OAKLAND — Reese Erlich, a longtime Oakland resident whose journalism and activism helped shed light on conflicts and advocate for peace, died April 6 of prostate cancer. He was 73.
According to The Progressive magazine, which hosted his syndicated column “Foreign Correspondent,” Erlich was born and raised in Los Angeles, and joined protests against the Vietnam War as a student.
After organizing anti-draft protests, Erlich and several others were arrested as the Oakland Seven. He was later tried and acquitted.
In recent years, he maintained a busy schedule of speaking and hosting appearances, and authored an acclaimed series of books about politics, history, international relations, peace activism and imperialism, but still found time to write essays about World War II resistance heroes, jazz music and wines.
Erlich spoke to this news organization in January 2014 about plans for an adult-learning class at UC Berkeley’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) titled “War, Peace and the Media.”
“What I will be stressing in the class is that it’s great to listen to NPR or read The New York Times or other media, but they put a spin on the news and it’s important to understand these biases,” Erlich said at that time. “There will be new information presented that they’re not familiar with and they’ll be able to look at media coverage and ferret out what’s really going on.”
Before an October 2014 book discussion hosted by the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center at the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church in Walnut Creek, then-center executive Margli Auclair said Erlich’s deep knowledge about Syria and its people would add to local residents’ understanding of the situation.
“We expect Erlich to move beyond a focus on current events and provide a broad historical context to the horrifying situation we are witnessing in Syria,” she wrote in an e-mail. “History shows that extreme fundamentalism and nationalism do not develop in a vacuum. We need to understand this in order to move forward.”
In his final column for The Progressive late last month, Erlich shared some late-life levity while taking pride in his work on behalf of worthy causes.
“I’ve helped explain some complicated world issues you might not otherwise have understood,” he said in part. “I hope the activism earlier in my life and my writing and speeches later have helped bring about progressive change.”
Erlich is survived by his wife Liz and his son Jason. An online-video gathering meant to serve as a virtual memorial was still pending, according to a social-media post.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.