James Burford, 79; Unionist, Organizer
A memorial service for James Burford, a unionist, political organizer and supporter of liberal causes, will be held July 28 at 2 p.m. in the auditorium of the Santa Monica Library.
Burford, whose activism dated to the anti-poverty campaign of Upton Sinclair in the early 1930s, was 79 when he died July 12 in a Santa Monica hospital of the complications of pneumonia.
A printer and salesman, Burford helped charter Young Democrats clubs throughout the state and helped form California’s Fair Employment Practices Committee and its Legislative Conference, the latter an amalgam of unionists, farmers and social action groups.
Additionally, he helped launch the California Democratic Council and was executive director of the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, which is sponsoring his memorial service.
Before military service in World War II he was war relief director of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and director of the CIO’s Political Action Council.
More recently, Burford, who was retired, was heard on radio station KPFK with “Senior Citizens Report.”
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy, a son, stepson and two grandchildren.
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