Obituaries
Stephen F. Cohen, biographer of Nikolai Bukharin, dead at 81
By Clara Weiss, 10 October 2020
Cohen’s academic and political biography was bound up with his 1973 biography of Nikolai Bukharin, the first comprehensive English biography of the leading Bolshevik.
The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)
By Tom Carter, 21 September 2020
With around-the-clock tributes, the American media is presenting the late Supreme Court justice as a “progressive icon” and a “trailblazing feminist.”
Toots Hibbert, ska and reggae giant: “Right now, someone else has that number”
By Paul Bond, 19 September 2020
Hibbert was widely respected and liked as a person, as well as admired for his work. That he was one of the most important international ambassadors for reggae owed much to his personal integrity.
Chadwick Boseman (1976–2020): A talented actor, now hailed as a “king”
By Carlos Delgado, 5 September 2020
Far from honoring his memory, the media’s over-the-top eulogizing demeans the actor’s work and serves reactionary political ends.
On the passing of musician Justin Townes Earle, 1982-2020
By Hiram Lee and Matthew Brennan, 27 August 2020
During the writing of the review of Ghosts of West Virginia, the recent album by veteran singer-musician Steve Earle, news reports indicated that his talented 38-year-old musician son Justin Townes Earle passed away on August 20.
Bernard Bailyn, historian of American colonial and revolutionary periods, 1922–2020
By Tom Mackaman, 13 August 2020
Bailyn leaves behind a significant body of work that broadened the understanding of the intellectual conceptions that found expression in the American Revolution.
Olivia de Havilland, star of Hollywood’s “Golden Age,” dead at 104
By Hiram Lee, 31 July 2020
From the middle of the 1930s until the early 1950s in particular, De Havilland distinguished herself as an intelligent and even elegant performer in a number of valuable films.
From Selma to the CIA
John Lewis, civil rights militant turned big-business politician, dies at 80
20 July 2020
The outpouring of tributes from reactionaries and war criminals demonstrates the class role that Lewis came to play, despite his youthful part in asserting the democratic rights of African Americans.
American comic writer and performer Carl Reiner, 1922-2020
Making “fun of the people higher on the totem pole”
By David Walsh, 2 July 2020
Reiner may not be a name known by many under a certain age, but his influence and impact on American comedy and performance in the postwar period was considerable.
British actor Ian Holm (1931–2020): Classical performance adapted for the screen
By Paul Bond, 27 June 2020
It is difficult not to see his subsequent representation of a character’s inner life as being drawn from his family background.
Twenty-five years since the death of Ed Winn
By Fred Mazelis, 26 June 2020
Twice the presidential candidate of the Workers League, Ed Winn fought for Marxist principles throughout the American and international working class. He was a New York City transit worker for 22 years.
British actress Honor Blackman dies at 94: “I have always been a daredevil”
By Paul Bond, 15 April 2020
Blackman’s feisty independence and intelligence were refreshing and even inspiring, and the product of her upbringing.
The death of singer-songwriter Bill Withers, 1938-2020: “I never tried to be a star, but to be an artist”
By Helen Halyard, 8 April 2020
Three-time Grammy award winner Bill Withers, who wrote and sang music that still resonates with millions of people around the world, died from heart complications on March 30 in Los Angeles at 81.
Max von Sydow (1929-2020): The long shadow of a great actor
By Paul Bond, 19 March 2020
For more than six decades, the Swedish-born von Sydow, who has died at 90, was a standard bearer for serious, thoughtful acting in a remarkable range of work.
Late New Zealand PM Mike Moore lauded as a “working-class hero”
By John Braddock, 4 March 2020
Moore’s glorification reflects concerns in ruling circles over widespread popular alienation from the Labour Party and the entire parliamentary set-up.
Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell: An important and largely unrecognized film
By Joanne Laurier, 4 March 2020
The film treats the persecution of a security guard for the 1996 Olympics bombing. It condemns the role of the US government and the American media, which, as one character points out, are “two of the most powerful forces in the world today.”
