Going Way Back: East Hampton Star Gloats Over Times Mistaken Obituary, March 23, 1995

The Real Obituary Unfolds

by Sheridan Sansegundo
East Hampton Star, March 23, 1995

The obscure and convoluted life of Eugenio Perente-Ramos, founder of the Eastern Farm Workers Association, had its end not so much in Monday's New York Times obituary, but in the 12-inch retraction the paper printed the next morning.

Monday's glowing obituary, which painted the picture of a selfless and dedicated labor organizer, had been submitted by two associates of Mr. Perente-Ramos, according to The Times. He was 59 when he died.

If the newspaper was hoodwinked by the Eastern Farm workers Association, which has been characterized as an authoritarian cult, it was not the first victim, as some East Enders who had contacts with the organization in the late 1980s can attest.


Far From it

For a start, "Eugenio" was but the last of a number of false names. He was born Gerald William Doeden of Norwegian-American parentage in Minnesota, not on a small farm in Montana. He claimed to have had no formal education, whereas he actually went through community college in California. The Times obituary stated there were no survivors, but The Star discovered that his mother and daughter survive.

The obituary said Mr. Perente-Ramos was a close associate of Cesar Chavez and an innovative leader who organized cadres of volunteers to aid the poor. Far from it. According to a 1976 story in Newsday, Mr. Perente-Ramos had by then left Mr. Chavez's United Farmworkers Union, in bad standing.


An Art Benefit

On Tuesday, The Times said experts on cult activities and several parents of his followers had informed the paper Mr. Perente-Ramos was a leader of a cult that recruited troubled young people, housed them in communal quarters, and "brainwashed" them into believing they had committed their lives to social justice by collecting food and clothing for the poor.

Mr. Perente-Ramos and the Eastern Farm Workers Association first made the pages of The Star in 1986.

It was announced that summer that an art auction would be held in Bridgehampton to raise money for the organization, which was billed as a grass-roots self-help group that was reaching out to poor black and Hispanic migrant and seasonal agricultural workers and domestics in Suffolk County, during a time of government retrenchment.

Prominent East End artists and sculptors donated works to the auction, Including Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Dash, and William King. George Plimpton, Robert Gwathmey, Judith Hope, and Tony Bullock were listed on the invitation as sponsors.

Eastern Farm Workers had then been operating in Suffolk County for over a decade, but few people seemed to know much about it or how it served farm workers. Nothing had been written about the group, which seemed generally shy of publicity, because there seemed nothing to report.


Unexpected Difficulties

News of the benefit art auction, however, inspired a story in The Star. It was felt the work of the group would make a good human interest feature, and the story was assigned to The Star's senior writer at the time, Uri Berliner.

To his surprise, Mr. Berliner found reporting on the activities of EFWA. extremely difficult. His request to accompany organizers on a drive for members was denied. Simple questions on aid distribution and finances went unanswered. The group claimed a membership of 10,000, which seemed unlikely as there were only 2,000 migrant workers in the county, according to the State Labor Department.

In the first of two long articles about EFWA, church workers, government employees, and labor organizers who worked with migrants all expressed doubts that the group provided any meaningful services for farm workers.

The letters column of The Star received outraged responses. A follow-up seemed to be required, and this article, apparently much more damaging, appeared just two days before the benefit auction.


"Saga Of A Cult"

Under the headline "Labor Group: Saga of a Cult," Mr. Berliner revealed that Mr. Perente-Ramos (or Mr. Parante, as he was then called) was the leader of a group calling itself the National Labor Federation, which was connected with a Lyndon LaRouche-front group in Philadelphia.

In 1984, the magazine Public Eye had claimed that the group, EFWA's parent organization, and Mr. LaRouche's National Democratic Policy Committee systematically "bilked millions from unsuspecting contributors; and use[d] psychologically manipulative techniques to enforce the loyalty of their members."

Mr. Perente-Ramos, Mr. Berliner wrote, was also the founder of the Liberation Army Revolutionary Group, which at one time declared war on California and had through the years issued repeated "deadlines" for "revolution."

Just hours before the art auction was to take place, Mr. and Mrs. de Kooning, Mr. Dash, and other artist withdrew their works. The auction was "postponed," and in fact never took place.


"Does Anyone Remember?"

For a few weeks The Star printed furious letters from supporters of EFWA attempting to discredit Mr. Berliner's reporting, and letters to the contrary from local readers praising his investigative journalism.

But, as The Star wrote in an editorial when the fuss died down, quoting Thomas Paine, "Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. The sun needs no inscription to distinguish him from darkness."

The Eastern Farm Workers Association is still in existence, with headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Bellport. Other organizations affiliated with it, asserted an ex-volunteer who preferred not to be named, are the Women's Press Collective in Brooklyn, the Eastern Service Workers of Philadelphia and New Jersey, and the National Equal Justice Association, which has a branch in Stony Brook.

One of the parents of a young adult involved with the group, who also preferred not to be named, said, "People forget so quickly. Mr. Berliner's articles said it all, but does anyone remember?"