter, Mardon Coffin, George Lynch, Gordon Coffin and "Chubi" Rebo Kligman, as well as other members of the Local. During the period (1949 - 1954) when the National Office of the WSP(US) was located in Detroit, Harriett served briefly as Foreign Secretary of the organization.

 Although she drifted away from the socialist movement during the 1960s and 70s, she returned to become one of the most influential members of the WSP in the years following Rab's death, when the organization was most in need of comrades who could inspire socialist fervor. She served on the National Administrative Committee from 1999 - 2003, and hosted the annual WSP Conference at her home in Pasadena in 2001.

When Harriett spoke, she had a way of combining rigorous Marxian scholarship with on emotional appeal to the heart of anyone who listened to her. Over the course of a long and productive life in the World Socialist Movement, she developed and articulated a perspective on how human nature may finally be given full expression in socialism, and how the capitalist system warps family relationships. She was interested in the plight of women, especially bemoaning how modern life keeps parents from the physical proximity with infants and young children which she saw as essential to successful attachment. She loved to discuss tribal relationships in primitive communities.

Harriett also had an ongoing interest in the arts, especially the theater. In the words of our comrade Dr. Who, "Whatever we discussed, she exuded a wonderful curiosity and a powerful hope for human freedom."

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