On October 9, Comrade Judy Catchpole died at age 78. A proud daughter of the working class, she fought through every stage of her life. Judy joined PL forty-five years ago while working for the NYC welfare department. For years she sold Challenge, took part in street rallies, and built our Party. Though she could be rough around the edges, no one could doubt her commitment to the fight for communist revolution!
Although short in stature, Judy’s heart and fearlessness made her a force to behold. Several comrades tell of demonstrations where she shielded them with her body from police and/or union goons. During a demonstration against the opening of a slave labor workfare office, Judy managed to get past the welfare patrolmen and into the building. No other demonstrator got that far. She certainly didn’t just talk the talk; she walked the walk.
Judy was fearless not only in the streets, but also on the job. She fought back against speed up and low pay, fought to build a worker-client alliance to unite welfare workers and welfare recipients, and fought for an egalitarian future through communist revolution. She was fired for a time while working at a Brooklyn child welfare office, but fought alongside other PL welfare workers to reverse her firing. We were able to collect money to support Judy for the three months she was off the job by visiting welfare offices around the city. We demonstrated at the hearings held about her case and she won her job back.
Judy came from a large white working-class family from upstate New York and spoke about them often. She built a multiracial family. She loved her daughter, grandchildren and great granddaughter. She worried about the ways that racism would affect their lives and always wanted them to take part in the fight that in many ways defined her life. In the last years of her life, she was disabled by serious illness but always kept up with world events and wanted to discuss what the Party was doing about problems faced by workers around the world. She would have been happy that her family was represented three days after her funeral at the rally for Justice for Kyam Livingston.