Mark W. Weber papers, 1946-2009

Finding Aid

Prepared by Gregory F. Gatto, April 17, 1998 and Rhonda Rinehart, December 17, 2003; Updated October 2013
5 record storage boxes, 5 cubic feet, 11th floor

Biographical Note

Mark W. Weber received his Bachelor of Science degree in History from the University of Wisconsin in 1968, a Master of Arts degree in History and Education from Colgate University in 1970, and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. He also attended Case Western Reserve University for doctoral studies in American History with a specialization in Labor History. In addition, Weber completed the Labor Leadership Program at Roosevelt University, 1973-1974, and the Certificate Program in Labor and Industrial Relations at Cleveland State University, 1984-1986.

He taught courses in reference and library management at the University of Evansville from 1976 to 1979, and in library management at Indiana University in 1990. Weber also taught courses in labor history at Cleveland State University in 1983, as well as courses in labor history and collective bargaining at Cuyahoga Community College from 1984 to 1988.

His extensive career as a librarian includes Director of Public Services, Clifford Library and Learning Resources, University of Evansville, 1975-1979; Archives Assistant, as part of a graduate fellowship at Case Western Reserve University, 1979-1980; Public Services/Outreach Librarian, Cuyahoga County Public Library, 1981-1985; Assistant Personnel Director/EEOC Officer, Cuyahoga County Library, 1985-1988; and Assistant University Librarian for Personnel, University of Cincinnati, 1988-1991. He served at Kent State University as Libraries and Media Services-Director of Staff Services, 1991-2000, and served there as Dean of Libraries and Media Services since from 2001-2010.

Weber has participated extensively in collective bargaining negotiations, administered collective bargaining agreements, and served as a mediator to resolve conflicts and potential grievances. He has also chaired and served on staff development committees, and participated in presenting educational programs on a variety of topics including: "Collective Bargaining in Ohio Libraries," "Managing Employee Turnover," and "Collective Bargaining for Library Managers."

As an active member of the community, Mark Weber is a past president of the Greater Cleveland Labor History Society, a member of the American Library Association, the Association of Jewish Libraries, Jewish Secular Community, and the Temple Tifereth Israel. He was a founder and member of the Board of The Ethical Society of Cleveland until the organization dissolved in 2003. He is certified as a humanist celebrant by the American Humanist Association and by the International Institute for Secular and Humanistic Judaism. He is the humanist celebrant for the Jewish Secular Community of Cleveland (JSCC). He served as president of the JSCC from 2011 to 2015.

His articles and book reviews have appeared in Journal of Library Administration, Library Journal, Drexel Library Quarterly, National Librarian, Chicago Sun-Times, The Plain Dealer, Jewish Studies Newsletter, and Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. He and colleague Steve Paschen have completed work on a study of Alice and Staughton Lynd from 1976 to the present. The book covers the years the Lynds spent in Ohio engaged in both struggles for worker’s rights and prisoner’s rights.

Political Note

I. The Left: 1964-2001
Mark Weber became active in politics as a high school senior in the spring of 1964, when he became active in early protests against the Vietnam War. Over the next few years, he participated in civil rights marches and peace marches while a student at the University of Wisconsin. In the mid-1960s, he joined the Trotskyist Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), but resigned in 1967 over the issue of the Six-Day War in the Middle East. He briefly joined the Young Workers Liberation League (YWLL), but resigned in protest over the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In 1970 to 1972, he was a member of the Socialist Party, and sided with Michael Harrington's anti-war faction in the debates over the Vietnam War. Eventually, the Socialist Party broke up into three separate splinter organizations.

In May of 1973, he attended the founding convention of a newly-reconstituted Socialist Party, USA. Strongly influenced by libertarian socialist ideas, he wrote the party's first statement of principles. In 1973, he was also elected to the party's first National Committee. He left the party in September, 1975, to set up the Kropotkin Society, named after the famous Russian anarchist and geographer, Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921). The Kropotkin Society served as a publishing house for his libertarian socialist views, influenced by Kropotkin and by the Polish revolutionary heretic Jan Waclaw Machajaski (1866-1926). He tried and failed to get several of Machajaski's unpublished essays translated into English. In 1982 he joined the Socialist Labor Party (SLP).

Uncomfortable with the SLP's opposition to the existing trade union movement and its rigid internal life, he protested the party's withdrawal from a movement opposing U.S. policy in Central America. As a result, he was expelled from the party at its 1987 convention. In 1982, he was a founding member of the Greater Cleveland Labor History Society. He served on the Society's Executive Board and served two terms as president. In 1995, he joined Labor Party advocates and attended the Founding Convention of the Labor Party. He was a member of the Cleveland branch of the Labor Party until 2001.

