Warrior Strength, Big Heart here ♦ A Living Practice here ♦ Communist Energy here ♦ Son of the Working Class here ♦ Study and Struggle here ♦
Warrior Strength, Big Heart, Confidence in the Masses
At those international party meetings some twenty years ago, we heard about a group of comrades fighting in the Oakland, California area. Pat was among them.
But thirteen years ago, without knowing us, trusting only in our comradeship in the Party, he opened his home to us. We lived there for two and a half months, long enough to get to know our esteemed comrade Pat, from whom we learned several life lessons:
(1) There is no greater enemy than the capitalist system. If it persists, preventable diseases and all their causes will have no solution for the working class.
(2) In our daily lives, we can combine in a dignified manner the struggle to crush the capitalist system and our everyday struggle to survive.
And (3) even with our illnesses, we can live with strength, joy, and hope that a society led by the working class is possible.
During our stay with him, he taught us other ways to fight, without fear, but with joy and with great conviction. He took us to distribute Red Flag to students, professors, and workers at the University of California, or outside the train station. He taught us not only to distribute literature but also to strike up conversations with those who were interested in communist ideas.
Pat was certain that only long-term personal relationships, collectivity, and organization through a party would give the working class the strength and clarity to defeat the capitalist bosses. Pat put the priority of spreading communist ideas above his illness; he never played the victim.
He knew about our interest in food production and took us to see California’s agricultural fields and Napa’s vineyards.
Pat, we will remember you for your warrior strength, your big heart, your confidence, and the lessons you taught us. Your legacy will live on in the struggle of our party, the ICWP.
A fraternal embrace to Pat’s beloved family. We remember you fondly and send our sincere condolences.
—Comrades in Mexico
Communism Is a Living Practice
Love and respect for our older Comrades!
By their example, they forge the path that the communist youth must follow. In times where capitalism disguises itself with new masks. Their constancy reminds us that the class struggle does not end, that the enemy remains the same. That progress is only made when the masses rise up with class consciousness and communist organization.
Their experience of struggle in years of militancy teaches us that communism is not a distant utopia, but a daily work. A living practice that is built with discipline, dedication, commitment, and love. Our ICWP party is not just a name, but the instrument of struggle of all of us for a communist society. Tearing down the chains of exploitation.
We know that capitalism wants us to be docile, individualistic, and hopeless. But the example of all our experienced comrades teaches us that history belongs to those who fight, not to those who resign themselves.
We, the young people of the new generation, take their example as a banner. We will not be spectators of the system that destroys the earth and steals human dignity. We will be an active part of the revolution from El Salvador to India, South Africa, Mexico, Spain, Costa Rica, all internationally united by our communist struggle.
Comrades present, and those of us who will always carry ourselves engraved with your example of struggle. So thank you for guiding us, for not giving up, for continuing to believe in the organized strength of the working class. We will follow your example. We will not back down. We commit ourselves to our collective struggle. The future will be communist.
Until victory always! For revolution and workers’ power!
—A young comrade who is learning
Communist Energy Lives On
Comrades! Receive a fraternal greeting from us in solidarity at this difficult time, in the face of the physical departure of comrade Pat Ryle.
His example of consciousness and commitment together with the masses for the construction of a communist world becomes a seed. It gives us strength and clarity to follow this path, without borders. To confront all forms and mechanisms of ideological, political, economic, and cultural domination typical of the capitalist system, expressed in a multiplicity of right-wingers equally disastrous for our struggles and peoples.
We are convinced that Comrade Pat has left only physically. His energy will continue to awaken consciousness and build bridges between our relentless struggles to fight capitalism and make it disappear.
We reiterate our fraternal and combative greetings to his family and Party for those who gave so many contributions throughout his life, beyond San Francisco, USA, as an industrial organizer, teacher, and party leader.
Pat, live and live on! The struggle continues without stopping!
—Movement of Workers and Peasants (MTC), Costa Rica
Son of the Working Class
Pat Ryle was someone you would be attracted to almost immediately.
He came from a working-class Irish family and grew up in Manchester, England…. a tough industrial city in the North.
He knew a lot of great stories about workers (mostly factory workers) there and all over the world. He would draw you into these stories with his firsthand knowledge of class struggle.
He talked about the harsh reality of life under capitalism, and the tremendous resilience of our class. Some things made you laugh, but humor is also necessary during struggle!
I loved the way Pat shared his knowledge of working-class history through these stories. And I noticed that young people around the party were interested in them too.
We are all going to miss him so very much.
—Comrade C in Seattle (USA)
Communist Study and Struggle
“We will finish the book discussion in his memory,” said Ana, when she heard of Pat’s death.
Five of us in Los Angeles have just started reading Blood in the Machine. We are three comrades in their 30s, an older former tech bro, and myself, a comrade of Pat’s generation. The book is about the Luddites, who smashed machines in the first revolt against the capitalist use of technology. Bay Area comrades had found the book to be useful and inspiring, and Pat recommended it to us.
I discussed the book with Pat the week before he died. We talked about the need to focus on relations of production and class struggle, rather than rejection of technology. In his characteristically insightful manner, he said that the legacy of the Luddite revolt can be seen in Marx’s Capital and in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the first science fiction novel. I shared those insights in the study group and reported that Pat was unwell. The young people, who loved and respected Pat, found his comments helpful. They wished him well.
The next day, Pat called to ask how the study group had gone. We agreed that I should have emphasized the role of class struggle in setting the preconditions for Marx’s analysis. Like an article from El Salvador said: Practice, Theory, Practice. I said I’d do that next time and report back.
The following Monday, Pat was gone. We will continue to learn from his example, and from the fight of the international working class. We will carry the red flag on to victory.
Pat Ryle, Presente!
—Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)