A 'Good Rail'

 Comrade David Riehle, a 'Good Rail'

Another long-time Twin Cities comrade has died. David Riehle died of stroke complications on January 21, 2024 at the age of 77. He was a life-long socialist activist, joining the SWP in the late 60s and later became a member of Socialist Action in the 1980s. He was a member of the United Transportation Workers (UTU) for many years as a train brakeman, conductor, engineer, then a union retiree. He held a position in UTU Local 650 as local chair where he dealt with contracts, grievances, hearings, investigations and strike work. One person said he was a “brilliant hearing cross-examiner” and saved many workers' jobs. This was one of his many areas of concern.

David grew up in White Bear Township just north of St. Paul, Minnesota, then lived in St. Paul most of his life. His father was a printer and because of that David learned how to run a printing press, probably a Linotype. He put out a high school underground broadsheet called The Informer so he was a boat-rocker even in high school. He was interested in piano, able to read notes and arrange, so he attended Berklee College of Music for a while playing piano. He left quickly though he still played keyboards at home. Earlier he made a short visit to the Merchant Marine, but rejected military life as he did academic life. He had no children of his own but is survived by his sister Carla, his brother Jeremy, his wife Gladys McKenzie and her two children, Abby and Kevin McKenzie, along with their children.

David was 'central' to the Young Socialist Alliance's Vietnam anti-war work in the 1960s in the city, attending the University of Minnesota for about a year. He subsequently left to work as a machinist at 3M. He joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the late 1960s. At one point he was sent by the SWP to Houston, Texas as a machinist, working at Houston Tool for 4 years. In 1980 he got hired at the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, a UTU outfit, as rail was an SWP industrial concentration. He stayed with the railroad for the rest of his life and sometimes wrote for The Militant about rail issues. After being pushed out of the SWP in the early 1980s he joined the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, which published Bulletin in Defense of Marxism, later joining Socialist Action (SA). In SA he was on the National Committee and Political Committee and played an internal educational role in Minneapolis until the end of his life. One person noted that he liked his rail and union jobs and didn't want to retire, but he finally did.

David was chair of the “Remember 1934” committee that worked for many years to get a public memorial to the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike placed in the city. With support of local Teamsters, a plaque was finally erected in 2015 in the Minneapolis warehouse district near the site of the killing and wounding of strikers by police.  The plaque was done by fellow member Keith Christensen. Dave worked with people like Linda Leighton and David Sundeen – whose family members participated in the '34 strike - on the plaque and on Teamster strike commemorations every 10 years. He started this activity in 1994, bringing historical documents to the 60^th year event. He was a tour leader at the various 1934 sites in the Twin Cities, giving historical talks at each one. He interviewed and researched SWP and 1934 labor leaders Carl Skoglund and Shaun/Jack Maloney to get their stories, knowing Jack well. He interviewed Harry Deboer too, and knew Jake Cooper, two others involved in the 1934 struggle. He gave educationals at unions halls on the strike and other labor history, as he was part of the Labor Speakers Club of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. Recently he attempted to help with preparations for the 2024 1934 Memorial Picnic, which will be held on July 27 at the Wabun Picnic Grounds in Minnehaha Park.

Dave in center on chair at 2023 summer rededication of plaque 

David was an autodidact who learned local labor history in detail and shared it with the movement. Some have called him the preeminent local labor historian. He published in and for the Minnesota Historical Society, Ramsey County History Magazine, St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission, Friends of the St. Paul Library, Workday Minnesota, the Labor Education Service, the East Side Freedom Library, the Minneapolis Labor Review and many articles in The Union Advocate. He did research on issues like Dakota walking paths and the workers who originally built the Minnesota state Capitol in the 1800s. For two films he researched a Cuban revolutionary uprising in 1912 and Cuban nuns in the early 1900s. His history interests were broad.

David was greatly inspired by the 1970s insurgent Sadlowski campaign in the Steelworkers. He was a long-time activist in the Meeting The Challenge cross-union formation in the Twin Cities with Peter Rachleff, which formed in 1985. It inherited the work of the TC P9 Support Committee that closely aided and supplied the UFCW Local P9 Hormel strikers. He worked on a benefit concert for P9, which drew some famous musicians like Holly Near. He was also a member of the LPA / Labor Party in the 1990s. In his long involvement in the labor movement, one of his kindest actions was to bring food to the 2003 strike line of AFSCME 3800 clericals at the University.

His constant and wide-ranging activity made him a unique comrade for many labor leftists in the city.

P.S. - There will be a memorial for David on February 17 at the East Side Freedom Library.  3 P.M., 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul.

Information from: Carla Riehle, Gladys McKenzie, Phil Qualy, John & Karen Schraufnagel, Anonymous and C.G. Gibbs.

Prior local leftists profiled on this blog, use blog search box, upper left, using these names: “Tom Dooley,” “Jeff Miller,” “Earl Balfour” and “Budd Shulte.”

Red Frog

February 1, 2024