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OK, let's start with um just some biographical information. Would you also say the date and your name? Yes, the date is Thursday, February 3, 1994, and my name is Laura Jane Buck. And you were born when and where? I was born October 4th, 1945 in San

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Francisco. And who were or are your parents? My parents were Minnie, uh Karai Bach. And Albert J. Buck. And where did they come from? Uh, my mother was born in New York City in 1905, and my father was born in Philadelphia in the same year. No,

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sorry, in Saint Louis in the same year. What do you know about their lives and their history before your birth? Uh, that's gonna take a while. Well, I mean, not from their early childhood, but maybe, you know, who, who they were, um, as young adults and

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when they on their lives. Um, That's a book. Um, my mother, um, was born one of two children, two daughters, to, uh, Russian Jewish immigrants who came to this country around the turn of the century. Her parents were, uh, were revolutionaries in in Russia and had

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to leave Russia with a warrant out for their arrest. They had had a number of warrants, but this one was going to send them east, so they escaped and they went to. Whitechapel in London and then they eventually got book passage to to New York so

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my mother was the daughter of a revolutionary. She was 2nd generation, uh, socialist and um I'm the 3rd generation socialist. My father, my father's parents, um, came, my father's father came from Vilna, a little shuttle outside Vilna, was very active in the workers' movements in Vilna,

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so he as well, um, was born to. Social socialist revolutionaries and um they both um families soon after within some few years after arriving in this country moved to Los Angeles and joined the very large Jewish immigrant population there and and were raised in Los Angeles

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and um. My mother and her sister were groomed from very, very early years by their parents to become uh revolutionary activists, so that their major influences on their lives were their their parents and their aunts and uncles and their peers and. And when the Communist Party

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started in this country, uh, my grandparents joined, and my mother and her sister, when they were old enough, joined the YCL and became very, very active in there and were tutored by family members on how to give speeches and stand on soapboxes and the whole thing.

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My father as well, he came from, however, uh, left anarchists and so he was tutored in in that and they were both, um, very poor working class, very poor working occupations. Needle trays, both sets, um, the men usually tailors and, and everybody and the, and the

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women, you know, everybody worked in sweatshops, um, although my father's family, he came from one of 5 children, and he, they scraped together some little, I don't know how some money and bought a little tiny farm. Uh, what was then outside of LA, uh, of course

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didn't make a go of it and, um, but there's some family stories about that. My, so both parents, both my parents worked from early years both in, um, political causes and to try to make some money and um my uh father I think had one year

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of community college. My mother, um. Had went to UCLA um for longer but didn't graduate um so when they met because um my mother was visiting um some friends in the neighboring farm. And they thought that they she shouldn't meet Albach and um. So they met

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because the Bach family was neighbors to this and um. And so that's how they met and they became they started living together when they were 18. They didn't believe in marriage sanctified by the state. They started living together when they were 18, but they, they said

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that they felt committed and their peers and family gave them a party with, you know, secondhand pots and pans and so forth, and, um, soon after that they decided to set off and see the world, but they didn't have much money, so they got as far

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as San Francisco. Um, and, um, so you and your sister were born here. I have no siblings. My mother had a sister, the two of them in the family. So you were an only child I am. And you know quite a bit about your parents' history.

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Was that from stories they told you or stories often repeated, but I still feel I don't know enough. I know a lot of the same old stories which are wonderful and precious, but there's so many gaps, and that's one of my regrets that I. I only

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got 3 hours of my mother's oral history before she died and um but I do know some of the stories, yeah. So they moved here in um well um I'd say they were born in 1905 and um they got together and they were 18, so I'd

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say 18, 1921 223. You know, in the early 1920 but let's say probably around 1923 1924, something like that probably. And what kind of work and political work were they doing here? Well, uh, they did whatever they can. They lived communally with other people, um, whoever

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brought in, I mean, they were my mother was my mother joined the Communist Party. My father didn't, although all of his friends were CP members, and, um, so, uh, my mother was a full-time party functionary. As well as doing work in, I mean she worked in

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factories and she worked for the um and lady garment, you know, workers and, and she worked in um uh I know she was a presser in a lot of factories and in garment factories. My Anna worked in a box factory and and um my father, he

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was an organi a union organizer for the CIO. Organizing the cleaners and dyers um into the unions and other unions, and I'm not sure I mean he was always he he just went from like job to try to figure out he was a very creative man