II. Politics in a New Key: 2001-present
In 1990, Weber participated with a number of moderate and conservative academics in founding the Ohio Association of Scholars, an affiliate of the National Association of Scholars. He also became close to the American Association of Liberal Education and the Council on Basic Education. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Weber began to reassess his political convictions. He opposed the United States invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, and in columns in Footnotes he called for colleges and universities to invigorate liberal arts programs and to embrace once again liberal democratic values. He championed a philosophy called guild socialism which rejected both state socialism on the one hand and corporate conservatism on the other. It advocated conservation, civil liberties, the rule of law, the growth and spread of cooperatives, individual responsibility, a revitalized labor movement, and a new sense of civic engagement. Critics labeled guild socialism a kind of "left-wing conservatism."

In Jewish life he has embraced secular Judaism and was certified as a Madrikh by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. He was also the founder of the Ethical Society of Cleveland in 1997. He has made five trips to Colombia as part of human rights delegations organized by Witness for Peace. These delegations have focused on human rights, labor rights, and violence against campesinos, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous peoples. Currently, he serves on the board of the Ohio State Labor Party and he works with the Emergency Labor Network and the Labor Fight Back Network.

The four books which have been most influential in his political life are: Bread and Wine, a 1936 novel by the Italian socialist writer Ignazio Silone, Man's Search for Meaning, by the Austrian psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, Guild Socialism Revisited by G.D.H. Cole, and Solidarity Unionism by Staughton Lynd.

Scope and Content

The Mark W. Weber papers were established on July 15, 1997, when Weber donated historical materials from the Liberation Socialist League (circa 1949-1952). The donation contains copies of Socialist Views, of which there were only three issues. It also contains other materials, such as the Independent Socialist and Discussion Bulletin. Weber was once a political associate of Virgil Vogel, a founder of the LSL. The collection also includes material on the United Labor Party (ULP) from the same period. The ULP had its headquarters in Cleveland and ran a candidate for Mayor in Akron, Ohio (1951-1952).

Weber's papers will prove of interest to researchers in a number of fields since his materials reflect a wide range of interests. The papers would be of particular value to labor history researchers, who would find the early labor publications and essays both educational and informative. Political history researchers, likewise, would find that the papers and publications reflect an unique period for the Socialist Libertarian movement and the United Labor Party in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, as well as in the United States.

Additionally, Weber's personal papers and essays highlight his insights, activities, contributions and accomplishments in such areas as politics, labor, management, librarianship, Judaism, and his professional career that has been primarily directed toward the betterment of his fellow man.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into the following series.

Series 1: Bibliographies
Series 2: Biographical Information
Series 3: Correspondence
Series 4: Organizations
Series 5: Publications
Series 6: Papers Written by Mark Weber
Series 7: Papers Written by Various Authors
Series 8: Presentations by Mark Weber
Series 9: Lecture Notes
Series 10: Subject Files

Box 1
Folder - Contents

Series 1: Bibliographies

1. Bibliographies/catalogs collected by Mark Weber
2. Bibliographies compiled by Mark Weber

Series 2: Biographical Information

3. Newspaper clippings, personal, miscellaneous
4. Photographs, miscellaneous
5. Curriculum vitae
6. Certificates, miscellaneous

Series 3: Correspondence

7. Correspondence, general, 1975-1996
8. Correspondence, general, 1997
9. Correspondence, general, 1998
10. Correspondence, general, 1999
11. Correspondence, general, 2000
12. Correspondence, general, 2001
13. Correspondence, general, 2002
14. Correspondence, general, 2003
15. Correspondence, Green Social Alliance, 1999-
16. Correspondence, Ethical Society of Cleveland, 2001-
17. Correspondence, Ethical Culture in N.E. Ohio, 1999-
18. Correspondence, American Ethical Union, 1997-
19. Correspondence, Labor Party, 1996-
20. Correspondence, News and Letters, 2000-
21. Correspondence, Kent State University, 1990-

Series 4: Organizations [includes fliers, pamphlets, and meeting notes collected by Mark Weber]

22. Cleveland Labor Party
23. United Labor Party
24. Socialist Party USA
25. Ethical Society of Cleveland
26. Ethical Culture
27. Ethical Culture in N.E. Ohio
28. American Ethical Union
29. Jewish Secular Community
30. International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism
31. Hillel at Kent State University

