Harry Lopatin (1911-1999) was a socialist, a journalist who wrote for and edited Socialist Party and labor union publications, a news photographer, and labor union staffer.
Lopatin was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, to immigrant parents. According to his widow, Adele Slotnick Lopatin, Lopatin was “born to activism,” as his mother was a former worker at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (she stopped work at the factory several months prior to the tragic fire), and his is father took part in revolutionary activities while still in Russia, in 1905. Lopatin himself joined the Socialist Party as a teenager and in the 1930s he ran for office--the New York City Board of Aldermen, and for the New York State Senate, respectively--on the Socialist Party ticket in Brooklyn, New York--and served as president of the Brownsville Labor Lyceum, an influential left-wing cultural and political institution in Brooklyn.
An active photo journalist who closely followed the technical evolution of the field, and had a large collection of cameras, Lopatin worked as a photographer for the Jewish Daily Forverts (aka Jewish Daily Forward ) from 4/27/1930 until 12/5/45. During the same period he also worked for the newspaper in several other capacities, including Assistant Labor Editor, Assistant Photo and Rotogravure Editor, reporter, and Acting Secretary of the Editorial Department. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he served as managing editor for the Workmen’s Circle Call, and in the early 1950s he briefly published his own newspaper, The Community Courier, in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1956 he joined the staff of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in its Northeast Department, working as an administrative assistant responsible for organization, education, public relations, and contract control; from 1961 to 1974, he served the ILGWU’s Cloak Out of Town Department and Cloak Joint Board in a similar capacity. In 1965 he ran for City Council (for Brooklyn's 15th District) on the Liberal Party ticket; in 1967 he was elected president of the board of the Rochdale Consumers Cooperative, in Queens, New York. He also served on the on the board of the liberal left anti-communist organization, the League for Industrial Democracy.
From the guide to the Harry Lopatin Papers and Photographs, Bulk, 1930-1959, 1904, circa 1920-1990 (bulk 1930-1959), (Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive)