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and genius and so for time he went door to door salesman trying to sell stuff, vacuums and um steam irons and he just tried to pick up jobs where he could he could and he and he um well they were both organizers. My mother turned out

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to be um. Um, Very influential in in Northern California CP history, so they had her, she was very charismatic and they had her giving speeches to mass meetings all over the place, including in organizing, uh, the, um, migrant and the farm workers in the in the

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big strikes and the big, um, actions in the valley and so um. So she was doing a lot of that. So, um, during that period I've read Dorothy Healy's book, she's mentioned that she's mentioned that, but she also was in a number of those yes, because

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Dorothy was a little 4 year old when when she met mom and dad, and she was absolutely um enamored of them both. My mother and father were very charismatic, and she said in her book that she learned a lot and she remembered one of those actions

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where there was a huge mass meeting and and Minnie Carson, which was my mother's political name. Um, was speaking and there was a, a Molotov cocktail thrown it was and she got hit by some of the debris and, and they didn't want the, the cops were

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using that. I mean, the provocateur had done it, so the cops are going to use that to us the. To rest mom and the other speakers and so they spirited her away in a car and tried to get her to to uh um a friendly doctor

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and you know and so forth, but Dorothy was one of those little youngsters who were sort of sort of being mentored by my mom and dad who were all of maybe you know 24 or something so. That was a good book, don't you think? Yes, yeah,

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very good. Yes, yes, she's she's a, she's a darling. So have you gone back and researched in archives about your parents? I haven't, and it's again part of the regrets. One, the next thing I actually what I wanna do is, um, do something which is partially

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for me and partially is a legacy of my dad and he um was put on trial. And I believe in the early 30s, um in Alameda County uh for criminal cynicalism um and um that was a, you, you're familiar with that law, OK. Well, it was

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a very, as he tells it, it was a very um big trial. It lasted a number of months. It was headlines in all of the papers and the prosecuting attorney for the county of Alameda was Earl Warren. So I wanna go back and, and he always

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wanted to to and he wanted me to see those stories and read those stories. So I've already contacted um. Lynn Bonfield and other people in um labor studies and so forth and try to get some help in going back to the archives and and microfilm and

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seeing yeah yeah right right um so you were your parents, your mother was 40, uh, they were both 40 when you were born, um, which was unusual, um, uh, at that in 1945 I'm sure. They were too busy to have children. They were, you know, too

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busy with their activities and their revolutionary activities and, and, um, so they weren't ready to have children and when they were, um, when they were ready, I think my mother had several miscarriages and then they had me and where were they? Um, there was a house

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on Collingwood Street in San Francisco which was, um, I still have such fond memories of it. I'd love to have it again. It was a um a wonderful house all natty Pine with this incredibly beautiful view, working class neighborhood at the time was mostly, uh, Italian

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and Irish Catholic. And um so I was born there and they had managed to buy that house somehow they were no longer communally right they had lived from, you know, um, especially during the Depression from hand to mouth they were living at one point they had

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a little, as I was told a cold water flat in Telegraph Hill which was dirt cheap, can you believe at the time. And um and whoever you know that most of the people were full time social revolutionaries and somebody always managed to work somewhere and get

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some money to feed the rest of them so and there was always um. They're always being hounded by the FBI and the police, the red squads. Um, when and how did you become aware of your parents as political people and and of their beliefs? Maybe there

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was never a moment. No, there wasn't. It was just part of, um, absorbing who they were and um. I have no idea, I mean. I just always knew that they were special people, um, but you know, I was born in 1945, so, uh, um, I don't

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have a lot of early memories, but as I became more and more conscious, I was more and more conscious of danger. That was a prevalent feeling. How did that manifest itself? What were the signs of danger? Well, there were, there were all sorts of signs. I

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mean, a lot of kids, you know, see monsters at night. I saw Trotsky. I was Trotsky Trotsky right so it's like I had my dad look under the bed before, you know, when I was a little girl, but, um, I knew that there was something very

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dangerous happening and I knew it was called something called McCarthyism, and I knew that I was never ever, ever to tell any of my little friends or teachers or anyone who my parents were, who my relatives were. Well, it was a secret. I had to keep

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the secret. And they explicitly said to you this is the information you should not give anybody and what were you told that you were not identify. I was told not to, um, that it was, you know. Um. This, I, I'd always heard that that the FBI