Box 2
Folder - Contents

Series 5: Publications [arranged by subject]

Union/Labor Issues

1. Unions/Labor Movements, miscellaneous
2. A Party of Our Own! [Labor Party video cassette], 2000
3. Fletcher's Farming State Rights, May 1, 1937
4. Ohio State Labor Party News
5. United Labor Party - Akron, Ohio, Herbert C. Holdridge for President materials, 1951-1952
6. Punching Out, Jack Kramer, 1952
7. Labor Standard, 2000 -
8. New Labor Forum, 2000 -
9. Labor Notes, 2000 -
10. Labor Party Press, 2000 -
11. The Onion, 1986
12. Will Walter Reuther Start a Labor Party? by Steve Marlin, UAW-CIO National Chairman, 1949
13. Working History: A Manual for Researching and Writing Labor History in Cleveland, Ohio, [includes selected bibliography], 1984
14. Welfare Reform: An Attack on Workers, Labor Party, 1998
15. A Call for Economic Justice: The Labor Party Program, Labor Party Constitution, Labor Party Implementation Agreement, Labor Party Electoral Strategy [all published by the Labor Party], 2000
16. Impact: The Rank and File Newsletter [union newsletter for rank-and-file workers of Mahoning County, Ohio], 2000
17. Corporate Power and the American Dream: Toward an Economic Agenda for Working People, The Labor Institute, [no date]

Socialism/Socialists

18. Plenty for All: The Meaning of Socialism, by Ernest Erber, 1946
19. When Race Burns Class, 2000
20. The Idealogical Legacy of L.D. Trotsky: History and Contemporary Times [materials from the International Scientific Conference on Leon Trotsky], 1994
21. In Defense of Marxism, No. 134, Nov.-Dec. 1996
22. The Georgist Journal, 1999-
23. Fourth International: A Marxist Quarterly, Fall 1954-Winter 1955
24. News & Letters committees, miscellaneous publications
25. An Appeal to the Young, by Peter Kropotkin, [no date]
26. Those Not Busy Being Born Are Busy Dying, by Mitchell Cohen, [no date]
27. International Internal Discussion Bulletin, Socialist Workers Party, 1974-1979
28. Lenin on the Woman Question, by Clara Zetkin, 1934
29. Leon Trotsky on the Kirov Assassination, by Leon Trotsky, 1956
30. Leon Trotsky on the Suppressed Testament of Lenin, by Leon Trotsky, 1946
31. Education for Socialists, 1973-1978
32. International Socialist Review, Spring 1957-Winter 1958
33. International Socialist Review, Winter 1959-Fall 1966
34. International Socialist Review, 1967-1968
35. International Socialist Review, May-June 1970
36. International Socialist Review, July-August 1970 - October 1970
37. International Socialist Review, January-October 1971
38. International Socialist Review, January 1973-November 1974
39. The Socialist, 2000-
40. Equality, vol.1 no.1-v.4 no.1
41. Views and Comments of the Libertarian League, no. 45, Fall 1963
42. The Libertarian Socialist, v.1 no.1, Winter 1949
43. Socialist Views, Libertarian Socialist League, v.1 no. 4, Spring 1951
44. Socialist Views Libertarian Socialist League, Summer 1951
45. Socialist Views Libertarian Socialist League, v.2 no.4, Spring 1952
46. Socialist Views Libertarian Socialist League, v.3 no.1, Summer 1952
47. Socialist Views Libertarian Socialist League, v.2 no.2, Winter 1952
48. Libertarian Socialist League, miscellaneous, 1949-1953

World Affairs

49. The Revolution is Here to Stay [translation of address by Fidel Castro at Loyalty Rally, October 26, 1959]
50. The Declaration of Havana, by Fidel Castro, August 28, 1960
51. Asia in Ferment: Nationalism, Anti-Americanism, Communism, Democracy, by Saul K. Padover, 1954
52. Communists and National Unity: An Interview of PM with Earl Browder, April 1944
53. The Jewish Refugee Problem and The Egregious Gentile Called to Account [L.I.D. pamphlet series], 1939
54. Czechoslovakia and the World Crisis, by Maxim Litvinov, [no date]
55. The Civil War in Spain: Towards Socialism or Fascism? by Felix Morrow, 1936
56. The Capitalist System, by Michael Bakunin, 1993
57. The Next America: The Decline and Rise of the United States, by Michael Harrington, 1981
58. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a Capitalist Society, by Raya Dunayevskaya, 1941
59. From Socialism to Communism in the Soviet Union, by Joseph Stalin, 1939
60. The San Francisco World Security Conference: Your Questions Answered, by Joseph Starobin, April 1945

