About the late Barbara Cahn: The struggle against the Nixonite hard hats in 1970

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questions I'd like posted to CVO Talk re American Communist Workers Movement (M-L)
July 25, 2025

Hello, Comrades of Communist Voice Organization --

My wife, Barbara Cahn, was one of the people arrested in the 1970 Cleveland
action against the hard hats (see links at end of message). I had the good
fortune to make a life with Barbara for close to forty years, until her
death in 2023.

Barbara and I discussed her Cleveland experience but there were many things
she either didn't know or had forgotten. In the 1990s, I went through
issues of publications of the ACWM (M-L) at NYU's Tamiment Library; and
then, over the years, material that was posted on the Marxists Internet
Archive.

One thing I know nothing about. and that Barbara didn't remember, is the
ultimate outcome of the legal proceedings against her and the other
defendants. All she knew is that, at some point she was no longer in jail
and that the case was over for her. But why she was released, and what
happened to her co-defendants was a complete unknown. (I think it's
_possible_ that Barbara might have been released, but that the case
continued against others. There was a certain amount of publicity about
Barbara because Jane Fonda had been arrested for possession of vitamins
[seriously], tossed in the Cleveland jail and, upon Fonda's release, she
spoke about Barbara's situation.)

I'm also extremely interested in any recollections and impressions of
Barbara that people may have had of her back in the day. What was she like?

Thank you so much. Any information, memories, etc. would be greatly
appreciated.

Alan Ginsberg
[To reach Alan Ginsberg, send the email to mail@communistvoice.org
and we will forward it to him.]

Here are some links

1. from American Mass Line, Aug. 6, 1970
various articles on pp. 1, 2, 3
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/p ... /aml-6.pdf

2. from Mass Line, Aug. 17, 1970, pp. 1 and 3
"Communists Denounce Fascist Cleveland Courts to Advance the Resistance
Movement Forward!"
(with photo of "Seven revolutionary comrades who exposed and denounced the
bourgeois fascist court in Cleveland...")
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/p ... /aml-7.pdf

3. Tim Hall, "Reminiscences of the Birth of Our Trend"
The final section is "The Anti-Agnew Demonstration and the Fight Against
the Fascist Hard-Hats".
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/n ... -trend.htm