Ben Levine (1902-1980) was a prolific writer for the US Daily Worker, a self-taught classicist, and a life-long Communist. Born to a rabbi in Byelorussia, near Minsk, Levine and his family emigrated to the US in 1907 due to the pogroms, when he was only five years old. They first moved to Pennsylvania, and later settled in New York, Lower East Side. With a bottomless curiosity, he pursued a variety of interests, including Marxist theory, sports — and the Classics.
In 1976 he recounts his first-ever strike: “When I was in high school, I worked for the American Flag Co. on Wooster St. We had to paste little flags on sticks for $3.40 a week… Then we went out on strike because we wanted more than $3.40 a week and because of conditions. And we never came back.” Although he graduated with a degree in Law from NYU magna cum laude and phi beta kappa, he never practised. Instead he turned to journalism and once he had joined the Daily Worker he never left.
His co-workers and friends at the Daily Worker — later the People’s World — describe him as “a scholar, attorney-who-never-took-a-stab-at-law, a linguist, teacher, etymologist, and, last but most — at least as far as his daily work goes — the copy editor.” When the Treasury Department raided the Daily Worker’s office on the 27th March 1956 on account of alleged “non-payment of internal revenue taxes” — a photo was taken of Levine sitting at his desk and refusing to leave. He was copy-editing.
Ben Levine (centre) sitting at his desk and copy-editing during the raid on 27th of March 1956
In the same interview, he mentions his wife who, sharing his interest in theatre, organised the “Red Players” with unemployed union members. Alongside his daughter Ella Levine Matthews he was mentioned in a 1958 hearing before the Committee on Un-American Activities. The report recognises him as a “well-known Communist and writer for the Daily Worker.”[1]
His co-worker Bruce Caraway reflected that “Ben brought a thorough understanding of Marxism-Leninism to his work. His last column dealt with a [TV] show about multi-national corporations. Ben more than discussed the program. He filled in the gaps so that his readers developed a clear picture of the “bloody trail” of U.S. corporations.”
While his co-workers remember his deep knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek in several articles about him — he read the Iliad and several Latin texts in the original language — his academic interest also comes through in his various articles that read ancient history through a leftist lens. For example, on 21st March 1954 he published the article ‘Still Another Triumph for Aristophanes’ in which he stresses the subversive, politically charged, satirical humour in Aristophanes’ plays. Following the Cooper Union’s performance of Ecclesiazusae, that made major headlines due to accusations of pro-communism, Levine discusses calls for distribution of wealth in Aristophanes’ Plutus, economic debates in Ecclesiazusae, and pacifism in Lysistrata. The article is remarkable for its comprehensive nature, its immediacy and accessibility for an audience unfamiliar with Aristophanes.
While several letters to the editors praising Levine’s article were printed in the days following his articles on Aristophanes, the editorial team also published an announcement in defence of Levine’s article, which may suggest that they also received a number of complaints. They write: “Perhaps we yielded to the importunities of our office classicist, Ben Levine, who is more at home in the year 500 BC than many we know in the year 1954 AD. But we prefer to think that we used good judgment on two counts. Count one: that is the World Peace Council deemed Aristophanes fit for commemoration, we could not do less than commemorate. Count two: Ben’s article is live and interesting because he has shown how modern a true progressive from a past age can be in any time.” From this defence, it would seem that Levine’s classicism was met with a certain resistance from the Daily Worker’s readership, some of whom perhaps saw it as exclusive and/or irrelevant to the class struggle.
Nevertheless, his frequent responses to readers’ opinions — especially on his articles relating to ancient history and its contemporary political relevance — stress his interest in understanding classical sources from a contemporary, left perspective. In another article titled ‘Homer’s Place in the Pantheon of Peace’, he argues that “while the Iliad is a war epic, it does not glorify war […]; war is the product of disputes among the ruling class.” By collaging an impressively concise summary of both the Iliad and Plato’s Republic, he makes the historical content accessible for his audience, whilst also stressing the immediate political relevance of the 2,500-year-old texts for his contemporary audience.
This profile was written by Toni Andres
[1] Communist Activities Hearings Before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-fifth Congress, First-second Sessions: Volume 2, (2 October 1957), p. 2723.
