Class Fighter

 Bud Schulte – 1947 to 2022

Bud Schulte, long time labor and socialist activist, did not wake from his sleep on February 12, 2022.  He was nearly 75 years old.  At the time he was living with comrade David Riehle in St. Paul.  Bud died as a member of Socialist Action (SA).  He had been involved with socialist groups and labor issues since the 1980s – beginning as a meat-cutter in South St. Paul with the UFCW, then with Hormel P-9 strike supporters here in the Cities and lastly as a friend of May Day Books.

Bud at a Recent Rally

Bud leaves behind his beloved dog Lena, 3 children, 3 grand-children and two brothers, along with many cheerful and activist memories for his friends, but not many material goods.  He was overly generous, a compulsive story teller, a car fan, a former hockey goalie and hockey fan, a good cook and baker.  And he was said to have the best hair on the left!

In his Catholic elementary school Bud had physical fights with nuns - winning a few and losing a few. Once was when his Elvis ‘do’ got shaved by a nun, which also enraged his mother.  He graduated from West St. Paul's Sibley High, after which he went to St. Cloud U. for a year.   He then worked as a meat-cutter in South St. Paul at several companies, which paid well as union jobs.  He was able to buy muscle cars and a house with those earnings. 

At 19 he began working at the Swift Plant until 1967 when it closed.  Then he got hired at the Armour plant, which closed 10 years later.  This is when he went to work for Iowa Pork.  He met his first leftists at the Iowa Pork strike in January 1984 in South St. Paul.  He met Harry DeBoer and Jake Cooper, participants in the 1934 Teamster strike, who inspired him and aided the strike.  He joined the Fourth Internationalist Tendency (FIT) within a month or two of the start of the strike, as they were part of the community’s support group.  Melanie Benson was important in winning him over to Marxism and Trotskyism. 

The owner of Iowa Pork, Harry Weinstein, brought in scabs on the first day of the Iowa Pork strike, and police beat up the strikers who tried to stop the scabs.  Bud was elected picket captain and accepted lefties who came to defend the picket line the next day.  The local had a march from its union hall, did outreach and distributed pro-strike propaganda with advice from the labor left.  They won the strike after at least 6 months on strike.  After the strike, Bud was the central leader in the plant, calling in-house meetings before work. After the strike, they would stop the line for safety or other issues, when before they would not.  It was a relief for him and the rest of the workers. 

This intense event, like so many experiences of those on the left, turned Bud into a socialist.

Within a year Weinstein closed the plant.  Bud joined the Federal 'dislocated worker program' due to that layoff.  In that capacity he testified to Congress about the program, along with a UAW officer who ran it.  As part of his visit to D.C. he was escorted around the AFL-CIO building.  In the process he was accidentally shown a secret meeting between union bureaucrats and military generals, who were pouring over a map of Central America in a room.  That door was shut quickly!  On that same trip he met a haggard Edward Kennedy in the Capitol. 

After the meat industry layoffs, Bud worked at a machine shop.  After the machine shop, he drove a truck delivering pet food all over the central states.  He then became a limo driver.  Bud transported many people around the Twin Cities – one of his favorites being Liza Minelli.  He dropped off Denis Rodman at strip clubs with a roll of cash.  He was at Rodman’s beck and call for a few days and got stiffed on the tip.  Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were hauled around by Bud too.  Bud spent time with Neil Young’s child while Neil was busy.  He felt many of the famous people he met were actually lonely.

During the Hormel strike, Bud spoke at several large P-9 rallies and worked on the food caravans.  Bud also met Joe Hansen, one of the top bureaucrats in the region who strangled the P-9 strike.  For his services Hansen was made head of the national meat-cutters union.  After the P-9 strike Bud continued to participate in Meeting the Challenge, which had done strike support for P-9 from its base in the Twin Cities.  It organized educationals and actions involving national labor figures, led by Peter Rachleff, a professor at Macalester at the time. 

Bud spoke on the labor movement at FIT's national meetings in New York.  Locally the FIT had an office within the old May Day bookstore on 32^nd and Chicago, which is where Bud first met the volunteers, including Craig Palmer. In 1991 FIT 'faded away' and some of the people in FIT joined Socialist Action (SA), as did Bud.  For SA he was a good public speaker and fund raiser and spoke at several May Day events.

Lisa L of SA will be organizing a memorial for Bud at May Day. 

Memories contributed by Dave Riehle, Craig Palmer, John Schraufnagel and CG Gibbs. 

Red Frog / April 21, 2022