Sandy Pollack

Sandy (Alexandra) Pollack (1948–1985) was an American Communist activist who not only embraced the political turmoil of her time, but played a critical role in shaping it. She is best known for her involvement in the founding of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which was the focus of two highly controversial FBI investigations. One addressed possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), in which her personal contact with Farid Handal, brother of Salvadoran Communist leader Shafik, was called into question. The other concerned alleged tangible support of terrorist activities perpetrated by or on behalf of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN and Frente Democrático Revolucionario FDR under the guise of international solidarity. The first case was dropped for lack of evidence. She was killed in a plane crash before the second case was settled.

Sandy Pollack was born to Dr. Cecelia and Mr. Harry Pollack. Her father was a first generation Polish immigrant. Her mother studied neuropsychology in Russia and developed the “Inter-sensory Reading Method” (now called Process Phonics), authored several books on teaching, and wrote an academic piece on the Cuban literacy campaign titled Teaching Reading in the Cuban Primary Schools.

She had a middle-class upbringing in Queens, New York. Her parents were active leftists, participating in protests against military recruitment at high schools and hosting YES Club (Youth for Education and Social Action) gatherings in their home.

Sandy married Terry Cannon, son of prize-winning novelist Josephine Johnson and Grant Cannon editor in chief of the Farm Quarterly, in 1971 after having met in Cuba while both were attending a celebration to commemorate the disastrous July 26, 1953 armed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba by a band of rebels orchestrated by Fidel Castro.

In 1985, she was killed along with 32 others, in a plane crash.

Pollack's political mentor was Alberto Moreau, decades her senior. Moreau was a lifelong communist, had been instrumental in establishing communist parties in several Latin American countries, and had co-directed a school in Los Angeles created by the National Education Committee of the US Communist Party (CPUSA) known as the National School for Mexican Cadres in the 1950s.

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