Red salute to comrade George Bennett

Red Youth is sad to have to inform our comrades, readers, supporters and friends of the death of our very dear comrade George Bennett. Our comrades are welcome to pay their respects this 14 May at 4pm – 14, Morris Street, Whitechapel, London E1 2NP.

George Bennett - member of CPGB-ML and Stalin Society
George Bennett – member of CPGB-ML and Stalin Society

George was born on 8 September 1923 and came to Britain from Kingston, Jamaica as a young man.  He was no ‘pushover’ for anyone and always supported his trade union and fellow workers within his workplace (mostly the Post Office).  Equally he would stand up to racism or any form of bullying no matter where it came from or the odds against him.  From early on he sought answers to the questions of the day and found them in Marxism-Leninism.  In 1991, when the Stalin Society was formed in Britain, George was there supporting from the start.  In later life George found himself in the CPB but was not happy with the line taken by the leaders of that party on support for the Labour Party, the belittling of the Soviet Union and the role of comrade JV Stalin within it.  A good friend introduced him to the CPGB-ML and George joined after a short period of studying the party.  George described the feeling he had when joining as being “like coming home!”  George the optimist stood firm whatever the difficulties and never wavered for a second in his political beliefs or his commitment to the CPGB-ML.  His last years saw a lot of illness (mainly respiratory) but George remained his cheerful self and would always do whatever he could for the Party and the Stalin Society illness permitting.  It was a pleasure to know comrade George and we are richer for the experience.  George was a man who really disliked any ‘fuss’ regarding himself or the work that he had done for the cause, a truly modest man who just got on with things.  George passed from this life on 26 April following a stroke.  We pay him the highest accolade we can think of, he was a communist and we were proud to call him comrade.