Memorial meeting celebrates the life of Comrade Jack Shapiro
The Communist Party of Great
Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (CPGB-ML) and friends met on the evening of 8 May at
Saklatvala Hall to pay tribute to the memory of its late honorary President,
cde Jack, and other members of the Shapiro family. This was not a mournful
meeting but a celebration of the lives of outstanding communists. Video clips
of cde Jack speaking in defence of the Palestinians in Gaza and condemning
Zionism which he likened to fascism started the evening.
The meeting was chaired by Harpal Brar who was
visibly moved as he recalled the life of Jack, of his wife Marie, an
internationally known and respected communist in her own right, and of Jack’s
brother Michael.
After going to China to work in the Chinese News
Agency, Xinhua, Michael had become its correspondent with the Chinese
volunteers in Korea during the war against US aggression. He assisted British
prisoners in such things as writing letters home and lectured them on imperialism
and how they had been used by their exploiters. This earned him exile, he was
never allowed into Britain again. Michael lived out his life in China having married Liu Jinghe, a prominent communist. Their son, Roger, had made the
journey from China to be at the memorial meeting.
Comrade Ma Xin, Political Counsellor at the Chinese
Embassy spoke of the gratitude of the Chinese people to such firm friends as
the Shapiros who had stood so proudly with the Chinese revolution. Cde Jang
Song Chol, Second Secretary of the DPRK Embassy, spoke with great warmth of
Jack whom he had met at our meetings several times, and the support the DPRK
had had from this family.
The main speech on behalf of the CPGB-ML was
delivered by cde Keith Bennett and included the following points: “Comrade
Jack’s early political life was marked by intense class struggle against
rapacious sweatshop employers, slum landlords, bigotry, anti-Semitism and the
rise of fascism, and in support of the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin, of the
Spanish Republic and of 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, which has recently 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.” Comrade Keith ended by quoting
Jack’s own words uttered at a meeting held in his honour some time before: “To
enable us to liberate mankind, we must liberate ourselves and we can only do
that by pursuing the class struggle and studying Marxism-Leninism so that we
become what Lenin said were true revolutionaries that will carry forward the
revolution until socialism is built, even in Great Britain.”
Cde Ella read out the poem that she had written for
Jack’s funeral and messages honouring comrade Jack’s life were delivered by cde
Harsev Bains of the Indian Workers’ Association (IWA GB), and cde Michael Chant of the RCPB(ML).
Cde Roger Shapiro, Michael’s son and Jack’s nephew,
was persuaded to speak and paid tribute to the Party and all gathered at the
meeting for the honour paid to his uncle and aunt, his mother and father.
Just as at Jack’s funeral, on his insistence, the Internationale
was sung with great gusto to bring the formal meeting to an end, to be followed
by drinks, dinner and comradely discussion.