Obituaries

Bruce Robinson assesses the life and work of Al Richardson, historian of Trotskyism and editor of the journal Revolutionary History, who died unexpectedly in his sleep on 22 November, aged 61. I first met Al in 1968 when he was an activist in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and a member of the International Marxist Group (the then British representative of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International). One thing from that time that sticks in my memory was his organisation of the "Karl Marx Memorial Pub Crawl" as a fund-raiser for the VSC. This involved a dwindling bunch of hardened...

Barry Finger concludes his appreciation of the life and work of Julius Jacobson, who died last March. Julius was the founder and editor of the American socialist journal, New Politics. One of the most agonising essays Julie was called upon to write was "The Two Deaths of Max Shachtman" in the Winter 1973 issue of New Politics. Shachtman had earned the admiration of a generation of radicals of previous decades by his political courage in engaging and opposing and - in Julie's estimation - besting Trotsky, whom he "loved, respected and feared", and for his intellectual and political...

Julius Jacobson - Julie to his many friends and comrades - was the founder and editor of the American socialist journal, New Politics. He died in March of this year. Barry Finger continues his appreciation of his life and work. During the 1950s Julie became editor of The New International - a journal of the Independent Socialist League/Workers' Party, the Trotskyist organisation founded by Max Schachtman. But by the middle 50s, Shachtman was shifting rapidly to the right purportedly in pursuit of new opportunities for movement-building. The Communist Party was in disarray, traumatised by...

Elia Kazan was a great film director. His films were usually on the side of progress and humanity, and, in that sense, he was a man of the left. But his reputation with people on the left, even with liberals, has been blemished by one overwhelming fact: at the height of the 'McCarthyite' anti-communist witch-hunt in the USA, he appeared before the investigating committee as a 'friendly witness' - that is, one who 'named names' of others who had been in or around the US Communist Party at the same time as himself. He did that to secure the possibility of continuing to work in Hollywood. The...

Julius Jacobson - Julie to his many friends and comrades - founder and editor for more than 40 years of the American socialist journal New Politics, died on 8 March 2003. In the first of three articles Barry Finger appraises his life. The articles first appeared in the Summer 2003 edition of New Politics. It has been said that 25 years in the life of a small magazine is the equivalent of an individual attaining the age of one hundred. By that standard New Politics, for which Julie travailed to his last breath, has truly earned its place as one of the venerable mainstays of American radicalism...

The Palestinian intellectual Edward Said died at the end of September 2003. Edward Ellis discusses his ideas and impact. Edward Said was born in pre-partition Jerusalem and later became an American citizen. He was Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He was known both for his intellectual contributions - in particular, the book which made his name, Orientalism , first published in 1978 - and for his active involvement in Palestinian politics. The theme of Orientalism , and later work such as Culture and Imperialism , was that Western culture constructs an...

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down Living on the hopeless hungry side of town I wear it for the prisoner Who has long paid for his crime But is there because he's a victim of the times I wear it for the sick and lonely old For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been Each week we lose a hundred fine young men (From The man in black, 1971) Johnny Cash was great not just for his songwriting, performing and humanitarian outlook. He was great because he although he embodied the features of American country music...

Clive Bradley looks at the life and career of Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn, who died at the beginning of July at the age of 96, was not alone among her generation of Hollywood aristocratic ladies in preferring to wear trousers. But the other two women most associated with such manly apparel-Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich-were European, so they probably didn't count. Hepburn, on the other hand, was from a patrician New England family, educated at an Ivy League university, and even spoke in that almost-British accent which marks out the American upper bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, her...

This is part two; part one here

By Pete Keenlyside In an era when trade union leaders were household names, Tom Jackson, who died this month aged 78, stood out from the rest. This was partly due to his appearance - the trademark handlebar moustache - partly due to the fact that he appeared regularly on TV panel programmes but mainly because he was general secretary of the postal workers union (then UPW, now CWU) during the 7-week strike in 1971. Tom Jackson joined the Post Office and the union in 1938. After a spell in the services during the war he set about climbing the union ladder and by 1955 got himself elected to the...