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came to the house a lot and I don't remember that, but, um, certainly before I was born, I, I don't have a lot of memories in my 1st 5 years, um. And they're really there are stories about that the FBI coming a lot and the phone

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being tapped and all that stuff. The thing I remember is that um I had two very notorious relatives. And I was not, yeah, and I was not allowed to talk about them or tell anybody that that would put them in danger and us and us in

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danger and we needed to be safe in case my cousin Gene needed a refuge if my aunt were to go underground or be arrested so it was a scary time. I, I wasn't sure, you know, my parents might be taken any moment. And how did they

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talk to you about um your reactions to to the need for secrecy and to the presence of danger? I don't remember. It's that period was just in addition to that, when I was 5 my mother got cancer, so it's a very um it's probably a very

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traumatic area and I have very few memories other than um you know, don't tell. Well, given that, what was the mood in your home growing up? Um, well, I, I have most memories from the time I was 10, and there was, um, Uh, let's see. A

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lot of um. Volatile and exciting political talk, um, especially around dinner tables and so forth with friends and, uh, like-minded friends, and, um, You know, just my parents were wonderful in many ways wonderful parents, so I was much the envy of the other children. They were

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very charismatic, very energetic, um. And uh So, and I got a lot of attention. I wasn't always pleased with all the attention, but I got a lot of attention. Um, no, as I, after I was born, their political activities really um. Um, changed and, and they,

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um, my father started working, I got his license as a, um, a real estate, uh, broker and insurance salesman, a insurance broker, so my mother, um, worked side by side with him, um, you know, I always had that. Uh, yearning to come home to a mother

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a frilly apron with cookies belling in the, you know, not, no, I was a latchkey kid a lot, but, um, so but their political activities changed. They did sort of more the, um, you know, the, uh. They looked, you know, they, they didn't do as much.

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I mean my mother in any way, um, my mother was still a member of the CP, um, she, what else, uh, she couldn't help do whatever she whatever she was doing, she couldn't help do something. I mean she became the leader of my brownie troop and

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we had, uh, she wrote a play on, well yeah, she organized a play on Harriet Tubman and you know I mean it was never and um. When uh they didn't serve uh nonfat milk in school, she organized she made us say so whatever she was doing,

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but she wasn't doing the kind of work that she had done before that because a combination of your presence, her illness I think, I think probably both of those things, yeah, um, and my father as well concentrated more on doing his business and talking about the

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old stories. Um, and both being very political in their thinking but mostly talking about the old stories. And his, um his professional choices were they dictated by his, um, having prosecuted and, and certain professional doors being closed to him was that. Um, I, I have no

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idea. I think, um. He he always tried to figure out ways to make a living and um I have no idea what he was working for himself and um and he was very much of an individual so I have no idea. I know that I remember

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certain times um there were attacks against. Against him and against us, there was one published attack I was published in some sort of a right wing newsletter that was being disseminated and saying that Alach, um, notorious communist, was a slum lord, which was utterly ridiculous, but,

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um, that happened once in a while, um, but mostly it was, um, my memories were that things were pretty calm and um. Beyond all of the arguments around the dinner table and so um you said they, they talked a lot about the old times and retold

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a lot of stories. What was their relationship over time to the party? um, well, um, you know, I, my father was an as a was a left anarchist. He always was suspicious of leadership. He was always supremely critical of the CPUSA. And um however he and

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he was totally believer in democratic socialism didn't think that the CPUSA was a particularly wonderful didn't epitomize that very well and um my mother was a CP member. She her criticisms were kept within the family. I mean that's one thing I learned but you don't talk

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outside of the family about your criticisms. Fortunately I've changed about that, but that was a tenet that was, that was certainly I was, I learned and um. I think that uh I don't know how they reacted to the news about Stalin um there's certain watersheds or

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the news about Hungary. I was aware of um that Czechoslovakia was the final straw for my mother and um she had left the party as an active member, um, before that, but she would still contribute to the people's world and the people's world was red all

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the time. He was, you know, came here and um she would do those sorts of things. But she wasn't an active party member, but Czechoslovakia really, really did them in, and they were, and my mother was very disaffected. My father was disaffected before that at some

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point, um, I mean my father was very vocal always about his disapproval of the CP and at one point. Before I was born, the CP told my mother that she should either dump him or she's going to be extricated from the ousted from the CP. She

