It is with deep sadness that the Coordination of the International Socialist Tendency records the passing of Chanie Rosenberg, one of our foremost militants.
Just over seventy years ago our political tradition began to take shape around Tony Cliff (Chanie’s partner) and a small group of Trotskyists. They operated on the basis of the core principle of classical Marxism – that the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class itself; the key theory of state capitalism, necessary to maintain that principle in the second half of the twentieth century, and the need to face the reality of the post-war expansion of capitalism. Chanie Rosenberg was one of those pioneers and continued to struggle indomitably for those ideas and for international socialist revolution for the rest of her long life.
Chanie’s commitment to the working class, to internationalism and anti-racism, to a Palestine free from the river to the sea, to the liberation of all the oppressed, and to building a revolutionary party, never wavered. She served the cause selflessly at every level – as a writer of books and articles, as a teacher and educator, as a rank-and-file trade union activist, and as a fierce anti-fascist fighter long beyond the age, most people would have considered sensible. Chanie was a party recruiter, branch builder, and Socialist Worker seller supreme. She was an inspiration to all she encountered.
The International Socialist Tendency has particular reason to be grateful to Chanie for contributing so unstintingly to the development and work of so many of our sections and groups, both receiving them as guests in London and making numerous international visits, always bringing the benefit of her immense enthusiasm and experience. Wherever she went, from Hackney to Cairo, from Glasgow to Cape Town, Chanie Rosenberg was a magnificent ambassador for revolutionary socialism.
We honor her passing and her memory!
International Socialist TENDENCY
