Evento

Friends of the VMF 5th Anniversary and Fundraiser

The Vito Marcantonio Forum (VMF) is an educational organization dedicated to preserving the history of the radical political tradition of East Harlem, the cultural backdrop of Italian Harlem and El Barrio and increasing awareness of the American Labor Party that Marcantonio led for years, educator Leonard Covello; and the critical role of the Left that rallied around Marcantonio.

The forum honors the memory of Vito Marcantonio, one of the most progressive Congressmen in American history. Marcantonio, a protégé of LaGuardia and Leonard Covello, has been called the Thaddeus Stevens of the 20th century. Marcantonio represented East Harlem from the late 1930s to the early 1950s., Although he usually ran on multiple party lines, Marcantonio was a leader of the American Labor Party. Because of his unshakable stand for progressive causes and in defense of working people, ruling circles and the commercial press heaped buckets of mud on Marcantonio in attempts to discredit him. His district was gerrymandered and laws were passed with the particular intent of defeating him; yet he won time and time again. The attacks, including vicious red baiting, became particularly intense during the McCarthy period. In 1950, the Democratic, Republican, and Liberal parties ganged up on him and defeated the last American Labor Party Congressman. Despite endless attacks from powerful forces, Marcantonio never backed down. He was planning another run for Congress, when at the age of fifty-one, he stricken by a massive heart attack near City Hall on August 9, 1954.