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had to make a choice. Well, she made a choice, but she wasn't ousted, but they thought he was really a a renegade, and he was, I guess. Um, you mentioned the, the presence of secrecy always, what how did that translate into your, um, your life in

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school, at school, and, um, your ability, your willingness to speak out? Well, I mentioned what it was like in early years throughout my, um, all of my schooling, including college, I maintained that secrecy. Um, it's interesting because, um, Others I've talked to did not, but that

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was, I could not, you know, the few people I told in college, and there were less than a handful, I would sit down in an almost darkened room with a pillow over the phone and sort of in a very quiet whisper say I have something very

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important to tell you. I want to share with you, but there were so few of those, maybe 2 or 3. Um, otherwise, um, I was very active politically, but I did not talk about who my parents were, who my family was, what my background was, and,

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um, to this day. I am this day, I, it sticks in my, you know, it just, uh, for example, um. Uh, I probably was with my current sweetheart, um. A year before I showed her the documentary uh Love in the Cold War about my aunt's book.

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Um, I can't throw this off now. My cousin who was right on the front line with his parent, he's just fine. He tells it, I mean, but I cannot do it. I, I, I'm better, but um it. So you, you would, I remember, for example, always

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kind of being the long one to raise my hand, you know, whenever there was criticism I'd stand up and I'd be there by myself, you know, always the only one in that position, but so would you make, would you make political statements in junior high. High

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school, for example, but kind of separated from from any, you know, family life or identity here, um, did you feel some responsibility? Did your parents in some way communicate to you? My parents were there was a double-edged sword. Um, as I was growing up, as I

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was little, I remember feeling, um, There's nothing I can do in life that will ever match what they've done. There's nothing I can say which has not been said by them or others. Why bother? So at times around the dinner table, there was this all this

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frenzied conversation and my father would say, wait a second, everybody be quiet. Laura, what do you think? I had nothing to say. What, um, I was very much in their shadow and in awe of what they what they had accomplished, um, so that was, that was

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the one thing and it took a long time for me, a long time for me to get through that. The other thing I had learned from them was that the tenant about working from within. So, um, even though I, when the Du Boising from the, even

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though when the Du Bois Club was formed and I went to the national convention and so forth. Um, in college, I joined the Young Democrats of Oregon and I worked with him in high in junior high and high school. Yes, I was active. I, um, I

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graduated high school in '63, so. In high school, primarily, I mean, I was, um, I went to Lowell, which I'm not keen on but there I was, and, um, we, my friends and I who were multiracial, we met and we had like these wonderful discussions about

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racism and everything at noontime every day so there was that, um, I started going on peace marches which oddly enough my father did not support was rather contemptuous of he didn't think that uh that would um make it a bit of a difference. And and in

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spite of the fact that they were both very courageous people in our own life, they were terribly fearful for me. That fear was communicated to me, um. They were, I don't know whether it's because they had to be late in life, but one story was that

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um the first day I started junior high and it took 3 buses to get there, um, my mother followed the bus and the buses in the car. I mean there was terribly fearful and so I grew up very fearful and afraid and figuring ways to take

00:24:02.780 - 00:24:21.250

care of them by not taking risks. And um so I was your activities to your sense of freedom yes there were. I'll tell you about those um in college, um there was the uh um Goldwater uh Kennedy election. I was really active for Kennedy, um, and

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the civil rights movement was really my prime focus of my activity, um, toward the end of high school and the beginning of college. Um, I was a member of COR and formed a core chapter on campus, um. OK, and when Mississippi summer was announced, I wanted

00:24:42.119 - 00:24:58.930

to go to Mississippi. I came home briefly and my parents. Took me For an appointment to our family attorney who were the big left wing attorneys in town, Gary Dreyfuss Victor and all those guys, big left wing family friends. And I had wanted to be a

00:24:58.930 - 00:25:13.479

teacher. I was, I was hellbent on that since I was a kid. The family attorney, who I think was well primed, said, um, if you go. Um, Basically, well, there were two things. One, I think that, wait, let me, let me back up because I'm getting

00:25:13.479 - 00:25:26.400

confused. The first, the first summer after my freshman year, I wanted to go to Cuba, right? It was the first brigade. That's when they took me to the family attorney, the first time, and he said, if you go to Cuba, you will never be a teacher.

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You will be blacklisted. So that was heavy, and I knew I wanted to be a teacher anyway, they were so afraid that they arranged this. So to say that as opposed to if you go there may, it may create some obstacles for you. Are you prepared?

