Obituary – Paul Turek


turekOn the morning of 20th November 2020, our dear comrade, Paul Turek ,of the Wakefield branch CPGB-ML finally succumbed to the widespread cancer that he has been fighting for some time.

Paul had been an active member of the Yorkshire District of the SLP and, although not expelled along with the comrades who went on to form the CPGB-ML in 2004 , he left shortly afterwards and later joined the CPGB-ML to become one of Yorkshire’s foremost members. He was a veteran of running stalls and doing paper sales not just in Yorkshire but also in Durham, London, Wigan and other places. He oversaw and addressed a large public gathering in Wakefield for the NHS, he was the Secretary of the Wakefield CPGB-ML branch taking minutes of the weekly meetings and study sessions. He had at various times been both Secretary and Chair of the CPGB-ML’s Yorkshire district, planning and attending monthly meetings and street stalls in Leeds.

The badges that Wakefield were famous for were either made or bought from the internet by Paul(with a little help from his wife).

Cde Paul was a warm and friendly person who could talk to anyone and on visits to London would often just start chatting to people on tubes and trains and before very long would pull other passengers into a conversation that was both serious and sprinkled with laughter. Whatever subject he started it with, football, fashions, NHS, phone bills etc, it would always end up as a denunciation of imperialism and a call to resist it.

Our comrade marched on May 1st celebrations, for the NHS, in support of the miners, he was a staunch defender of the struggle for a united Irish republic, a supporter of Gaddafi’s Libya and Assad’s Syria. He took the Palestinian cause to his heart and always defended the Soviet Union and comrade Stalin. Paul was an internationalist, a Marxist-Leninist and it was our joy to work with him.

Paul is survived by his wife, Tara, daughters and stepdaughter; Bethany, Danielle and Jade, Granddaughters; Evie and Mia and many other family members who will remember him with love and pride.