Jack Shapiro lives forever in our hearts
It is with the
deepest grief that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great
Britain (Marxist-Leninist) announces that our beloved Comrade Jack Shapiro,
Honorary President of our Party and of Hands off China!, passed away from
illness in the early morning of Friday 29 January 2010 at the age of 93.
Comrade Jack was a staunch
Marxist-Leninist, a proletarian revolutionary, a long-tested communist fighter
and an implacable foe of revisionism and opportunism.
Born into the working class
Jewish community in east London, he served a full eight decades in the communist
movement, decades that took him from a young teenage militant in the ranks of
the Young Communist League to Britain’s most cherished veteran communist
fighter. From the moment he took his place in the ranks of the proletarian
army, he stood in his place, fighting for the liberation of mankind. He never
once looked back but always forward to humanity’s
brilliant communist future. He never once regretted the choice he made. Whilst
every victory inspired him, no difficulty or setback could ever daunt him. To
paraphrase the words of Ostrovsky in ‘How the steel was
tempered’, our Comrade Jack can have no regrets for a
cowardly and trivial past. In dying, he can truly say that all his life and all
his strength were given to the finest cause on earth, the liberation of
mankind.
Comrade Jack’s early political life was marked by intense class struggle against
rapacious sweat shop employers, slum landlords, bigotry, anti-Semitism and the
rise of fascism; in defence of the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin, the Spanish
Republic and the Chinese people’s war of resistance
against Japanese aggression.
Throughout his eight decades
of political life, Comrade Jack was as firm as a rock in his defence of the
principles of Marxism-Leninism. He defended the Marxist-Leninist theory of the
state and the dictatorship of the proletariat. He knew that without
revolutionary theory there could be no revolutionary movement and he studied
hard throughout his life up to his final days. He knew that labour in the white
skin could never be free if in the black it was branded and that the movement
of the proletariat in the advanced nations would be a fraud and a humbug if it
was not most closely united with the struggle of hundreds of millions of
colonial and neo-colonial slaves for their national liberation. The struggle
against Zionism was no exception. The Palestinian,
Lebanese and other Arab peoples had no better friend and comrade-in-arms than
Jack. One of his very last political acts was to generously donate to the Viva
Palestina! convoy that has just returned from carrying much needed relief to
the people of Gaza. He knew that “women hold up half
the sky” and his own long marriage, friendship and
comradeship with Comrade Marie was a true example of how human beings should
live.
To Comrade Jack, the
socialist countries, especially the Soviet Union of Lenin and Stalin, the first
country in which his own Jewish people knew freedom, and the People’s Republic of China, were the apple of his eye and no task was greater
than their unyielding defence. For him, every step taken by the socialist
countries in the building of a free, prosperous and happy life was but a
harbinger of the future new world where every child would know oppression and
exploitation only as a topic taught in history classes.
With such bedrock
principles, from the first, Comrade Jack opposed the revisionist ‘British road to socialism’, both for its
parliamentary cretinism and abandonment of the dictatorship of the proletariat
as well as its betrayal of the peoples fighting British imperialism for their
complete freedom. He strongly supported the leadership of the Communist Party
of China, and its great leader Comrade Mao Zedong, in the international fight
against modern revisionism.
Comrade Jack’s relationship with the Chinese revolution was a special one indeed,
ever since his much loved brother and comrade Michael Shapiro took up work with
the Xinhua News Agency in Beijing in 1949 at the request of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China, and stayed in China till he breathed his last. Comrades Jack and Michael and their wives Comrade Marie
and Comrade Liu Jinghe formed a single proletarian fighting unit, uniting the
communists of Britain and China across continents and oceans. Senior Chinese
leader Deng Xiaoping described Michael Shapiro, who accompanied the Chinese
People’s Volunteers in Korea during the most bitter days
of war, as a “staunch international soldier and sincere
friend of the Chinese people”. These fitting words
equally describe his dear brother Jack. It is indeed appropriate that his final
speech should have been given from his wheelchair last 3rd October at our Party’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese
revolution.
Having staunchly fought
against revisionism for more than half a century, going through many twists and
turns, Comrade Jack greeted the foundation of our Party with almost youthful
enthusiasm. He joined our ranks, accepted the post of Honorary President, gave
us wise advice and counsel, and generously supported us in every way. To us, he
was truly a star shining in our sky, a living link to the October Revolution
and to the Third Communist International. He was also a friend and a man whose
impish sense of humour made light of every difficulty, whether political or
personal.
Jack’s
passing is a sad and irreparable loss to our young Party. But we take courage
from, and will never forget, the rich legacy he has left us.
Comrade Jack, with our heads
bowed but our fists raised, we offer you our reddest of red salutes. You have
earned the right to take rest. You will live forever in our hearts.
Eternal glory to Comrade Jack Shapiro!