“What we think changes how we act.”
Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill dead at 64
By Erik Schreiber, 19 February 2020
Gill consciously broke with musical convention to develop his own style of guitar playing and to create a distinctive sound for his band. Similarly, he sought to understand the origins of social and political conditions, rather than accepting them as given.
American film actor Kirk Douglas (1916–2020)
By David Walsh, 10 February 2020
Douglas, one of the leading film actors in the post-World War II era, is also credited with helping to end the anti-communist blacklist by hiring blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo on Spartacus (1960).
The sudden death of basketball great Kobe Bryant produces shock and tributes worldwide
By Alan Gilman, 29 January 2020
The retired basketball star and his teenage daughter were among nine victims of a helicopter crash near Los Angeles.
Neil Peart, renowned drummer for rock band Rush, dead at 67
By Kevin Reed, 14 January 2020
Peart, the hard-driving drummer and lyricist of the Canadian progressive rock band Rush, died on January 7 at the age of 67.
The true legacy of US central banker Paul Volcker (1927–2019)
By Nick Beams, 11 December 2019
A full accounting would reveal that his policies, imposed on behalf of the American capitalist class, resulted in untold social misery and the premature death of millions of people, not only in the US but around the world.
Mariss Jansons, famed conductor, dead at 76
By Fred Mazelis, 10 December 2019
Jansons, who died November 30 at the age of 76, was one of the world’s greatest conductors, and at the same time one of the most beloved, by audiences and above all by the musicians he led.
Detroit Democrat John Conyers, long-standing fixture in Congress, dies at 90
By Patrick Martin, 30 October 2019
Conyers spent most of his political career using left rhetoric in an attempt to obscure the rightward evolution of the Democratic Party.
The death of Elijah Cummings: Democrats, media glorify a mediocrity
By Patrick Martin, 21 October 2019
The real purpose of the flowery tributes was to give a “progressive” gloss to the House Democrats' impeachment campaign, in which Cummings played a significant role.
Obituary: African-American novelist Toni Morrison dead at 88
By Sandy English, 7 September 2019
Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison wrote several significant novels, but as a public figure turned to the selfish racialist politics of the upper middle class.
Ground-breaking documentarian D.A. Pennebaker dies
By Richard Phillips, 10 August 2019
Pennebaker pioneered the use of handheld cameras and editorial comment to achieve an immediacy and closeness not previously achieved in documentary film-making.
H. Ross Perot, billionaire third-party US presidential candidate, dead at 89
By Fred Mazelis, 10 July 2019
The Texas tycoon won the biggest support for a third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
New Orleans pianist and singer Dr. John dies at 77
By Matthew Brennan, 29 June 2019
His early recordings spanned a remarkable musical range, from funk-driven pop songs and New Orleans jazz and blues to at least a half-dozen other musical styles and influences.
Director of Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning and other films focusing on the African-American working class and poor
Film director John Singleton dead at age 51
By Nick Barrickman, 29 May 2019
At his best, Singleton’s work shows warmth and concern for his films’ struggling and imperfect characters.
Israeli writer Amos Oz (1939-2018): A critical appreciation
By Clare Hurley and Clara Weiss, 24 May 2019
Oz published 40 books of fiction, collections of essays, speeches and letters that have been translated into 45 languages, including Esperanto.
Bob Hawke, former Australian Labor prime minister, 1929-2019
Ruling elites pay tribute to a favourite servant
By Nick Beams, 18 May 2019
Some of the most hated figures in world politics have come together to praise Hawke and laud his achievements.
Singer-songwriter Scott Walker (1943-2019): A gifted and intriguing artist
By Matthew Brennan, 22 April 2019
Best known as a member of the 1960s pop trio the Walker Brothers, Scott Walker became an elusive and yet influential figure in the rock and electronic music genres in later years.
