Harry Braverman Essay

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Harry Braverman Harry Braverman was born on December 9, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish- Polish parents, Morris and Sarah Braverman. His father was a shoe maker and worked hard to provide his son with a college education. Unfortunately, after one year at Brooklyn College, Braverman was forced to withdraw from college and find employment. He did, however, return to college in the early 1960s, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from the New School for Social Research in 1963 (Gale, "Harry Braverman."). Although his time at college was short, it greatly influenced him as the radical ideas of socialism and Marxism spread throughout New York's college campuses (Marxists’ Internet Archive). While not in college, Braverman did not waste time holding several jobs. In 1921, 16 year old Braverman went to work at the Brooklyn Naval Yards as a coppersmith apprentice. During his four years on the shipyards, Braverman also mastered steel fabrication layout, refitting the asbestos-covered pipes of docked ships, a contributing factor to his early death at the age of 54 caused by lung cancer. During his time working at the Brooklyn Naval Yards, he met Miriam Ruth Gutman, whom he married on December 25, 1941. From 1946 to 1951, he and his wife lived in Youngstown, Ohio, where Braverman was employed in the steel industry. The two had one son, Thomas Raymond, but separated in 1964 (Gale, "Harry Braverman."). In 1944, Braverman was drafted and spent two years in Cheyenne, Wyoming, working on locomotive pipes. Braverman continued to be an outspoken supporter of socialist ideals, spending time in an intensive six-month course in Marxist study at the Socialist Workers Party's (SWP) Trotsky School (Gale, "Harry Braverman."). Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism created by Leon Trotsky, which included his support for the establishment of a leading party of the working-class (Ryan,

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