Helen Halyard was a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party (US) who fought for the perspective of Trotskyism throughout her entire adult life–more than 50 years. She died suddenly on November 28, 2023, at the age of 73.
In 1971, Helen joined the Workers League, the predecessor of the SEP (US). With David North and others, she fought to ensure the continuity of Trotskyism in the aftermath of the desertion of Workers League national secretary Tim Wohlforth. She was later assistant national secretary of the Workers League during the split between the ICFI and the national-opportunist Workers Revolutionary Party in 1985-86. She also ran for office several times in the 70s, 80s and 90s–including for US president in 1992, when she conducted a world tour.
Helen was one of the leading cadre of the Workers League and ICFI who in 1995 founded the Socialist Equality Party (US), and in 1998 launched the World Socialist Web Site. She wrote many important articles for the WSWS, a selection of which are linked below.
In the 21st century, Helen played a central role in training and educating the many workers and youth who have joined the party as the Trotskyist movement has grown significantly, new sections have been established around the world, and, after decades of its artificial suppression by the trade unions, the class struggle is re-emerging powerfully on an international scale.
On this page:
• Photos of Helen Halyard
• Obituary
• Tributes to Helen
• Selected Works
World Socialist Web Site obituary by Patrick Martin
These tributes to comrade Helen Halyard were delivered at a memorial event on December 3, 2023.
David North is chairman of both the Socialist Equality Party in the United States, and the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site.
Sheila Brehm is a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States who worked closely with Helen for over 50 years.
Cheryl Crisp is the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party of Australia.
Barbara Slaughter is leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the UK. At 96, she is the longest-running active member in the International Committee of the Fourth International.
Larry Porter is the Assistant National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States.
Gary Tyler was framed up in Louisiana at age 16 for the shooting of a white youth during the integration of Destrehan High School. He was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death. Helen Halyard played a major role in the fight to free Gary from prison.
Bryan Dyne is a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States.
Marianne Arens is a longstanding member of the Trotskyist movement in Germany, and a leading member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei.
The Youth Guard of Bolshevik Leninists (YGBL) is a Trotskyist youth organization in the former Soviet Union.
Ulaş Ateşçi is a leading member of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group) of Turkey.
Tomas Castanheira is a leading member of the Socialist Equality Group of Brazil.
Fred Mazelis is a founding member of the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States.
Chris Marsden is the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United Kingdom.
Wasantha Rupasinghe is a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka.
Keith Jones is the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Canada.
Joseph Kishore is the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States.
More written tributes to Helen from Reza Omar, Mary Coleman and Simone White.
by Helen’s son Jamal Nichols
David North is chairman of both the Socialist Equality Party in the United States, and the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site.
“Helen was convinced the international socialist programme of our world party would resonate with the working class”
by Ulrich Rippert
“Helen was one of the greatest products to emerge out of the ranks of the American working class”
by David Walsh and Joanne Laurier
“We feel deeply indebted to Comrade Helen and the political fight she waged for over 50 years to build the ICFI”
by Tony and Tania Hyland
“Helen profoundly influenced the character of the party in the US and internationally”
by Julie Hyland
“Helen was imbued with confidence in the revolutionary capacity of the working class and the power of political principle”
by Clara Weiss
Comrade Helen Halyard “believed deeply in the revolutionary future of the international working class”
by Jerry White
“When I think of the party in America, I think of Helen”
by Laura Tiernan
“Helen exemplified what it means to be a party cadre”
by Nancy Hanover
Helen was at work on this book review when she died suddenly on November 28, 2023.
The December 4, 1969, assassination was one of the most brazen crimes ever carried out by the US ruling class. This film sheds some light, despite its serious limitations, on the struggles of the 1960s.
Debra Miller (1952-2018) was an active supporter of the Socialist Equality Party in Detroit who played a significant role in mobilizing workers against evictions in the downtown area. Miller participated in the Workers Inquiry into the Bankruptcy of Detroit in 2014.
Gary Tyler’s frame-up and decades-long incarceration expose the brutal class character of the American judicial system and its vast prison complex.
What Happened, Miss Simone?, the documentary film on Nina Simone (1933-2003), directed by Liz Garbus and recently released on Netflix, is an informative and often fascinating examination of the life and times of the singer and civil rights activist.
On the evening of March 25, 1965, Viola Liuzzo, the 39-year-old mother of five children, was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan following the march from Selma to Montgomery in support of voting rights and against Jim Crow segregation. Liuzzo, the wife of a Teamsters Union business agent, was a student at Wayne State University in Detroit.complex.
The mother of Louisiana frame-up victim Gary Tyler, Juanita Tyler embodied the best qualities of the working class and never wavered in the fight for her son’s freedom.
Davis was brought forward as part of an effort to give an oppositional gloss to the Democratic Party. Her event at UM was heavily promoted and was attended by some 500 students, academics and residents. Her function is to disorient anyone who is looking for an oppositional perspective, directing them into the reactionary dead-end of racial politics.
The axis of Michelle Alexander’s book is clear from its title. In her view, the basic social divide in the United States is race.
Jean and her husband Bill Brust had joined the movement during the great class battles of the 1930s when Trotsky was still alive. They formed a living link to the founder of the world party and played a central role in the education of the younger comrades who were just coming into political life.
Helen Halyard responds to a letter from a reader of the World Socialist Web Site to explain how the pseudo-left Workers World Party works to prop up the Democrats.
Helen Halyard responds to a letter from a World Socialist Web Site reader to explain the basis of the Socialist Equality Party’s defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the black nationalist and author who was on death row in Pennsylvania.
This lecture on the ebonics controversy was delivered by Helen Halyard, the assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States, in a series of appearances on college campuses in Michigan and Pennsylvania.