Category Archives: Tributes

Roxanne Chappell – Portsmouth

JOHN MOLYNEUX

Early this year, I saw John Molyneux for the last time. He told me he thought he was going to die soon. I very much hoped he was wrong but there was too much sadness in his eyes. Like so many of John’s friends, family members and comrades, I have felt utterly devastated and heartbroken since he died over a week ago. He was a great friend and I loved him dearly.

When I first met John when I was a struggling, teenage, single mother and he was my Art History lecturer. I was deeply mistrustful of and hostile towards authority figures (and, of course, I still am!). But John made it abundantly clear to me that he understood why I had to be that way and so that antagonism easily withered away. I felt I could trust him to defend me where no one else would. And he did.

John and I became very good friends, and he supported me and many other artists with our projects and exhibitions. John saw art as a significant aspect of the struggle for human liberation. This was something we often had long conversations about, and this shared outlook was central to our friendship.

John had an extraordinary ability to find out and empathize with the contradictions within people. And through this understanding he lifted people up and brought out the best in those around him. He was unique in this respect; I’ve never known anyone like it. He had a way of being in the world akin to what Allen Ginsberg characterized as The Supernatural Extra Brilliant Intelligent Kindness Of The Soul!

La Lotta Continua

Allen Ginsberg’s Footnote To Howl https://allpoetry.com/Footnote-To-Howl which I feel embodies who John was and how he relates to the world. John showed me this poem around 15 years ago and it stayed in my mind since.

Footnote To Howl

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy!
The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand
and asshole holy!
Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is
holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman’s an
angel!
The bum’s as holy as the seraphim! the madman is
holy as you my soul are holy!
The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is
holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy!
Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy
Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cas-
sady holy the unknown buggered and suffering
beggars holy the hideous human angels!
Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks
of the grandfathers of Kansas!
Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop
apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana
hipsters peace & junk & drums!
Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy
the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the
mysterious rivers of tears under the streets!
Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the
middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebell-
ion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!
Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria &
Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow
Holy Istanbul!
Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the
clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy
the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch!
Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the
locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina-
tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the
abyss!
Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours!
bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent
kindness of the soul!

Pat Carmody

There were only a few times that I spoke with John. But he had a huge influence on my political thought and activity. As a young trade union militant, his Arguments for Revolutionary Socialism (1987) reinforced my view that despite the dominance of Thatcherism, the working class still had the power to create a better world. In his writings and talks from Leninism to art his ability to explain and make concepts clear shone through. We once walked together the length of Brick Lane in East London from a political event to a night club and he was such lovely and fascinating company – I learned a lot in that twenty minutes. My deepest condolences to all those that loved and shall miss him terribly.