Neither of us ever had the opportunity to work closely with John, nor did we know him well. But in looking back on the occasions over almost two decades when we met and talked with him, we are both struck by two recollections in particular.

First is the immediate political confidence one felt in his presence. This did not stem from his political strengths and courage alone. Those are qualities he shared with many others, and we learned of them indirectly from comrades other than John. He didn't talk that much about himself.

But John's attributes reminded us of a number of the older comrades who were the cadre backbone of the SWP, its proletarian core, when we joined in the early 1960s. Those working-class cadres were for us an irreplaceable transmission belt of a certain kind. They exuded the proletarian attitudes and virtues, the discipline and calm determination, the hard-earned literacy that accompanied a breadth of interests, the concentration on what is to be done, not on oneself, that above all gave us great confidence in the class we were part of and its political vanguard we were joining.

Second, when we learned of John's death, we realized that neither of us could imagine him dying anywhere but within the ranks of the party. His commitment to the road of the revolutionary proletariat was not a tour of duty, even a long one; it was for a lifetime. You knew that whatever the ups and downs might be, whatever the ebb and flow of energies, John was in for the duration. Like other workers, in the United States and elsewhere, who late in life find their party and the program that reflects their strong political yearnings, he held onto it all the more firmly.

The qualities John exhibited were ones that even the best of the young people who come to the proletarian movement develop only with time and through collective combat experience. The lightness with which he wore his deep internationalism, like his Maori being and heritage, seemed simply part of him, expressions of his class consciousness.

In John's presence, all of a sudden you found yourself relaxing. It was an unusual experience. You realized you were in good and competent and trustworthy hands. Hands that seemed familiar. There was mutual acceptance. You just relaxed and enjoyed his company.

Many other things about John we are only learning now. We were grateful to get copies of the messages Patrick [O'Neill] and Ron [Poulsen] sent to the memorial meeting for that reason. Each of them talked of things we did not know before, as did Mike in his article for the [June 19] Militant. We did not have the good fortune to cross paths with John in Nicaragua, for example. But neither Nicaragua nor Ohio--where many of us did cross paths--were the same as spending some time with him in his own country, especially in a visit to Christchurch, surrounded by the conditions that formed him. That somehow made it more possible to understand the universal and accessible attributes John carved out of those particular and individually transformed conditions. The accessible was crucial; a young comrade was made to feel by John that she or he could develop and emulate the strengths one sensed in him. They seemed not primarily "his" but potentially "ours" if we worked together.

The course of John's life melds seamlessly into the conditions of struggle that are emerging in the world today as your meeting takes place. We are reminded of this here when we see the character of the struggles now exploding in Minnesota. John would have been completely in his element among the rank and file meat workers who have said, "Enough!"--"Sí se puede"--and would have taken the lead, moving into the vanguard of working people in the United States, fighting not only for life and limb, but also for their humanity, their dignity, and their future and ours. Like many of them, John more than once in his life found himself traveling whatever roads and distances were necessary to find work or to be wherever the forward troops were fighting.

Likewise he would have reveled in the news of the stunning 250,000- strong march for Aboriginal land rights--what the Militant's worker-correspondents described as one of the largest political outpourings ever in Australia's history--that took place in Sydney May 28, protesting the government's racist policies. John discussed and answered questions asked by ignorant Americans about either side of the Tasman with seeming equal concreteness and identification. His comfortable responses were based on his own work and life experience. Not prejudices.

A new generation is only beginning to learn the implications for action in these new conditions of struggle that are emerging today. An older generation is being given the opportunity to put in practice what they always intended to do--but had no guarantee, and more and more no expectation, in fact--that they would have the chance to do.

John's last period of work, like all of yours, took place within a transition occurring worldwide in which all around us we witness a growing tenacity and resilience of a broadening vanguard of working people--on the land and in the mines and factories. You can see the future beginning to unfold. This is also a world where the attributes and virtues John embodied have increasing weight.

We can commend John Martin's proletarian course and his character to fighting toilers of all generations and all countries and urge emulation. And we can unreservedly commend his party to their greater knowledge and collaboration.  
 
 
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