Our dear friend and fellow worker, John Tarasuk, died in a Los Angeles hospital February 9, at 8 p.m. Friends were at his bedside when he passed away.

Born in Russia in 1898, John came to the United States in 1913 with an older brother. He worked in New York, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles - during most of his adult years as a painter and decorator.

In principle and practice he was a rank-and-filer, and a pillar of strength for democratic unionism, on the job and in business meetings, through many stormy years of labor history. Thoroughly class conscious, he have all he had to the IWW cause. This included service on the General Executive Board and on the management and editorial board of Golos Truzenika, IWW weekly paper in the Russian language. He attended Work Peoples College in Duluth, chiefly to increase his usefulness to the movement.

After the death of his brother and of his wife, John told us “I have no family left, except the IWW.” On the day he died, John’s dues were paid up a year in advance. Many of us will remember him best for his kindness to friends, which often went beyond the call of friendship.

-Carl Keller

Transcribed by Juan Conatz