235 Translation of Halil obituary
19 February 2019
Daniel Freeman, a founding member of the Workers League, dies at the age of 84
By Fred Mazelis, 13 February 2019
Danny Freeman joined the socialist movement in the mid-1950s and made a significant contribution to the fight for Trotskyism in the United States.
250 Danny Freeman obit
11 February 2019
Halil Celik, a fighter for socialism (1961-2018)
By Peter Schwarz, 1 February 2019
On December 31, 2018, Halil Celik, founder and leader of the group Sosyalist Eşitlik, which supports the International Committee of the Fourth International in Turkey, died of cancer at the age of 57. This obituary presents an overview of his life.
Debra Ann Washington Miller–A fighter for the working class
January 18, 1952–December 1, 2018
By Helen Halyard, 8 December 2018
It is with great sadness that the World Socialist Web Site reports the recent death of Debra Ann Washington Miller, an active supporter of the Socialist Equality Party in Detroit who played a significant role in mobilizing workers against evictions in the downtown area.
Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci dies at 77
By Richard Phillips and David Walsh, 28 November 2018
Bertolucci will be remembered for valuable films he made in the 1960s and 1970s, including La commare secca (1962—English title, The Grim Reaper), Before the Revolution (1964), The Conformist (1970) and 1900 (1976).
Carl Cooley: 1927-2018
By Fred Mazelis, 12 October 2018
Cooley, a former autoworker and high school and college teacher, had considered himself a socialist for most of his adult life. He was the US SEP’s congressional candidate in Maine in the 2004 election.
Arsène Tchakarian (1916-2018): the Manouchian Group’s resistance struggle
Part 2: Who betrayed the Manouchian Group?
By Francis Dubois and Alex Lantier, 31 August 2018
There is no doubt that the Stalinists’ decision to sacrifice the Manouchian Group was bound up with their genocidal onslaught against Trotskyism and the Left Opposition.
Arsène Tchakarian (1916–2018): The Manouchian Group’s resistance struggle
Part 1: The political origins and military record of the resistance fighters
By Francis Dubois and Alex Lantier, 30 August 2018
Arsène Tchakarian, the last remaining survivor of the famed Manouchian Group of the French Resistance, died on August 4, 2018, at the age of 101.
Why the US ruling class mourns John McCain
By Patrick Martin, 27 August 2018
The late senator from Arizona represented a bipartisan consensus in support of militarism and the defense of corporate America.
“US autoworkers have to accept a culture of poverty”
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, global cost-cutter, dies
By Marcus Day, 28 July 2018
Marchionne, the Italian-born executive who collaborated with the trade unions in brutally attacking the jobs, wages, and working conditions of autoworkers throughout the world, died Wednesday.
Punk bassist Steve Soto dead at 54
By Josh Varlin, 10 July 2018
Soto was best known for his work with the seminal hardcore punk band Adolescents.
The death of Ed Sadlowski and the demise of trade union reformism
By Shannon Jones, 19 June 2018
The failure of the reform movement headed by Sadlowski in the United Steelworkers and similar efforts in other unions foundered on the conflict between the needs of workers and the pro-capitalist program to which the unions are wedded.
The late American novelist Philip Roth attacked as a “misogynist”
By David Walsh, 18 June 2018
In the wake of writer Philip Roth’s death May 22, numerous commentaries have appeared accusing him of misunderstanding or being hostile to women and related failings.
CIA terrorist Posada Carriles dead at 90
By Bill Van Auken, 24 May 2018
Protected by the US government until the end, Posada Carriles was responsible for the worst terrorist atrocity committed in the Americas in the twentieth century.
The death of rapper-producer Alias and the fate of “avant-garde” hip hop
By Nick Barrickman, 13 April 2018
Brendon Whitney (“Alias”) was a founding member of the experimental hip hop/electronic music label Anticon.
