Michael Ratner

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4767
Date Written:  2016-11-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article

Michael Ratner was President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Chair of the Board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. He practiced law for 45 years, dying on May 11, 2016 at age 72.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Michael believed in democracy and the rule of law. He did not believe they were compatible with capitalism. He knew fascism was. Initially Michael thought that the law was a civilized method of resolving disputes. Whatever flaws it had could be fixed. But he soon came to understand that law was a method of social control by powers who were determined at all costs to perpetuate themselves by any means necessary for as long as possible.

It was their government that Michael fought, in court, in the media, in books, and in the classroom, trying to expose its lies, its cruelty, its racism and its imperial reach. "Law is villainous," he wrote. "Social equality will never be achieved under capitalism."

Harry Ratner, Michael's father, came to Cleveland from anti-Semitic Poland and soon became, along with his brothers, quite successful in business. He married Ann Spott, a very intelligent, competent and lovely woman.

In the Jewish tradition the highest form of charity is anonymous, and Harry Ratner and Ann were extremely charitable. Michael inherited that gene, as did his brother Bruce and his sister Ellen. When asked once whom he helped out, Michael answered "anyone who asks me."