Rosa Luxemburg

Red Rosa also, it seems, has gone.
She is dead
And where she now lies is quite unknown.
She told the poor the truth, with such persistence
The rich expunged her from this existence.
Rest in peace.
.
(Bertolt Brecht / ‘Red Rosa’)

Rosa Luxemburg was, with with Karl Liebknecht, one of the founders of the revolutionary Spartacist League that later became the Communist Party of Germany. The Spartacist League participated in the unsuccessful Berlin revolution of January 1919. She and Liebknecht were abducted by Freikorps soldiers on 15 January 1919, and taken to the famous Hotel Adlon in Berlin where they were tortured and interrogated for several hours. They were then beaten unconscious with rifle butts, shot, and their bodies thrown into a nearby river.

At the end of the Second World War, one of her killers was captured in Berlin by the NKVD (Russian secret police); a record of his interogation is online.

She embodied political commitment, intellectual ability, and the quest for empowerment as a woman. Many of her writings are available online in English translation at the Rosa Luxemburg Internet Archive. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has links to versions in other languages.

Her best epitaph is the words she wrote herself only hours before her murder:

Tomorrow the revolution will already ‘raise itself with a rattle’ and announce with fanfare, to your terror:
I was, I am, I shall be!

RIP: Ray Gravell

Ray Gravell died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack last night while on holiday in Majorca with his wife and daughters.

A Strady legend, Ray was a great centre who played for Llanelli between 1969 and 1985 — as captain from 1980 to 1982 — and was a member of the team that beat the All Blacks in 1972. He was capped 23 times for Wales, and was a member of Welsh teams that won the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown. He also played for the Lions in 1980.

He had gone through a rough year — having first two toes and then part of a leg amputated because of diabetes-related infections — but recently he seemed as active as ever, organising a number of events in aid of Diabetes UK Cymru.  He was due to hand out the shirts for the game against South Africa later this month.

Gareth Davies summed him up:

People talk about his rugby — there have obviously been great rugby players and there will always be — but I think it’s his personality that people should really remember… he was a very, very good player. But his personality and character are once in a generation characteristics.

My thoughts are with Mari, Manon and Gwennan. 

update 14/11/2007: the public funeral service for Grav will be held at Stradey at 13:00 on 15/11/2007 (Gates open at 11:00). Full details, including route of the funeral procession through Llanelli, are on the BBC website.

general Soe Win

Good riddance; if your death yestwerday weakens the Burmese dictatorship so that its rule is shortened by even one single day, then it will be a cause for celebration.

Che Guevara

Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna Guevara — better known as Che Guevara — left Cuba in 1965. On May Day 1967 the Acting Minister for the Cuban Armed Forces admitted that Che was ’serving the revolution somewhere in Latin America’. He was attempting to put into practice his belief that: ‘Our revolution has set an example for every other country in Latin america.’

On 8 October 1967, Che was wounded and captured by the US-trained troops of the Bolivan Army near the village of La Higuera in Bolivia. According to documents at the National Security Archive, Che was interrogated the following morning by Felix Rodriguez, a longstanding CIA operative; Rodriguez passed the execution order to Che’s captors, told Che that he was to be killed, and took Che’s Rolex watch as a souvenir. Che was shot dead by Mario Terán, a Sergeant in the Bolivian army who had literally drawn the short straw. Che’s body was displayed to the press and then buried in an unmarked grave at night.

In 1997, after a two-year search, his remains, along with those of six of his fellow combatants killed during the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia, were exhumed and re-buried with full military honors in the city of Santa Clara, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution.

update 11/10/2007: how could I have forgotten that, despite his asthma, Che was a handy inside centre in his youth in Argentina ; it is, of course, purely coincidental that Agustin Pichot was born in the same suburb of Buenos Aires.

‘Everyone reacts differently to a terminal illness…’

Well maybe, but very few respond to being told that the average life expectancy with their condition is about six months by taking up athletics. After being told in August 2000 that her cancer had metastasized: Jane Tomlinson ran 3 marathons, 3 triathlons, and 2 Iron Man contests; she cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats, from Rome to Leeds, and from San Francisco to New York; she raised some £1.75m for cancer charities.

An apparently ordinary woman, who responded to a situation beyond challenging in a most extraordinary manner. I salute her bravery and wish her family well.

RIP George Melly

Far more than just another jazz musician: the world will be less colourful — literally — without him.

update 10/07/2007: a memorial concert at Brecon Jazz next month would be a nice touch; he had a long, strong and supportive relationship with the festival, and it’s near his home in Scethrog.

Not only was George Melly one of the founding patrons of Brecon Jazz — he was an important and regular fixture in the festival’s programme over the years. He was the first ever concert booking at the first Brecon in 1984
…
Melly was a remarkable man. Generous of spirit — eccentric, but loveable. He will be missed by all at Brecon Jazz and by the many thousands he entertained at the festival over the years.