The family head of the org thing is old lore, and only partially true as there are other very important members not part of their family... Before reading all this I will say that my impression of the Beckers are that they are/(were?) all genuinely kind and earnest people. But this issue comes from before the PSL existed…. The Workers World had a rule, they deny it, but it was one of the unstated reasons for the split: You could only be romantically involved with other members of Workers World. So many of the senior leadership cut their teeth in WW, so there has been some inertia. On top of everyday people meeting and dating from working together in the party.

Brian’s son Ben is married to Karina. Brian’s brother Dick (I believe he wrote their book on Palestine) is married to Gloria La Riva. I want to add, Gloria and Karina are genuinely nice people and highly dedicated and principled as far as I can tell, and they both have their own independent organizing backgrounds and work- so I wouldn’t really characterize the family itself as the clique necessarily, or single minded. I think that sort of belittles their own accomplishments. I think Dick and Gloria live on the other side of the country. This is partly why I am sort of reeling over this- I am having a hard time believing just how much damage Ben and Brian have done- so many others have poured endless hours of work for the party only for them to mistreat Marissa- who from this letter, seemed like family to them before all this, but also an employee, which imo makes this even more upsetting