2-24-07, 9:34 am

George Springer came to the United States as an immigrant from Panama. He came here to attend college in New Britain, Connecticut. In 1951 he wrote an insightful paper about the labor and anti-racist equality struggles of the Panamanian working class.

By an imperialist land grab from Colombia in the early 1900's the U.S. set up Panama. It was independent in name only. The Teddy Roosevelt administration wanted to build a canal stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean across the narrow neck of Panama to facilitate commerce and military movements.

The largely Black workers of Panama together with a huge force ofworkers brought in by the U.S. from the Carribean Islands built the Panama Canal and maintained it and the surrounding zone afterwards. One of these workers was George Springer's father. The Canal Zone was under U.S. military control until the 1970's. It was administered under 'Deep South' racist segregation conditions. The Black workers, hired as laborers with poor living quarters, were paid in silver and tagged 'silver workers.' The engineers were white workers from the South in the U.S. They were highly paid in gold and had good living conditions.

Nevertheless, as George Springer re-counted in his remarkable paper, the union movement there sought to overcome and defeat these colonialist inequalities and to unite all the workers against racism and for better living standards.

George Springer brought with him his direct experience with the struggles of the Panamanian workers to build unionism as a tool for achieving equal rights and a better life. He brought this invaluable understanding – that the civil rights struggle and the union rights struggle go hand in hand. With this understanding he made extraordinary contributions to the labor and people's mass movements, as a teacher, union leader, and community leader. In turn he learned from and was molded by those movements in Connecticut and the nation.

George Springer was a public school teacher. For 20 years he taught graphic arts and African American history in new Britain. He was elected President of the New Britain Federation of teachers AFT, AFL-CIO. He became President of the 20,000 member AFT Connecticut and then Northeast Regional Director of the AFT.

George's broad alliance with community and people's struggles is pointed to by his presidency of the New Britain NAACP, his active involvement with the End Child Poverty Coalition in Connecticut and the Amistad Award extended to him by the People's Weekly World / Nuestro Mundo in 2006.

The national President of AFT, Edward J. McElroy lauded George as 'a staunch advocate for civil and human rights...a problem-solver.' Sharon Palmer, George's successor as President of AFT Connecticut in a recent issue of the union's newsletter reprinted an essay by George Springer entitled 'In Common Good.' In this he stresses the importance of collective labor struggles. He concludes with these words: 'Keeping before us the things we hold in common, we continue not simply for a more effective union but to enlarge the possibilities for our members to improve the quality of lives for all they touch.'

Not least of the George Springer legacy is his inspiring example of the contributions immigrant workers can make to the entire working class and nation, strengthening the demand for the justice of expediting their path to citizenship.