Obituary

Jean-Pierre Hirou (1948–2001)

WE recently heard of the sad and totally unexpected death of a good friend of Revolutionary History, Jean-Pierre Hirou, on 3 November 2001 of a ruptured blood vessel.

We met him and his partner Michèle annually as they always came to our stall at the Lutte Ouvrière Fête to buy material and discuss politics.

Jean-Pierre became a supporter the Trotskyist group Voix Ouvrier in 1963 when he was only 15, and then of Lutte Ouvrière in 1968 after Voix Ouvrier was banned. He took part in the bitter struggles with the Stalinists and the French police in the 1960s and 1970s, and was with the team which came to Britain when the International Socialists/Socialist Workers Party negotiated and discussed with Lutte Ouvrière in the early 1970s. He was a most committed supporter of theirs, but both he and Michèle left them in 1979 in circumstances of some bitterness. Thereafter he always called himself a Libertarian Communist. In conversation with us he was very critical of some aspects of Lutte Ouvrière’s internal regime, in particular the expulsion of Arnoux (Richard Ojalvo) in the early 1970s.

His book Parti socialiste ou CGT? 1905–1914 – De la concurrence révolutionnaire à l’union sacrée (Socialist Party or CGT? 1905–1914 – Revolutionary Rivalry to the Union Sacrée, Éditions Acratie, January 1995) still awaits an English translator, although there are hopes of a Spanish edition.

We extend our warmest sympathy to Michèle. This is a sad loss.

Ted Crawford