[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E48-E49]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO ANTHONY MAZZOCHI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 8, 2003

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and recognize 
Anthony Mazzochi, a champion of the labor movement. Through his 
compassion, dedication, and commitment he improved the lives of the 
working men and women of the Nation. His hope brought those who toil in 
the factories and fields across the country together and gave them a 
voice and the empowering recognition that they cannot go unnoticed in 
the social, economic, or political arenas.
  Anthony Mazzochi began his life in Brooklyn, New York. The struggles 
of the working class were brought to his attention at a young age when 
his father, a unionized garment worker, lost the family home due to 
medical bills for his wife who died of cancer when Anthony Mazzochi was 
6 years old. Anthony Mazzochi served in World War II as an Army combat 
veteran, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and was one of the first 
soldiers to reach the Nazi death camps. Upon returning to the U.S. he 
worked as a steelworker, an autoworker and in construction.
  In the 1950s Anthony Mazzochi began his work in the labor movement 
with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union and 
fought for one of the first dental insurance contract for workers. He 
later became the local OCAW president. Over the years he took on more 
roles within the union and eventually became the union's health and 
safety director from 1979 to 1981 and the secretary-treasurer from 1988 
until he retired in 1991.
  Anthony Mazzochi was instrumental in the fight to create the 
Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and pass the 
National Gas Pipeline Safety Act, among other legislation. He also led 
the effort to highlight the plight of Karen Silkwood, a worker who blew 
the whistle on health and safety problems at a Kerr-McGee nuclear 
facility.
  He was innovative in extending the labor cause to art, education and 
activism. To educate union members he established Alice Hamilton 
College. Anthony Mazzochi was the publisher of ``New Solutions'' an 
environmental and occupational health policy publication. He helped 
commission a play about Karen Silkwood performed at the Attic Theatre 
in Detroit in 1993. He also created an internship program that brought 
awareness to medical and public health students about workplace 
conditions.
  Anthony Mazzochi established the Labor Party Advocates in 1991 in an 
effort to build support for a national labor party. In 1996, with 1,400 
union leaders, he organized a meeting in Cleveland to establish the 
Labor Party. He never lost hope that support for a national movement to 
improve conditions of workers was present in the country.
  Anthony Mazzochi received the Presidential Citation for outstanding 
contributions to public health from the American Public Health 
Association in 1983; the Alice Hamilton Award from that organization in 
1987; and was cited by Ms. Magazine in 1982 as one of the ``40 Male 
Heroes of the Decade'' for his work organizing the effort that exposed 
the forced sterilization of women workers at American Cyanamid.

[[Page E49]]

  Anthony Mazzochi was a working class intellectual and a renaissance 
man. While the country underwent unsteady and unpredictable periods 
over the last several decades his vision and optimism remained 
unwavering. Anthony Mazzochi embraced the human spirit in its totality 
and invited people to join in fighting for justice. Countless have 
joined and will continue to join as his indelible and inspirational 
legacy lives on. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Anthony 
Mazzochi.

                          ____________________