September 7, 2020 – Labor Day
Turning to my routine morning read of the Popular Resistance daily news, I was shocked and devastated to learn that Kevin Zeese, co-director of PR with partner Margaret Flowers, had suddenly died on Sunday of an apparent heart attack. He was a young 64 years old and at the top of his game; if I’d thought about it, I would have expected him to join justice fighters like Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky in the pantheon of unstoppable ageless progressives.
I’ve followed Zeese and Flowers for years now. He a lawyer by training, she a physician, they have lived a life of progressive activism for decades, repeatedly putting not just their ideas, but their bodies and their personal freedom, on the line in justice struggle after justice struggle – from universal health care, to economic democracy, to criminal justice reform and demilitarized foreign policy. If you’ve never heard one of their weekly podcasts, check the archives available on the Popular Resistance website and give your progressive ears and heart a treat you can’t find many other places.
In the time I followed his prolific media work, I heard Zeese repeatedly reference both social workers and labor union organizers in positive terms. Regrettably, I never met the man in person, but I like to think we were nonetheless spiritual comrades in the fight for a better, more humane and just, world.
Rest in peace, rest in power, comrade Kevin,
The Southern Miss School of Social Work 