It is with great sadness that I heard of the death of Charlie Van Gelderen. Charlie represented a historical link from his attendance at the founding conference of the Fourth International in Paris in 1938 up to general election campaigning for the Cambridge Socialist Alliance.
Charlie’s humour and tenacity were a binding thread of every conversation I had with him. His life was one of continuous activity, whether in South Africa, Britain or serving in the forces during the Second World War.
During his time as a soldier in Italy he helped to set up probably the first Trotskyist grouping there with local Italians and US servicemen. Charlie’s death is a loss to the movement, his comrades in the Socialist Alliance and the International Socialist Group, as well as his family.
She was no harmless eccentric