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking dies at 76
By Bryan Dyne, 15 March 2018
Hawking, who lived much of his life debilitated by Lou Gehrig’s disease, was one of the world’s most significant cosmologists and a renowned popularizer of physics.
Ursula K. Le Guin: Prominent science fiction and fantasy writer (1929-2018)
By Sandy English, 8 March 2018
Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the most significant and popular English-language writers of speculative fiction, associated with feminism and utopianism, died January 28 at the age of 88.
Veteran investigative reporter Robert Parry dies at 68
By Bill Van Auken, 5 February 2018
Parry, who won journalism awards for exposing CIA crimes in Nicaragua, founded Consortiumnews.com after confronting the corporate media’s impediments to serious investigative journalism.
Patricia Noonan Jukovsky (1947-2017)
By Fred Mazelis, 11 December 2017
Pat Jukovsky was an active member of the US Workers League in its early years, and the wife of Marty Jukovsky, a devoted supporter of the Socialist Equality Party.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962-2017), one of opera’s greatest baritones
By Fred Mazelis, 11 December 2017
The Siberian-born singer, who was known especially for his Verdi and Tchaikovsky roles, had performed in nearly every major opera house in the world.
Remembering Fats Domino
By Hiram Lee, 4 November 2017
Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino died October 24 at the age of 89. The gifted pianist was second only to Elvis Presley in popularity during the early days of the genre.
A remembrance of my sister, Cynthia Brust Moore
By Steven Brust, 12 September 2017
This remembrance of Cynthia Brust Moore was sent to the WSWS by her brother, Steven Brust. Cynthia, a lifelong supporter of the Trotskyist movement, passed away on September 1.
Cynthia Brust Moore (1944-2017): A steadfast supporter of the Trotskyist movement
By Fred Mazelis, 5 September 2017
Cynthia was the daughter of Bill and Jean Brust, who joined the revolutionary movement in the 1930s and were founding members of the Workers League, predecessor organization of the Socialist Equality Party.
On the death of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
By Peter Schwarz, 19 June 2017
The hymns of praise for Helmut Kohl, who served as German Chancellor from 1982 to 1998 and died Friday aged 87, have less to do with the real Kohl than with the current requirements of the ruling elite.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, architect of the catastrophe in Afghanistan, dead at 89
By Bill Van Auken, 29 May 2017
“What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe?” the former national security adviser said of the CIA alliance with Al Qaeda.
The Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933-2017) and the fate of the ‘60s generation
By Vladimir Volkov, 3 May 2017
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the best-known Soviet poet from the 1960s to the 1980s, died at 85 from cancer on April 1, 2017, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Bob White, trade union bureaucrat who led Canadian split from UAW, dies aged 81
By Carl Bronski, 8 April 2017
White’s 1985 breakaway from the UAW was a nationalist maneuver, aimed at protecting the union bureaucracy and blocking a joint struggle of North American autoworkers against all concessions and job cuts.
Beryl Hood: 29 November 1938–21 March 2017
By Mike Head, 25 March 2017
A Trotskyist for four decades, Comrade Beryl was a fine and steadfast representative of the most advanced layers of the working class, attracted, above all, to internationalism.
The real legacy of Martin McGuiness: Sectarianism and austerity
By Paul Mitchell, 24 March 2017
McGuinness’s evolution from gunman to bourgeois politician was not a break from his republican principles, but the outcome of the petty-bourgeois nationalist perspective of republicanism.
Civil liberties lawyer Lynne Stewart dies at 77
By Fred Mazelis, 11 March 2017
The attorney was convicted in 2005 by the US government on fraudulent charges as part of an effort to intimidate anyone opposed to the “war on terror.”
Civil liberties attorney Jon Posner dies at 73
By Jerry White, 19 January 2017
A well-respected criminal defense attorney in Detroit, Posner defended the Workers League, the forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party, in dozens of cases in the 1980s and early 1990s.
