Remembering Ernest
Jan Malewski's selection from the dozens of messages of condolence and solidarity received after the death of the Marxist economist Ernest Mandel, one of the leaders of the Fourth International
ERNEST WAS ALWAYS COMMITTED TO THE STRUGGLE AGAINST the Stalinist gangrene in the Communist movement. He was repeatedly attacked in the crudest terms by the leaders of various parties aligned to Kremlin policy. The messages we have received from the leaders of several "post-Stalinist" parties testifies not only to their own transtormation, but to Ernest's success. "I studied, and met with Ernest Mandel... during that decisive phase when we, the PDS/SED, successors to the SED [East German ruling party], developed our critique of that bureaucratic system which called itself socialist, but was in contradiction with the very foundations of socialism. The current Ernest represented, along with others, helped me define my positions. In the previous decades, this same current personified hope and help for many democratic socialist men and women in the opposition within the SED in the former German Democratic Republic..."
Gregor Gysi, PDS, Germany
"Ernest Mandel was for many of us a revolutionary, a friend, who, in the critical moments of the transformation of the left, gave us the elements of analysis, and the encouragement to continue the struggle with [refreshed] moral, theoretical and political arguments".
Francisco Frutos, Spanish Communist Party (PCE) "For many of us, Mandel represented an example of the effort that was necessary and must still be made to make a critical analysis of capitalism and, at the same time, do this work in close relationship with militant practice. He was thus a rather rare case of an intellectual and political leader devoted to the cause of the workers' movement and all emancipation movements. You know that for our organisation the essential principle of functioning as a political formation is the recognition of political and ideological pluralism. In this framework, the contribution of Mandel, who was also a radical critic of 'actually existing socialism' could always be useful to us in the task of reformulating a plan for an alternative society capable
International Viewpoint n° 271 - November 1995 31
regaining credibility for the anti-capitalist and internationalist left."
Victor Rios, Izquierda Unida (United Left, Madrid "Ernest Mandel, Marxist theorist and thinker, was, in the most noble sense of the word, an activist. In his own country. Within the Fourth International, of which he was a leader."
L'Humanité, newspaper of the French Communist Party Mohammed Harbi, one of the leaders of the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the Algerian war of independence, praises "Ernest's contribution to the reformulation of socialism, and redefining the basis for revolutionary regroupment" and his support for the Algerian revolution. On behalf of Brazil's Workers Party (PT), Marco-Aurelio Garcia writes "for more than half a century, Ernest Mandel illuminated, with his intelligence and his culture, the socialist movement of the world..." In transmitting a greeting from "Lula" da Silva, Garcia writes "Mandel was a friend of the PT. He travelled with us from the moment of our birth". The final word goes to Fausto Bertinotti, General Secretary of Italy's Party of Communist Refoundation - "All Italian communists will remember forever the person and the work of Ernest Mandel, eminent scholar and modern "In one of his books, Ernest incited us to work for 'the rebirth of hope'. That 'Mandelist' hope... is being reborn, with our Zapatista brothers and sisters... who are beginning to organise that great force which hope represents, way beyond the indigenous communities of Chiapas, and above all beyond Mexico's borders Rosario Ibarra, Member of Parliament and co-ordinator of the Zapatista Consultation process interpreter of Marxist thought. He devoted his life to a thorough, deep-going analysis of the immense contradictions of the modern world, the evolution of the capitalist system with all its unresolved injustice, the new transtormations which have taken place in society on a world scale. .."He was supported in this powerful work by his confidence, his consciousness of the historical necessity and the concrete possibility of building a new society that would end the exploitation of the human race, nature and the environment by human beings. This is why his personal history is a splendid segments of the enormous effort which las been made, throughout this century, by women, by nen, by dominated classes. While we, sad and moved acknowledge his disappearance, we are helped by our common unswerving conviction of the need to continue this fight. * 32 International Viewpoint n° 271 — November 1995
• Commemoration meetings worldwide Over 1,200 militants and sympathisers of the Fourth International, from some 30 countries, and others for whom Ernest Mandel symbolised open, living Marxism, participated in the transfer of his ashes to the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris on 30 September 1995. At Ernest's final resting place, near the Mur des Fédérés, where the last fighters of the Paris Commune were shot down, Alain Krivine spoke on behalf of the French Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) and Livio Maitan on behalf of the Fourth International. Other French participants included representatives of the French Socialist Party (PS), French Communist Party (PCF), Workers' Struggle (LO, represented by Arlette Laguiller), Movement des Citoyens, Convention for a Progressive Alternative (CAP), Alternative libertaire, Red-Green Alternative (AREV) and the Communist Refondateur (Refounding) current. They rubbed shoulders with Raul Roa, Cuba's ambassador in France, Michel Pablo,Bala Tampoe (General Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile Union), Tariq Ali, Perry Anderson, and Robin Blackburn (New Left Review) as well as many leaders and members of the Fourth International who had travelled notably from all over Europe, Latin America and the USA to be present.
"For Palestinian Marxists, Erest Mandel was an inspiration and a great thinker... Ernest was also a model of the continuity of the militant struggle., despite all the obstacles and failures on the road. His life is an example, and a great source of inspiration."
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Occupied Territories That evening, several hundred people participated in a commemoration meeting in Montreuil, near Paris. Commemoration meetings have also been held in Brussels (29 September, over 300 people), Lisbon (27 October), London (13 and 14 October, 350 participants), Madrid (7 October, 400 participants) New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Sydney (20 August, called by the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia). The Paris and London meetings closed with a moving viewing of an interview with Ernest by Tariq Ali. Similar events are planned for Barcelona (13 November), Brazil, Mexico, English Canada, Quebec and a range of other locations. *
"The first Marxist Leninist militants in Morocco studied his Marxist Economist Theory with passion.
In prison, Inprecor magazine (French edition of
International Viewpoint) brought us the lessons of revolutionary struggles round the world" Abraham Serfaty, imprisoned for 17 years as a leader of the
Marxist la Al Amam group