cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62280627
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Peter Taaffe, who after a long illness died on 23 April 2025. The loss of Peter is a big blow to the working class movement and Trotskyism internationally. Since becoming active in the revolutionary movement in 1960, Peter made an indispensable contribution, both theoretically and practically in the hard graft necessary to build a revolutionary party and international. Peter was a leading member of the International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), Political Secretary of the Socialist Party in England & Wales, and for many years its General Secretary.
Characteristically, Peter fought a determined battle against numerous illnesses in recent years which allowed him to enjoy his final years a little longer. On behalf of the CWI throughout the world and the Socialist Party in England & Wales, we send our heartfelt condolences to Peter’s wife Linda, daughters Nancy and Katie, his grandchildren and great-grandson, and all his family and friends.
Coming from Birkenhead, and an extremely poor working class background, Peter found his way to Marxism and revolutionary politics. Never going to university, working for Liverpool City Council for a time, he educated himself through the revolutionary movement and experience. Well versed in literature as well as Marxism, he was not what is often perceived in some circles as a stereotypical theoretician coming from a petty bourgeois background. As a result, Peter was an inspiration, especially to those not from an academic or petty bourgeois background themselves – he demonstrated what those from a working class background can be capable of theoretically and culturally. One of Peter’s strengths was that he never lost touch with the working class and oppressed as a workers’ leader. He continued to feel the pain and suffering they experienced. One of the greatest public orators of his generation, with a distinctive Merseyside accent and speaking style, Peter was able to immediately connect with audiences small and large. Peter summed up the horrors of capitalism and the struggles of the working class, explaining Marxist ideas in an accessible manner.