250 Roy Innis
18 January 2017
Greg Lake, pioneer of progressive rock music, dies at 69
By Kevin Reed, 17 December 2016
Greg Lake was a founder, along with schoolmate Robert Fripp, of the British band King Crimson in 1968 and later the 1970s’ supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
The political legacy of Fidel Castro
By Bill Van Auken, 28 November 2016
Castro’s legacy cannot be evaluated solely through the prism of Cuba, but must take into account the impact of his politics internationally and, above all, in Latin America.
Janet Reno, attorney general who gave order for mass murder in Waco, Texas, dead at 78
By Fred Mazelis, 8 November 2016
Only two months after her nomination to head the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton, Reno presided over the horrific attack that killed more than 80 people, including 21 children.
Stylianos Pattakos (1912-2016): Leader of Greece’s CIA-backed military junta
By John Vassilopoulos, 7 November 2016
Pattakos was tried and convicted for his crimes during the military junta, but the Greek Stalinists and Syriza allowed him to return to political life.
Albert Dragstedt (1933-2016)
By Fred Williams, 2 November 2016
A long-time member of the Workers League, which he joined in the early 1970s, and a supporter of the Socialist Equality Party, Albert combined immense erudition with an unwavering dedication to Marxism.
Shimon Peres (1923-2016)
By Patrick Martin, 1 October 2016
The state funeral for Shimon Peres, former Israeli president and prime minister, brought leaders from around the world to pay tribute, not so much to the individual as to the rapacious, land-grabbing, militaristic state he did so much to construct.
210 Shimon Peres obit
30 September 2016
On the death of German historian Ernst Nolte
By Christoph Vandreier and Peter Schwarz, 20 August 2016
Nolte is infamous for initiating the Historikerstreit (Historians’ Dispute) in 1986 with his downplaying of National Socialism and the worst crimes in human history.
The life and career of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami
By David Walsh, 14 July 2016
The Iranian director will be best remembered and long honored for the series of feature films, including documentaries, that he made between 1987 and 1997.
Michael Cimino, director of The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate, dead at 77
By David Walsh, 7 July 2016
Cimino is best known as the director of The Deer Hunter (1978), which won numerous Academy Awards, and Heaven’s Gate (1980), which was denounced by leading critics, lost a great deal of money and severely damaged Cimino’s career.
Oversaw 1979 Chrysler concessions
Former UAW official Marc Stepp dies
By Shannon Jones, 7 July 2016
The sweeping concessions Stepp and other union officials imposed on Chrysler workers were a milestone in the corporatist degeneration of the UAW and the American labor movement as a whole.
Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley dead at 89
By Hiram Lee, 6 July 2016
Ralph Stanley led one of the most remarkable groups in Bluegrass music and was among the genre’s greatest banjo players and singers.
Dr. Coley P. O’Doherty
June 6, 1969 - May 29, 2016
By Helen Hayes, 9 June 2016
Comrade Coley joined the Socialist Equality Party in 2005 and remained loyal to the fight for socialist principles until his death.
Who will follow the example of Muhammad Ali’s principled stand in our day?
By David Walsh, 6 June 2016
The former heavyweight boxing champion, who died June 3, made his chief mark on history and popular consciousness by his courageous opposition to the Vietnam War.
David King 1943-2016: Revolutionary socialist, artist and defender of historical truth
By David North, 14 May 2016
David King, who devoted his extraordinary gifts as an artist to salvaging the historical truth of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath from beneath the vast edifice of Stalinist crimes and lies, died suddenly in London on May 11.
Hans-Dietrich Genscher: Trailblazer for German great power politics
By Peter Schwarz, 2 April 2016
The former foreign minister and FDP chairman Hans-Dietrich Genscher died Thursday at age 89.
The death of Nancy Reagan
By David Walsh, 9 March 2016
The American political and media establishment has responded in predictably fawning and dishonest fashion to the death of Nancy Reagan on March 6.
