Sentinel
5th November 2012, 04:51
This is an eulogy, today one year has passed since one of the defining members of this website -- Edward Clark alias redstar2000, 1942-2011 -- passed away in the aftermath of a stroke he suffered a few years before. It will be a bit sentimental, because I'm simply a sentimental guy, and perhaps hard to understand for newer members. But that's just something you will have to deal with I'm afraid.
I grew up in a socialist home, but was apolitical in my teens as well as my early 20s. That was the 1990s and early 2000's, and socialism had just been dealt the worst blow ever -- the USSR for all its failures had been an alternative to capitalism, and now it had just collapsed. Now the neoliberal capitalists were triumphantly declaring their victory and the end of history.
The rest of the (reformist) labour movement was demoralised and for the most part made a sharp rightward turn. It seemed as socialism was no more, at least in the west. In the third world some countries and movements held on, but that was all.
When I became interested in politics again, pretty much the first thing I did was to google Che Guevara. And as our head admin and founder Edelweiss had so cleverly figured out it would work, that lead to me finding RevLeft through his Che-Lives site.
It was what you call a wow-experience for me. There were still vibrant leftist orgs out there, trying to figure out how to reinvent themselves and ride out the crisis. That was what we mostly discussed back then, after all the left was still very weak.
Ed Clark was one of the people most determined to find a solution. He had been a real hardcore commie activist in his youth, and never lost faith in the ultimate victory of the international proletariat. Back then most of us agreed that a proletarian world revolution wasn't going to come about before a distant future, there were estimates like 50 or 100 years at least in the discussions here.
Comrade Clark was convinced that the left had to learn from it's mistakes and formed his theory of 'Marxism without the crap'. This created a lot of animosity from more orthodox leftists, but Ed was not the person who was left speachless. Ever.
Instead his witty comments and clever remarks got him a fan club, even a tendency of it's own if you will, amongst hundreds of youth from all around the world that were posting on this site. I was one of his most ardent 'fans'.
He also polemiced a lot against things such as neo-puritanism, but most of all religion which he held a relentless hatred against due to it's reactionary, misogynist nature but also due to his opinion that only a working class with a scientific mindset can be actually able to self-govern on equal terms.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8328/redstard.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/redstard.gif/)
The legendary avatar of redstar2000, which drove terror in the hearts of many of his adversaries throughout the years
Today, I've developed politically. Via anarchism I arrived at orthodox marxism, or trotskyism if you will, and am now a member of the CWI. I disagree with a lot of Eds teachings now. But had it not been for him, I would nevertheless never be where I am today.
His passion for our cause was one of the things that got me to become a communist on my own right, and his constant encouragement to criticise dogma has left me with a healthy and critical mindset.
I'm convinced, as was Ed, that here is no afterlife. When life ends the lights go out and then that's it. But if we make an impact we do live on, in the minds of our comrades and the future generations.
Now the world political situation has changed totally and we are once again moving into a time of revolutions and counter-revolutions. And this time the systematic crisis of capitalism is incurable, and our time is here.
The world revolution is closing in, maybe it will be my own generation or maybe the next that goes through with it, but now I'm convinced I have the opportunity to see it with my own eyes.
We will conquer! Long live the international working class and it's heroes like Edward Clark!
We won't let you down, you can count on that. Ever onwards towards the final victory!
Let us listen to the Internationale and remember our comrade.
- H
ko372vrAsfM
I grew up in a socialist home, but was apolitical in my teens as well as my early 20s. That was the 1990s and early 2000's, and socialism had just been dealt the worst blow ever -- the USSR for all its failures had been an alternative to capitalism, and now it had just collapsed. Now the neoliberal capitalists were triumphantly declaring their victory and the end of history.
The rest of the (reformist) labour movement was demoralised and for the most part made a sharp rightward turn. It seemed as socialism was no more, at least in the west. In the third world some countries and movements held on, but that was all.
When I became interested in politics again, pretty much the first thing I did was to google Che Guevara. And as our head admin and founder Edelweiss had so cleverly figured out it would work, that lead to me finding RevLeft through his Che-Lives site.
It was what you call a wow-experience for me. There were still vibrant leftist orgs out there, trying to figure out how to reinvent themselves and ride out the crisis. That was what we mostly discussed back then, after all the left was still very weak.
Ed Clark was one of the people most determined to find a solution. He had been a real hardcore commie activist in his youth, and never lost faith in the ultimate victory of the international proletariat. Back then most of us agreed that a proletarian world revolution wasn't going to come about before a distant future, there were estimates like 50 or 100 years at least in the discussions here.
Comrade Clark was convinced that the left had to learn from it's mistakes and formed his theory of 'Marxism without the crap'. This created a lot of animosity from more orthodox leftists, but Ed was not the person who was left speachless. Ever.
Instead his witty comments and clever remarks got him a fan club, even a tendency of it's own if you will, amongst hundreds of youth from all around the world that were posting on this site. I was one of his most ardent 'fans'.
He also polemiced a lot against things such as neo-puritanism, but most of all religion which he held a relentless hatred against due to it's reactionary, misogynist nature but also due to his opinion that only a working class with a scientific mindset can be actually able to self-govern on equal terms.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8328/redstard.gif (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/redstard.gif/)
The legendary avatar of redstar2000, which drove terror in the hearts of many of his adversaries throughout the years
Today, I've developed politically. Via anarchism I arrived at orthodox marxism, or trotskyism if you will, and am now a member of the CWI. I disagree with a lot of Eds teachings now. But had it not been for him, I would nevertheless never be where I am today.
His passion for our cause was one of the things that got me to become a communist on my own right, and his constant encouragement to criticise dogma has left me with a healthy and critical mindset.
I'm convinced, as was Ed, that here is no afterlife. When life ends the lights go out and then that's it. But if we make an impact we do live on, in the minds of our comrades and the future generations.
Now the world political situation has changed totally and we are once again moving into a time of revolutions and counter-revolutions. And this time the systematic crisis of capitalism is incurable, and our time is here.
The world revolution is closing in, maybe it will be my own generation or maybe the next that goes through with it, but now I'm convinced I have the opportunity to see it with my own eyes.
We will conquer! Long live the international working class and it's heroes like Edward Clark!
We won't let you down, you can count on that. Ever onwards towards the final victory!
Let us listen to the Internationale and remember our comrade.
- H
ko372vrAsfM