Obituary
Emilio Brodziak Amaya (1938-99) More than 200 people packed the auditorium at Leon Trotsky's house in Coyocan, Mexico City, October 16 to pay tribute to the memory of Emilio Amaya, who died on October 10 at the age of 61. At the time of his death Emilio was the national coordinator of the Co-ordinadora Intersindical Primero de Mayo, and a leading member of the Liga de la Unidad Socialista (LUS).
The son of a Polish father and a Mexican mother, Emilio Amaya joined the revolutionary movement in the early 1960s, becoming a member of the Liga Obrera Marxista. He participated in 1968 student movement, and in the same year helped to found the Grupo Communista Internacionalista. In 1976 he was a founder member of the PRT
Because he worked in public administration, he had to keep a low profile, and was for a long time confined to journalistic, publishing and internal party tasks. For more than 20 years he wrote, under a pseudonym, a column in the daily paper Uno Mas Uno defending workers" struggle and socialism. Until the time of his death he was a member of the council of the Siglo Veinte Uno publishing house.
In the 1970s he worked for IIRE fire safety appeal Amsterdam several years in France, where he was a member of the Latin American fraction of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionaire.
In the early 1990s, the PRT suffered a severe internal crisis, and eventually split into two groups. The part of the PRT Emilio stayed with decided in February 1996 to dissolve the organisation and go into the Zapatista movement. Emilio joined the opposition groups, led by Jaime Gonzalez and Manuel Aguilar Mora, which rejected this move and decided to fight for an open Marxist organisation. Two months later they founded the LUS.
In 1994, Emilio found himself in a financial position to devote himself full-time to the revolutionary movement. He seemed to be present at every demonstration of the workers and the left. He helped, in 1995, to found the Primero de Mayo left opposition trade union front, and became its principal organiser.
In the last year much of his time was taken up with the organisation of the National Resistance Front to defend the electricity industry against privatisation. He played a central role in writing and producing the LUS paper Umbral (Dawn); on the giant electricity workers demonstration on March 18 this year personally sold more than 100 copies. In the past nine months he spent an increasing amount of time working to support to epic student strike at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). He also found time to be active in protests against the US war against Yugoslavia, and against the massacre in East Timor.
Like many on the Mexican left, he was active in support of the EZLN, which recognised the role of the Intersindical Primero de Mayo by sending a delegation of masked Zapatistas to lead the Intersindical's contingent on this year's May Day march.
The esteem in which Emilio was held was demonstrated by the speakers at the meeting. Fifteen workers' and peasant organisations sent speakers to the meeting, and many more sent messages.
Notable contributions were made by a member of the executive of the indicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME), whose members are to the fore in the anti-privatisation fight; and by a companera from the Consejo General de Huelga (CGH), the body leading the student strike.
Leaders of the Movimiento Proletario Independente and the Partido Obrera Socialista also spoke. A moving tribute to his devotion to the socialist cause was made by his wife, Reyna Brodziak. The banner placed on the podium by the Primero de Mayo read: 'Your memory lives on in our struggle'. [MA/PH] * To contact the LUS e-mail: <maguilarm99@yahoo.com> International Viewpoint #316 November 1999 31