It is difficult not to feel moved by Bill’s 90th birthday. I met him for the first time in Brazil at the end of the 1980s. Rae and Bill were at a big national rally in Anhembi Sao Paulo, Brazil. I remember trying to translate the chants in Portuguese for them. Whenever meeting Bill I always had the feeling that I was facing living history. It was not possible to dissociate him from the struggles of the British miners, dockers, engineering workers, the struggles in the aftermath of WWII.

His life is inseparable from the history of British Trotskyism. Britain has always been one of the main centres of the IV International since its formation. When he and his comrades joined the LIT-CI it helped to blend the militant tradition of Latin American Trotskyism with the strong heritage of British Trotskyism.

Unfortunately I won’t be in Liverpool in May 8th. But I am sure there will be other opportunities to meet him particularly in this moment when the British workers are fighting the burden of the economic crisis, and creating room for our strategic goal: to rebuild the IV International.

Long Live Bill Hunter!

Long Live the IV International!

Fabio Bosco

Berkeley, May 3rd 2010