Mike Parker’s death leaves a gaping hole on the Left. We on the Left and in the socialist movement have lost a giant, albeit one who never sought the spotlight for himself. Many activists and organizers of his generation are far better known than him, but few were as active and involved for as long as he was. Unlike some New Left leaders who were content to trade on the legacy of their exploits from the glory days of the 1960s for decades, Mike continued to be an organizer, strategist, and theoretician across many movements up to the very end.

Other remembrances of Mike that have come out since his death recount the depth and breadth of his organizing far better than I could, and I encourage readers to consult those pieces to get a sense of just how incredible a person he was, and how much he did. For my part, I want to offer a more personal recollection of what Mike meant to me, knowing that he played a similar role in the lives of many others.

I was privileged to count Mike as a friend, comrade, and political mentor for the past twenty-five years. I first met him soon after graduating from college, when I started work as an intern at Labor Notes in Detroit. It was an organization he helped found in 1979 and helped build and guide for the rest of his life. As he did with so many before and after me, he took me under his wing, at a point when I was still learning my way around the labor movement and the Left.