Obituary for Teddy-John Frank
A much respected comrade of Lalkar’s founding editor, Harpal Brar, and a fine communist activist
From the Swedish Communist Party’s newspaper Proletären, July 9, 2025.
Teddy-John Frank, long-time international secretary of the Communist Party and foreign editor of Proletären, has left us. Teddy-John Frank has always been a rock in the Communist Party, always well-read, always making his mark in discussions, always loyal and always ready to take on the tasks assigned to him by the Party. He had a lot left to give, the Party will miss an unparalleled source of experience.
Teddy was elected as a new member in the Gothenburg branch in the spring of 1970. Anti-imperialism then ran like a red thread through Teddy’s entire political work. Teddy-John was long-time International Secretary of the Communist Party, and foreign editor of Proletären.
He started working for the party in the spring of 1972. From 1974 to 1983 he was chairman of the Gothenburg branch. He had such qualities that his role was undisputed. Teddy was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee at the Party founding congress in 1977. Six years later, in 1983, he changed positions. He left his role as chairman and ombudsman in Gothenburg and was appointed to be the Party’s International Secretary. At the same time, he was elected to the Politburo.
Teddy-John’s efforts as International Secretary must be described as outstanding. The Party developed links with liberation movements such as the PFLP in Palestine and the ANC in South Africa, and with other revolutionary organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Wherever Teddy went, he commanded respect.
During the miners’ strike in Britain in 1984-85, the Party received a letter from a miners’ representative in Woodlands in central England with an appeal for solidarity. With Teddy in charge, the Party quickly developed extensive solidarity work with the striking miners. Teddy’s incorruptible anti-imperialism went hand in hand with his proletarian internationalism, preferably developed as practical workers’ solidarity.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, the situation in the world changed in a fundamental way. The hitherto multipolar world, with the United States and the Soviet Union as polar opposites, no longer existed. This meant that the Party had to orient itself in a partly new terrain. It was easy to shout ‘Support the NLF on its own terms!’ during the Vietnam War. But not so easy to say support for Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein during the imperialist wars against Yugoslavia and Iraq. This new situation required balanced analysis and Teddy balanced masterfully – with unfailing Marxism-Leninism and anti-imperialism as his compass.
For the world communist movement, the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that most of the nominally communist parties changed their names or dissolved themselves. Only a few parties continued to describe themselves as communist. This situation also required new analysis, in which we cautiously approached other communist parties, regardless of which of the previous factions they came from. In this work, Teddy was appointed our ambassador and he quickly gained the respect of the circle that gathered every year at the International Communist Seminar in Brussels.
So it was with Teddy. He moved with ease in different environments. Teddy-John Frank never let personal beliefs affect the Party. He was unfailingly loyal to the Party and to our communist tradition. His work continues with the new generation of communists.
Anders Carlsson, former chairman of the Communist Party