The legacy of Antonin Scalia
By Tom Carter, 15 February 2016
Scalia has personified the rightward march of the American political establishment over the past three decades, as it jettisoned what remained of its commitment to democratic institutions.
Julian Bond, veteran of early civil rights struggle and pillar of establishment, dies at 75
By Fred Mazelis, 19 August 2015
The outpouring of official tributes illustrates the political trajectory of the leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
E. L. Doctorow, 1931-2015: A novelist who tackled American history
By Sandy English, 27 July 2015
E.L. Doctorow, the prominent American novelist and author of Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and The March, among other works, died on July 21 at the age of 84.
Free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman dead at 85
By Hiram Lee, 18 June 2015
Saxophonist Ornette Coleman helped to define the free jazz movement during an often controversial career spanning half a century.
Blues musician B.B. King, 1925-2015
By James Brewer, 18 May 2015
The iconic American blues artist died May 15 at 89, after dozens of albums and decades of intensive touring.
Media tributes for Victor Gotbaum, union leader who saved banks in 1975 New York City fiscal crisis
By Fred Mazelis, 13 April 2015
Gotbaum’s precedent-setting surrender of New York City workers’ rights in the 1970s paved the way for the American ruling class’ offensive against workers throughout the US and the record inequality of today.
Malcolm Fraser (1930–2015): A political assessment
By Nick Beams, 25 March 2015
Fraser’s name is indelibly etched in history for his role in the ousting of the Whitlam government in the 1975 Canberra Coup.
Former German President Richard von Weizsäcker dies
By Peter Schwarz, 2 February 2015
The glorification of Weizsäcker has less to do with his actual role than with the current political situation, amidst a resurgence of German militarism.
Leading German historian Hermann Weber dies
By Wolfgang Weber, 10 January 2015
The World Socialist Web Site is reposting an interview it conducted with the noted German historian Hermann Weber in November of 2011.
Former Washington mayor Marion Barry mourned in US ruling class circles
By Fred Mazelis, 29 November 2014
Barry typified the layer that came to prominence in the ebb and decline of the mass civil rights movement.
Film and theater director Mike Nichols dies at 83
By David Walsh, 22 November 2014
Nichols, whose career spanned five decades, was undoubtedly an artistically gifted individual, known for his sharp wit and urbanity as well as his considerable skill with actors.
Australian Labor leader Gough Whitlam (1916–2014)
By Nick Beams, 31 October 2014
Nothing of value can be learned from the official outpourings that have followed the death of Australian Labor Party leader Gough Whitlam
Tatiana Ivarovna Smilga-Poluyan: May 22, 1919 – September 27, 2014
By Clara Weiss, 21 October 2014
Tatiana Ivarovna Smilga-Poluyan, daughter of the Left Oppositionist Ivar Smilga, dedicated her life to restoring historical truth about those who had been murdered and whose names had been besmirched by Stalinist reaction.
David Greenglass, star witness against the Rosenbergs, dies at 92
By Fred Mazelis, 16 October 2014
The Rosenberg case must serve as a warning in the current climate of preparation for war.
An evaluation of South African novelist Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014)
By Sandy English, 30 September 2014
Writer Nadine Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, died in Johannesburg at the age of 90 on July 13.
Robert Poli, blacklisted leader of PATCO union, dies at 78
By Tom Mackaman, 25 September 2014
Poli led the 1981 strike of air traffic controllers that was crushed by the Reagan administration with the connivance of the AFL-CIO
Condolences on the death of Guy Charron
12 August 2014
In the two weeks since Comrade Guy Charron’s tragic death, the SEP (Canada) has received many condolence letters from comrades around the world.
Guy Charron, 1962-2014: Canadian fighter for Trotskyism
By Keith Jones, 2 August 2014
It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of Guy Charron, a leader of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada) and a daily collaborator in the work of the WSWS.
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