Box 3
Folder - Contents

Publications (continued)

Anti-War/Activism

1. Nonviolent Activist, War Resister's League, 2000-
2. Tools for Anti-Nuclear Organizing in the Age of Terror, War Resister's League, July 2002
3. Against Both War Camps: A Program to Defeat War and Totalitarianism, Socialist Education Committee, 1948
4. Victory - And After, by Earl Browder, 1942
5. Everything for Our Fighting Men, by Donald Nelson, Chairman, War Production Board, [no date]

Political Publications

6. The Nation, 1994-
7. Independent Politics News, 1999-
8. Modern Times, August 1989 - November 1990
9. Green Pages, Association of State Green Parties, v.3 issue 1, Winter 1999
10. Green Politics, Green Party USA, 1998-
11. Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social Thought, 1999-
12. The Hightower Lowdown, by Jim Hightower, 2000-

Judaism/Religion/Ethical Culture

13. JSC Newsletter, Jewish Secular Community, 1999-
14. Religion in the Public Schools: A Joint Statement of Current Law, 1995
15. What Religious Freedom Means, by Edd Dorr, [no date]
16. Ethical Movement/Culture, various dates
17. Ethical Voice: Newsletter of Ethical Culture in N.E. Ohio, 1998-
18. Ethical Culture Society of Queens Newsletter, 1996-
19. New York Society for Ethical Culture, 1998-
20. Understanding Ethical Religion: A Book of Readings, with Questions for Discussion, American Ethical Union, 1997
21. A Book of Ethical Wisdom, Part 1 [contains writings of William Blake, Albert Camus, Albert Einstein, others], 1995
22. Ethical People and How They Get to be That Way, by Arthur Dobrin, 1997
23. A Teacher's Guide for Algernon Black's 'First Book of Ethics' by Emily Thorn, 1977

Miscellaneous Publications

24. Annual E.F. Schumacher Lectures, October 1984 - October 1997
25. Fabian News, Fabian News Society, London, 1987-1988
26. Footnotes: News from the Kent State University Libraries & Media Services [includes papers written for Footnotes by Mark Weber], various dates
27. Jailbreak out of History: The Re-Biography of Harriet Tubman, by Butch Lee, 2000
28. Leftist Summer Colonies of Northern Westchester County, New York, by Baila Round Shargel, 1995
29. Silver Threads, by Mina Neiger Kulber, [signed by author], 1999
30. When Congress Investigates, by Alan Barth, 1955
31. Works by Graham Purchase

Box 4
Folder - Contents

Series 6: Papers Written by Mark Weber [arranged by subject]

1. Publications, 1972-
2. Book Reviews, 1990-
3. Editorial letters, 1999-

Union/Labor Issues

4. America at the Millennium: The Redefinition of Work and Power, 1998
5. On Teachers Strikes, 1975
6. The Reformer Against the Workers, 1980
7. The Worker as Reformer: Peter Witt in Cleveland Politics, 1911-1915, [no date]
8. The Stormy Petrel: Peter Witt in Cleveland Politics, 1911-1915, [no date]
9. In Search of the American Working Class from Commons to Gutman (and Back Again?), 1980

Arms/Weapons Issues

10. A World Built on Sand, [no date]
11. The Death Trade, [no date]
12. Joanne Little, [short essay about the murder trial of Joanne Little, no date]

Library Administration

13. Model Personnel Policies for Ohio Libraries [prepared by the task force on model personnel policies for Ohio libraries, Mark Weber, Chair], 1993
14. Learning, Children and the Media Center, 1977
15. Back to Basics: Its Meaning for School Media Programs, 1977
16. Libraries/Academia papers, miscellaneous

Judaism/Religion/Ethical Culture

16. A Room for the Night, [no date]
17. Felix Adler and the Search for Ethical Culture, [no date]
18. The Politics of Meaning and Ethical Culture, [no date]
19. Ethical Culture and Social Justice, [no date]
20. The Reconstruction of Society, [no date]
21. The Decline of Civic Virtue in America, 2000
22. The Decline of Belief and the Rise of the Therapeutic Model, [no date]
23. How Good People Make Tough Choices, [no date]
24. Judaism, miscellaneous

Political Papers

24. The American Communist Party in the 1930s [paper written for Kent State History class], 2001
25. The Enron Collapse, [no date]
26. Inherit the Wind, [no date]
27. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, [no date]
28. The Roots of Al Qaeda, [no date]
29. Some Thoughts on a Third New Left, [no date]
30. The 20th century began. . . [no date]

