It is difficult to imagine a more political person, and at the same time a more passionate and caring person, than our departed comrade Joseph Flexer. Socialist Action has lost more than a central leader, more than a brilliant writer, educator and strategist. Together with the worldwide labour and socialist movements, with his loving family, and with friends too numerous to count, we have lost a powerful voice.
Shakespeare wrote, "But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end". To think and speak of Joe is to be restored, to be inspired by his tireless, totally selfless, uncompromisingly militant example, and to once again see clearly the way forward. His was a life to celebrate. It is also a guide to action.
Joe's son Dani told the Toronto Star that Joe "became a communist and a mechanic at about the same time, at about (age) 15". His ideas took him from his native Brooklyn, New York, to the Middle East where he joined an Israeli kibbutz in the 1950s. His principles compelled him to break with Zionism and to champion the fight for Palestinian self-determination.
In the mid-1960s, Joe returned to North America, lived in Winnipeg and briefly in Montreal, and became an important figure in the movement against the war in Vietnam and on the socialist left.
Joe settled in Toronto in the early 1970s. He became a provincial organiser for the left-nationalist Waffle movement in the [social-democratic] New Democratic Party. Some of its key elements exhibited the growing influence of Marxist and Trotskyist ideas.
But between the meeting hall, the library and the bar, Joe became convinced that the Canadian nationalist and left-reformist leaders of the Waffle were wrong, and that the young revolutionaries, fresh from the anti-war, student and feminist movements, were much more his political cup of tea.
He helped found the Red Circle, a Marxist group within the Waffle. When Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis issued the famous ultimatum to the Waffle in 1972, and the Waffle debated what to do and then walked out of the NDP, Joe and the Red Circle campaigned as part of the Stay and Fight Caucus.
The Red Circle helped found the Revolutionary Marxist Group in 1973, which in turn joined forces with the League for Socialist Action and the GMR, a Quebec Trotskyist group, to launch the Revolutionary Workers' League in 1977.
Joe left the section of the Fourth International in the Canadian state in the early '80s, as the RWL succumbed to sectarian policies and practices. But his renowned labour activism continued.
During the break up of the Soviet Union, Joe joined the Canadian Communist Party for a brief period, hoping to link up with leftward moving militants. He became a member of a split-off group, the Cecil-Ross Society, and encouraged its archival and publication projects.
When the Ontario NDP was elected to government in September 1990, Joe, like many others, saw potential for some positive change. But when [Premier] Bob Rae cut social expenditures and legislated the "social contract" against public sector unions, Joe saw "red", in the angriest sense of the word. He decided to run in the 1995 Ontario election as an independent labour candidate for Oakwood.
Joe didn't win the seat but his critique of the neo-liberal agenda that has swept social democracy around the world, and his crusty but uniquely endearing character, got a lot of attention.
In the fall of 1995 Joe decided it was "party building time". Of course, size matters. But if your aim is the transformation of class society, the creation of a cooperative commonwealth based on a socialist democracy, the starting point must be political program. And that includes a commitment to direct involvement with working people, inside their mass trade union and political organisations.
Joe looked around the left and made his decision. He asked to join Socialist Action and immediately became a member of the editorial board of Socialist Action newspaper.
Suffice it to say that to see the critical link between the socialist organisation today and the socialist future of humanity requires a person of considerable vision, analysis, selflessness and dedication. These and similar traits are revolutionary qualities that Joe Flexer had in abundance.
Everywhere Joe went, he fearlessly argued and patiently polemicised, always keeping to the highest Marxist standard. Everywhere he earned respect - even amongst his most steadfast political opponents.
I learned more than I can describe from him. So did countless others. He can neither be forgotten or replaced. But he is someone to emulate.
BY BARRY WEISLEDER
[Joe Flexer died on July 31. Abridged from Socialist Action newspaper, Toronto, Canada. Barry Weisleder is the editor of Socialist Action.]