Obituaries
The death of Joe Paterno and the Penn State scandal
By Hiram Lee, January 27, 2012
Legendary college football coach Joe Paterno, demonized in the media for his role in the Penn State scandal, died January 22 at the age of 85.
On the death of Václav Havel
By Peter Schwarz, December 21, 2011
Havel’s anti-communism, his arrogance towards working people and his unconditional support for the wars of NATO and the US made him the darling of international politics and the media.
Gene McDaniels, soul singer and songwriter, dead at 76
By Hiram Lee, August 30, 2011
Soul singer and songwriter Gene McDaniels, composer of “Compared to What” and other protest songs, died July 29 at the age of 76.
Lucian Freud: “A life of uncertainty and loneliness” … and enduring insights
By Paul Mitchell, August 2, 2011
British figurative painter Lucian Freud, a significant figure in modern art, died July 20 at his home in London at the age of 88.
Bob Gould 1937-2011: A political assessment
By Nick Beams, June 13, 2011
For almost his entire political career, Gould functioned as a particular Australian representative of the political trend known as Pabloism.
Don Van Vliet—“Captain Beefheart” (1941-2010): Avant-garde musician and painter
By Kevin Martinez, January 12, 2011
Of all the musical acts that came out of America and Britain in the late 1960s and early 1970s, none were more surreal and musically ambitious than Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.
Richard Holbrooke: Long-time operative for US imperialism
By Patrick Martin, December 15, 2010
The veteran US diplomat was steeped in the commission and cover-up of bloody crimes.
SEP (Sri Lanka) holds funeral for comrade Piyaseeli Wijegunasingha
By our correspondents, September 14, 2010
Hundreds attended the funeral in Colombo to pay their last respects to a lifelong Trotskyist and Marxist literary critic.
Singer, actress dead at 92
Lena Horne, 1917-2010
By John Andrews, May 13, 2010
Lena Horne’s death in a New York City hospital last Sunday, less than two months shy of her 93rd birthday, is an occasion not only to review her remarkable show business career, but also to consider the conditions during which that career unfolded.
Polish president Lech Kaczynski (1949–2010)—from Solidarity advisor to right-wing politician
By Marius Hauser, April 13, 2010
Poland’s late president Lech Kaczynski, who died Saturday in a plane crash, was a loyal representative of the country’s ruling elite and sought to establish authoritarian forms of rule based on reactionary Polish chauvinism.
Howard Zinn, 1922-2010
An assessment of A People’s History of the United States
By Tom Eley, February 15, 2010
Howard Zinn died on January 28 at the age of 87. Any serious evaluation of Zinn requires consideration be given his book, A People’s History of the United States.
Jyoti Basu: elder statesman of Indian Stalinism dies at 95
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, January 19, 2010
Jyoti Basu, the reputed elder statesman of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and for 23 years the Chief Minister of West Bengal, died Sunday. His death has occasioned numerous gushing tributes from India’s political establishment, beginning with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Party Presid
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