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Tom Hayden first realized he was 'Irish on the inside' when he heard civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland singing 'We Shall Overcome' in 1969. Though his great-grandparents had been forced to emigrate to the US in the 1850s, Hayden's parents erased his Irish heritage in the q



About the Author

Tom Hayden

After over 50 years of activism, politics and writing, Tom Hayden (1939-2016) was a leading voice for ending the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, for erasing sweatshops, saving the environment, and reforming politics through a more participatory democracy. He was a leader of the student, civil rights, peace and environmental movements of the 1960s, and went on to serve 18 years in the California legislature, where he chaired labor, higher education and natural resources committees.

In addition to being a member of the editorial board and a columnist for The Nation magazine, Hayden was regularly published in the New York Times, Guardian, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Denver Post, Harvard International Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, Huffington Post and other weekly alternatives. As Director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City, California, he organized, traveled and spoke constantly against the current wars. He also recently drafted and lobbied successfully for Los Angeles and San Francisco ordinances to end all taxpayer subsidies for sweatshops.

The author and editor of twenty books, including the recently published "Inspiring Participatory Democracy: Student Movements from Port Huron to Today," Hayden described himself as "an archeological dig." He taught most recently at UCLA, Scripps College, Pitzer College, Occidental College, and the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Hayden, the batting champion of the Los Angeles Dodgers fantasy baseball camp in the 1980s, lived in the Los Angeles area since 1971. He is survived by his wife, the Canadian actress, singer and author Barbara Williams with whom he shares a son, Liam. Tom has two other children, now thriving adults, from an earlier marriage to the actress-activist Jane Fonda.



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