[P2P-F] Fwd: [Networked-Labour] Fwd: [WSMDiscuss] Peter Waterman obituary

Thu Jun 29 06:58:20 CEST 2017

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Orsan <orsan1234 at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 3:26 PM
Subject: [Networked-Labour] Fwd: [WSMDiscuss] Peter Waterman obituary
To: networked-labour_igopnet at lists.igopnet.cc

Begin forwarded message:

*From:* Laurence Cox via WSM-Discuss <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>
*Date:* 28 June 2017 at 09:12:47 GMT+2
*To:* Post WSMDiscuss <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>, "Post Social
Movements Forum" <social-movements at listserv.heanet.ie>
*Cc:* Laurence Cox <Laurence.Cox at nuim.ie>
*Subject:* *[WSMDiscuss] Peter Waterman obituary*
*Reply-To:* Discussion list about emerging world social movement <
wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/27/peter-waterman-obituary

Strongly constrained and rewritten by Guardian editors – a more substantial
one will be in the next Interface.

Laurence

--

*Peter Waterman obituary*

*Laurence Cox*

My friend Peter Waterman, who has died aged 81, lived many lives, as a
communist activist, labour studies academic and global justice networker,
among others.

He was born in the East End of London. His father, Alec, was a Polish Jew
who changed his name from Nasibirski to Wasserman, then Waterman; the
family of his mother, Ray, had used the surnames Shatistky and Gold. Alec
worked in many trades before managing Collet’s bookshop and selling
homeware. Ray was a secretary and author of two semi-autobiographical
novels.

After attending local schools and joining a journalism course at Regent
Street Polytechnic (now part of the University of Westminster) in 1954,
Peter became English editor and chief subeditor of World Student News for
the International Union of Students in Prague (1955-58). Following national
service he married Ruthie Kupferschmidt whom he met on an Aldermaston
march. The couple had two children and settled in Oxford. Peter took an
Oxford University diploma at Ruskin College and a degree in philosophy,
politics and economics, supporting his family with a year’s truck-driving
in between.

He returned to Prague to work for the World Federation of Trade Unions
<http://www.wftucentral.org/> (1966-69), but after witnessing the Soviet
crushing of the Prague Spring, he “left both the communist world and the
world of communism”.

Peter then took a master’s degree in social science, undertaking West
African studies at the University of Birmingham, with a thesis on the
Nigerian trade union movement. He worked at Ahmadu Bello University in
Nigeria (1970-72) before moving to the Hague, where he worked until he
retired as a senior lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies
<https://www.iss.nl/>, specialising in unions of the developing world and
other social movements. Ruthie worked as a Montessori teacher and, later,
an artist.

The couple separated in 1986 and Peter decided to engage seriously with
feminism. In 1990 he began a relationship with the international feminist
writer and activist Virginia (Gina) Vargas, and Peru
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/peru> became his second home. Retiring
in 1998, Peter remained involved with global labour solidarity initiatives.

An early enthusiast for the internet and its possibilities for activist
communication, he made most of his writing available free online. His work
has also been published in 10 languages and he was invited to speak at
activist and academic events around the world. Peter and Gina married in
2012 and he published his autobiography in 2014.

In recent years Peter was active in the social movement journal Interface,
with the Indian Institute for Critical Action-Centre in Movement
<http://www.cacim.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=AboutUs>, the Global Labour
Journal <https://escarpmentpress.org/globallabour>, and Democracia Global,
in Peru, among others. He was independent-minded and provocative, but
always funny and charming.

Peter is survived by Gina, his children Danny and Tamara, and his
grandchildren, Joëlle and Nick.

________________________________________
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