Remembering Greg Bartik. Working Class Fighter

Gregory John Bartik

Remembering Greg Bartik. Working Class Humanist and Fighter

Gregory John Bartik: died January 21^st 2022

 

On Saturday, February 13^th, Facts For Working People had our second Zoom meeting since the death of our friend and comrade from Chicago, Greg Bartik who died January 21^st in New Orleans

Greg was a nurse and worked at the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center in Chicago, initially in the Urology Department and later at the pain clinic. Like so many health care workers, Greg was exhausted due to the pandemic and we could tell he was stressed.

He rarely missed our Saturday Zoom calls, even when he was away on holiday..Work had him so exhausted he fell asleep during one discussion snoring away then apologized for not muting when we made him aware of it. He was a good listener though, weighing in with his unique and very colorful take on things. Initially, he might get a little frustrated with the nature or direction of our calls but became happy and content with the way the calls evolved.

 

 When he was on a call and heard someone was not feeling well, he would not fail to call them after the meeting with advice and well wishing. Sean O’Torain (John Throne) a co-founder of Facts For Working People Blog, was seriously ill for many years and Greg was literally his personal nurse.

 

Greg was a special individual. He knew so many people and had so many friends.  and had a few nicknames, “The Nurse,” “Uncle Buck,” or “Whitey.” He would refer to women friends as “chicks”  but somehow not do it in a demeaning way.   He was always concerned about the health of everyone else yet neglected his own.

 Greg’s sister, Mary said it best when she wrote:

“Greg enjoyed life. All he ever wanted for all of us was to wake up, stop suffering, unclench and live a little, right now, today, every day or at least for a few damn minutes. Greg could be a jerk at times who made us all laugh until we cried, made us look at opinions other than our own.” 

Greg was a powerful advocate for working people. He walked many picket lines and spoke up on workers’ behalf. Facts For Working People became involved in a campaign to get the AFL-CIO and its then president Richard Trumka to release files on the CIA’s involvement in the AFL-CIO through the American Institute For Free Labor Development. The campaign arose due to a former UAW local president’s concerns that a Ford local leadership at a factory outside Mexico City had been attacked by gangs at the behest of the CIA.  Greg bonded with the brother of one of the AIFLD operatives assassinated in El Salvador, who is a regular on the zoom calls. Greg hounded Trumka and his staff at a nurses’ conference in the Mid-West and continued the pressure for months after that. He was a real bulldog.

 

Greg was a working class man a socialist and a great advocate for his class, willing to drive establishment foes crazy.  He was a gregarious and great friend who could bring humor to any situation.  The working class has lost a great fighter in Greg Bartik.