After a long battle with cancer, Robert Perrault, a GIO/IWO sympathizer, passed away Monday January 11th at the age of 57.
For most of his life Robert was active in the Maoist group the PCC (m-l) even participating in the electoral circus as one of that Stalinist party’s candidates.
Eventually he realized that the theory of “socialism in one country” put forth by Stalin was a dead-end for the working class and that what the Marxist Leninist groups had been advancing was state capitalism, not socialism. After reading the booklet, “From Nationalism to Internationalism”, he got in contact with the International Communists of Montreal (CIM/ICM) in spring 2009. From our very first meeting with him, we remember his spirit of openness towards internationalism and the political proletarian camp. He spoke of his Maoist background not to brag or share anecdotes but to expose the sectarianism within those groups and their break with the international revolutionary objectives of the proletariat.
At this meeting, we strongly encouraged him to get in touch with le Groupe Internationaliste Ouvrier/ International Worker’s Group (GIO/IWO) the Canadian affiliate of the International Communist Tendency, (the former IBRP) and a sympathizer Parti Communiste Internationaliste (Le Prolétaire). At a second meeting we learned that even if politically he was closer to CIM/ICM, he had chosen to become a sympathizer with the GIO/IWO giving technical assistance to Notes Internationalistes publications and other projects.
He would have liked to have been involved with us during the exchanges between the GIO and the CIM in May 2009. He maintained personal contact with one of us. Always the optimist, he ended his last e-mail to us “Vive la vie! Vive le communisme!” (Long live life, Long live communism).
Robert was for a brief period a militant internationalist. We will remember his lack of sectarianism and his will to clarify the political differences between the CIM and the GIO.
Robert, you will remain always in our hearts and minds.
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