Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyers Memoir
by Victor Rabinowitz
Category: Biography & Autobiography

In Unrepentant Leftist, a feisty, supremely dedicated attorney weaves a tale that is as much a tumultuous history of the old and new Left in recent decades as it is his personal story. From May Day parades to battles over McCarthyism, from the Communist party's activities to American Labor party politics, from civil liberties battles in the 1950s to civil rights battles in the 1960s, Victor Rabinowitz was there, playing a leading role in it all. In a career that spanned a half-century Rabinowitz worked valiantly and too often futilely on behalf of trade unions, victims of McCarthyism, civil rights activists, and Vietnam War resisters. His prominent clients included the government of the Republic of Cuba and many trade unions of the time, as well as Alger Hiss, Jimmy Hoffa, Benjamin Spock, and Fidel Castro. He won the case declaring that the McCarthy Committee had no authority to investigate "subversive activities" and the Supreme Court case establishing the right of Cuba to nationalize United States property. Rabinowitz has been a socialist since his earliest days; both his legal practice and political activity have been influenced by that fact.