00:25:43.609 - 00:26:00.239

No, no, this was categoric. I ended up not going. Um, my friend did go. My friends did go, um, and the second summer was Mississippi summer and I wanted to go there again, um, they were so fearful and um. And I don't remember what they did.

00:26:00.280 - 00:26:10.380

I don't remember if we, if they took me to the attorney or not. What I ended up doing was not going to Mississippi. I went to Chicago and worked in the for COR in Chicago at Freedom Summer, and they had a whole big thing in Freedom

00:26:10.380 - 00:26:25.719

Summer in Chicago. And I and I worked for the summer in Chicago and but I was always taking care of their fears about me, whereas as youth they did the most incredibly risky things. Well, that's just it, and you described them as charismatic, energetic. They sound

00:26:25.719 - 00:26:46.670

like courageous kind of. But was this the only realm in which you saw them behaving in a fearful manner? It with regard to me or in in their lives, um, with that if that was the only real. Um, Yeah, I believe so. I mean, I can't

00:26:46.670 - 00:26:57.949

think of the it's a good question, and I think they were fearful about my mother's illness and she was, she went into remission, but, but my father said he never knew if he was gonna have to raise me alone or not so I think they were

00:26:57.949 - 00:27:15.150

fill for but you know they were not, um, they weren't the kind of people who really expressed their fear directly, uh, so, um, I don't remember any other area. Do you think it might have had something to do with their, their sense that they had potentially

00:27:15.150 - 00:27:29.349

put you at risk or jeopardized your security when you were a young child, and that was just sort of a a way of compensating in some way. I know, I don't think so. I think that they were very fearful as parents. They felt very competent as

00:27:29.349 - 00:27:40.390

revolutionaries, and they were very fearful as parents. I know that my father, I think it was on a very personal level, not a political one. My father always worried because I had lots of headaches and once when I was an infant he dropped me on my

00:27:40.390 - 00:27:58.089

head or something, so I think they were fearful and absolutely in in uh deep water, didn't think they knew what to do. Um, also, you know, my mother was raised, both my mother and her sister were raised by their mother, my grandmother, um, as feminists, and,

00:27:58.099 - 00:28:15.699

um, My grandmother always taught her daughters that once you have children, um, you'll stay at home and your husbands will go off and continue to be social revolutionaries, but you won't have the chance anymore. She wasn't keen on children and wasn't keen on um having women

00:28:15.699 - 00:28:32.239

limited. She was, yes, yeah, and she was, she never taught my mother or her sister like how to sew or knit because she feels she felt that they would be. Uh, then exploited and yeah, and when we and um when my mother brought my father to

00:28:32.239 - 00:28:46.689

meet her. Um, he promised her that if they ever get enough money for a car, it would be my mother's car so she could be independent of him. I mean there was, um. There was that so I, I don't think that it was, um, I just

00:28:46.689 - 00:29:02.050

thought they were somehow they were there was all sorts of thing around having a kid, um, one of their close friends had a child when they were still very young revolutionaries, and they gave it away for adoption, never told anybody because I don't think there was

00:29:02.050 - 00:29:22.550

a lot of uh support for having kids when you were revolutionary activists. Um, so when they finally had a child at the age of 40, they were fearful express any regret having made that decision? Never, never. They wanted, yeah, never. Um, growing up then, were your

00:29:22.550 - 00:29:41.069

friends, um, were there other children or political people, uh, in your elementary school? Did you have, what kind of social life? Um, and before I was 10 at in on Collingwood Street, um, I wasn't, no, most I didn't know any other activists, children of activists that

00:29:41.069 - 00:29:55.300

were in my school, um, and one of the reasons I was told we moved out of that area was because my parents were a little concerned. Um, my close friends were Irish and Italian Catholics, and I started going to mass, and they, you know, we were

00:29:55.300 - 00:30:10.550

Jewish, not we were secular Jews and so forth, but they were a little concerned, so we moved over here, um, and again in my junior high, although now I'm told that Roosevelt Junior high, a bunch of kids from progressive families went there. I wasn't aware of

00:30:10.550 - 00:30:30.839

it except there were some other children of close family friends, um. As well as Lowe. So did you have two sets of friends then the children and how, um, were there special social and cultural activities for kids that you participated in? Um. While you think about

00:30:30.839 - 00:30:31.390

that, I'm gonna turn the