Series 7: Papers Written by Various Authors

29. American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, Stephen Emerson, 2002
30. Introduction to the History of the Labor Movement in the United States, by Jean Simon, 1966 [includes correspondence to Mark Weber], 1987
31. The Jews and other People--with Compassion and Contradiction, by Leon Goodman [includes correspondence to Mark Weber], 1987
32. Memoirs of a Woman Revolutionary, by C. Halperin-Klebanov [includes correspondence to Mark Weber], 1976
33. Mrs. Dalloway Does Brooklyn (or Anywhere Else for that Matter) by Anne Kleaysen, [no date]
34. Teaching for Life: A Matter of Values, by Sanford E. Marovitz, 2002
35. Where Reverence and Reason Meet, by Judith Toth, [no date]

Series 8: Presentations [arranged by subject]

Judaism/Ethical Culture

35. Lost World of Polish Jews, November 1998
36. Jewish Detective Fiction, various presentations and dates
37. Divided Jerusalem [book talk], 2002
38. Brother Against Brother [book talk], 2001
39. My Journey to Secular Humanistic Judaism, May 2002
40. Introduction to Secular Humanistic Judaism, September 2000
41. Prophet of Religious Humanism: Felix Adler and the Search for an Ethical Culture, November 2001
42. Felix Adler and Ethical Culture [includes drafts and adaptations], 2001
43. Ethical Culture in a Consumer Culture, [no date]
44. Ethical Culture: The Year in Review, [no date]

Library Administration

45. Common Evaluation Errors...or Eight Easy Ways to Ruin an Evaluation, 1987
46. Contract Language [for Cuyahoga County Public Library], 1987
47. UCITA: The Next Battle [presentation about the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, no date]
48. Hiring and Grievance [presentation for the University of Cincinnati], 1988
49. Collective Bargaining [presentation for the University of Cincinnati], 1989
50. Discipline [presentation for the University of Cincinnati], 1989
51. Getting Stuff Done [presentation for the Lorain Public Library], 1993
52. A Perspective on the Need for Assessment Initiatives in Libraries and Media Services, January 2002
53. Tenure and Academic Libraries, April 2002
54. Creating a Common and Academic Civic Culture, October 2002
55. The Cultural Self-Study: More than a Set of Recommendations, [no date]
56. The Assertive Supervisor, 1995
57. Supervision of Student Workers, 1994
58. Working with Difficult Employees, 1993
59. Staff Development, 1993
60. Receiving a Performance Evaluation, 1994
61. Investing for Retirement: An Introduction, 1993

Miscellaneous Topics

63. The Struggle for the Commons: the Threat of Privatization of the Public Realm, August 2002

Box 5
Folder - Contents

Series 9: Lecture Notes

1. Collective Bargaining [course taught by Mark Weber at Cuyahoga Community College, 1982]
2. Holocaust Studies, 1990
3. Labor History, course taught by Mark Weber, Fall 1982 [folder 1 of 2]
4. Labor History, course taught by Mark Weber, Fall 1982 [folder 2 of 2]
5. The Library as an Organization [taught in Cincinnati through Indiana University School of Library Science, syllabus on graduate course taught by Mark Weber], 1990
6. Management, 1990
   

Series 10: Subject Files

1. Staughton Lynd [writer, political and labor activist]
   
2. Karl Marx
   
3. A. Philip Randolph [early labor organizer and trade union leader]
   
4. Jan Waclaw Machajski [Polish socialist and political activist]
   
5. Max Nomad [Austrian political writer]
   
6. Joseph Chuman [Leader, Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County]
   
7. Building a New Movement, conference materials, [includes references to Staughton Lynd], May 31-June 2, 2002
   
8. Health Care for All [miscellaneous information about universal health care]
   
9. Oak Park Teachers Strike, 1974
   
10. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
    [presentation given by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen at KSU, April 14, 1998]
    
11. Staff Development & Personnel Concerns Division, 1991-1992
    [includes papers and presentations by Mark Weber]
    
12. Kent State University faculty meetings
    
13. 30th May 4 Commemoration, Kent State University, Spring Semester 2000
    
14. Cleveland Jewish News Commentary, [newspaper clippings and correspondence], June 14, 2002
    
15. Judaism
    
16. Secular Humanistic Judaism
    
17. Ceremonies performed by Mark Weber
    
18. Opening remarks written by Mark Weber
    
19. Memorial remarks written by Mark Weber