Toby Emmer: A Remarkable Life of Struggle Against Racism, Imperialism and Repression

We will remember and pay tribute to the remarkable life of Toby Emmer, a lifelong anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist activist, and a bisexual woman, who died on May 15 at age 78 after a short illness. She lived in Brooklyn.

The program will feature the interviews recently conducted by Out-FM co-producer Bob Lederer with two good friends of Toby:

Silvia Baraldini, a lifelong anti-imperialist, former U.S. political prisoner, and a bisexual woman. Silvia is an Italian citizen who did the first phase of her political work in the U.S, where she ultimately became a political prisoner. In 1984, Silvia was convicted of having participated in the escape/liberation from prison of Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army now living as a political refugee in Cuba, as well as other actions in solidarity with the Black Liberation Movement. In 1999, after 17 years in prison and a long grassroots pressure campaign in the U.S. (largely led by Toby Emmer) as well as in Italy, President Clinton was forced to return Silvia to Italy. She was released from prison in 2006. Silvia is currently a member of the Fondazione la rossa primavera, whose primary objective is collecting, preserving and making available materials from Italy’s revolutionary movements of the 1970s and 80s. Toby worked closely with Silvia, when the latter activist was still in prison, in leading the Committee to Return Silvia Baraldini to Italy. Silvia joined us from Rome, Italy.

Ana Lopez, longtime activist for Puerto Rican independence, who was New York coordinator of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the 1980s and more recently, coordinator of the New York branch of the national and international campaign to free Oscar Lopez Rivera, the last of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. In 2017, after 36 years in prison, Oscar was granted clemency by outgoing President Obama, thanks to a massive international pressure campaign. Ana is also Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at Hostos Community College, part of the City University of New York.

Plans for a New York City memorial to Toby Emmer will be announced in the near future.

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I urge those of you who cherish Toby’s memory to make a donation so that listener-sponsored, progressive radio station can survive. Only by refusing to take corporate funding can this station, and its parent Pacifica network, keep radical voices on the air. Funding is more at risk now than ever. Any donation, however small, will make a real difference. Please visit give2wbai.org or call (any time) 212-209-2950. Thanks so much for your support.

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EXCERPTS FROM TWO TRIBUTES TO TOBY EMMER