International Viewpoint Archive

The Fourth International’s English-language review, from 1982

George Breitman: Obituary

International Viewpoint No. 98, 5 May 1986 · p 27 · 235 words

George Breitman was one of the most courageous revolutionists I have ever known, with the special sort of courage needed to spend an entire lifetime fighting for socialism in the most stable capitalist power in the world.

For as long as I knew him, more than 20 years, he suffered from an extremely painful and increasingly debilitating form of arthritis. Nonetheless, he continued to devote himself entirely to party work and played a major role in the political and organizational life of the Socialist Workers Party.

Breitman fought for his beliefs as long as he could move two fingers to type or had the strength to talk and was not discouraged by living through several disastrous setbacks in the painfully slow work of building a revolutionary party in the United States.

His speciality became explaining the role and importance of the struggle of oppressed peoples in the fight for socialism and workers' democracy. He was the architect of the SWP's work with revolutionary Black nationalists in the United States and with the outstanding leader and martyr of this current, Malcolm X. In his later life, he took a particular interest in the problem of oppressed nationalities under Stalinist rule. never tempted to Irish national struggle.

International Viewpoint 5 May 1986

More than 600 arrests were made, with hundreds detained in prison.

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