Thank you for a fitting tribute to Marxist historian

It would have been easy with some of the residual bitterness from the divisions in the old Communist Party of Great Britain and controversies over eurocommunism to have scored cheap points and opened old wounds.

Instead, in the best of communist traditions and behaviour, Mary and John saluted Hobsbawm as a lifelong communist and someone who made an immense contribution to popularising Marxist theory, especially in school classrooms.

Hobsbawm played a role in the arguments and differences in the 1980s but I suspect his analyses of the labour movement and the strategic ruling-class offensive embodied by Thatcherism have stood the test of time rather better than those of his critics.

Hobsbawm always regarded the great October Revolution as one of the most significant and progressive events in world history and always regarded the Soviet Union as socialist and a bulwark of anti-imperialism.

Mary and John produced an excellent send-off for Hobsbawm in the Star and I am sure many comrades are extremely grateful and appreciative for that.

Andrew Northall

Kettering