Meeting honors life of Tom Henehan

At a public meeting on October 19 the Socialist Equality Party paid tribute to the life and political contribution of Tom Henehan, a young leader of the Trotskyist movement in the United States who was shot to death in New York City 20 years ago, at the age of 26.

The commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of Tom Henehan's death was a moving homage to a fallen comrade, and a powerful demonstration of the Socialist Equality Party's fidelity to the great principles for which he fought. The meeting, held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, brought together members and supporters of the SEP from throughout the United States, as well as representatives of the Trotskyist movement in Canada and Australia. Members of Tom's family, including his mother, Mary Elise Henehan, and his sisters Anne, Ellen and Mary, were present. Jacques Vielot, who was wounded in the attack which took Tom's life, was also in attendance.

Speakers at the meeting recalled the social and political conditions which led Tom Henehan to join the socialist movement in 1973. They described the powerful impact which Tom's energy, enthusiasm and intellectual conviction had on young people, among workers, and within the party itself.

SEP National Secretary David North explained in his address to the meeting, "On October 22, 1977, at the memorial held only a few days after the murder of Tom Henehan, we promised that we would never forget him. Today, 20 years later, we are honoring that pledge. The very fact that many of those who were present at the first memorial meeting are here again today-in some cases traveling thousands of miles-is a poignant expression of the enduring impact of Tom's personality upon those who knew, respected and even loved him."

He went on to say that the purpose of the meeting was not only to pay tribute to Comrade Tom, but to reaffirm "our own enduring commitment to the ideals and principles for which he lived."

Those in attendance ranged from long-time supporters of the Workers League, the forerunner of the SEP, who had known Tom Henehan during his four years of political activity from 1973 to 1977, to students who were not even born at the time of Tom's death.

Mary Elise Henehan rose at the end of the meeting to thank, on behalf of her whole family, those who had come. "It's such a joy to be a part of a day in which Tom is remembered with so much love and respect," she said, "and I want you to know he felt the same way about all of you."

The meeting was opened by the chairman, Jerry White, a member of the SEP Central Committee and the party's presidential candidate in 1996. White outlined the circumstances in which Tom Henehan was murdered on October 16, 1977, while supervising a dance sponsored by the Young Socialists, the Workers League's youth movement, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York.

"He was shot as he went to the aid of Jacques Vielot, another member of the Workers League, who had been suddenly attacked while taking tickets at the entrance to the dance hall," White explained.

"The killer and his accomplice were identified by witnesses at the dance as Angelo Torres and Edwin Sequinot. From the beginning, however, the New York City police refused to carry out a serious investigation or arrest the killers. They insisted that the killing was carried out by a single gunman and that it was a 'senseless' and 'random' murder that had nothing to do with the political activity in which Tom was engaged.

"The attitude of the police was best summed up by a remark of New York City homicide detective John Mohl. When questioned about the progress of the investigation, Mohl declared, 'Henehan was just a commie and his death would be of interest only to other commies.'

"In fact, Tom's death and the apprehension of his killers became a matter of concern for many thousands of workers and youth across the country and, indeed, around the world. The Workers League explained that the murder of Tom Henehan was an attack on the entire working class and turned to the working class for support in the struggle to expose the facts behind the killing and bring those responsible to justice.

"Tens of thousands of workers and youth signed petitions, circulated by the Workers League and the Young Socialists, to the Brooklyn District Attorney. Union officials representing millions of workers signed cards demanding an investigation. There was widespread anger in the working class over this attack.

"On October 15, 1980, almost three years to the day of Tom's murder, the police arrested Angelo Torres on a Brooklyn bus. On December 28, 1980 they arrested Sequinot, the second gunman, whom the police had previously claimed never existed. The two were convicted in July 1981 of acting in concert in the murder of Tom Henehan and the wounding of Jacques Vielot. They remain in jail to this day, serving out long prison sentences.

"The arrest and conviction of the killers was a victory for the Workers League and the working class as a whole. The murder of Tom Henehan was an enormous blow against our movement aimed at intimidating the Workers League and discouraging its members. Instead, the movement turned decisively to the working class and carried forward the struggle for which Tom gave his life."

The speakers who followed included Helen Halyard, assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party, who worked closely with Tom Henehan throughout his political activity in New York City; Paul Scherrer, a central committee member of the SEP who joined the party as a teenager soon after meeting Tom; Peter Stavropoulos, from the Socialist Equality Party of Australia; and David North.

The contributions of these four speakers are published in this issue of the IWB, on pages 7-10. The speech by Keith Jones, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party of Canada, and greetings sent to the meeting from the sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world Trotskyist movement, in Europe and Asia will be published in the next issue of the IWB.

At the conclusion of the meeting, a collection was taken up to complete the $60,000 SEP Expansion Fund. More than $3,000 was raised, and the fund was closed with $62,153.23.