Today we said farewell to John Molyneux .

The service was obviously filled with sadness and loss . But it was also a celebration of his life as a person and as a revolutionary. It was an incredibly moving day .

I was honoured to be able to say a few words at the service . Everyone who spoke from Jack and Sara his children and Mary his partner did so with such warmth and so captured John the person , the revolutionary . Brid Smith did a remarkably fantastic job as MC through the day .

I think John would have been delighted to be called a “ Warm humanist Marxist “ by Alex Callinicos because that indeed is what he was . He so loved the early Marx . Those passages from the economic and philosophical manuscripts so chimed with Johns sense of the potential for total human liberation . Likewise situating John’s theoretical work on art as not a sideline but adding something to Marxist theory in general I know would have made him really pleased.

To hear Eamon McCann speak alongside Kieran Allen , Mehmet and Andy from Barcelona was to hear testimony to Johns impact .

As on these occasions one reflects and is annoyed with oneself for omitting things you meant to say . I have to say I did this twice . So for what it’s worth here they are ;

1. It was mentioned by a number of people the effect on John of going to New York I think in 67 and seeing the phenomenal wealth symbolised in those huge skyscrapers in Manhattan next door to the slums and deprivation in the Bowery . This was indeed true .

I wanted to say a sort of addendum to this

Around 1988 I went with John to a lecture at the then Polytechnic in Portsmouth given by Stuart Hall . He was seen as the leading “ Marxist “ intellectual of the day . He was arguing essentially Marxism based on notions of class were outdated ( I’m sure this is crude but hey!). In his talk he mentioned a recent trip to New York and said when he saw Manhattan you couldn’t but sense you had to “ Bow down beneath it “.

Sitting next John I could sense him bristle . Whrn he finished John’s hand shot up . You could see the sense of trepidation as some head of faculty chairing this prestigious event desperately looked for anyone but “ Molyneux “ to speak . Alas no other hands were forthcoming she had to call him .

Up John got in front of 200 odd people many star struck by Hall and he simply said “ I also went to Manhattan and saw the wealth and power in those buildings but I also saw the slums next to them and came to the belief there and then that the one beget the other . I didn’t feel any desire to bow down to them but a strong one that they needed to be torn down , and still do”

John sat down and I remember the silence in the room was deafening .

2. I meant to say also that John about a year or so ago asked me to “ Edit” his selected writings . I was of course delighted to do so but tbh bemused why he asked me having no editing skills whatsoever. The process I loved . Basically long chats on what should be in the book and what should be omitted . I pushed for some “ Teach yourself Marxism “ columns as it reflected Johns standing with many of my generation who joined around the miners strike and each week would devour the articles . Also I was aware one of the chapters discarded by Cliff ( as editor) for his “ Marxism and the party” was on Lukacs but he had long lost this . I kept saying every “ Greatest hits” album has a number of “ never before released “ tracks but alas it couldn’t be found . I was basically a sounding board and not an editor at all.

When the book was released unbeknown to me he had made sure my name was in the cover . I knew he had done this as a thank you to an old friend and comrade , John really edited it himself ! and that was John all over .

So the weeks and months ahead will of course be difficult for his family , friends and comrades but his was a life rich in struggle and joy . John did not go gently into the night . He fought to the bitter end .