Obituary: Bob Everton (1952-2004)
Life long social justice activist
by Harold Lavendar and Maryann Abbs
Hundreds of people attended a December 23 Vancouver memorial and community meeting for Bob Everton, a life long activist. Bob lived an interesting life which intersected with international movements and the development of a community-based Vancouver left.
After graduating from high school in Burnaby, BC, Bob traveled the world and was drawn to Chile in 1973, where he joined the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left). He was detained in a stadium during the coup and expelled from Chile. Many others were killed. He was also involved in Chile solidarity work in Vancouver and later returned to Latin America to support the MIR underground.
After returning to Vancouver, Bob’s politics shifted but he did not retreat from an activist political life or accommodate himself to capitalism and imperialism, like so many others of his generation. Instead, Bob gravitated towards the new social movements internationally and locally. He was an early advocate of ecologically conscious green left perspectives, embraced the notion of community-based radical direct democracy and was inspired by horizontal organizing models drawn from the Zapatistas. When upsurges arose, Bob was present. In his last year, Bob devoted attention to healing activities and teaching but could be found both at Anti-Poverty Coalition protests against Gordon Campbell and at meetings organized by Bolivarian circles in solidarity with Venezuela.
His presence has led some activists to consider documenting his life as part and parcel of the history of the left in Vancouver.
Numerous contributions have been posted to a memorial web site for Bob at http://memorial.resist.ca. New Socialist is reprinting one contribution by Vancouver community activist, Maryann Abbs.
I think that I first met Bob when he returned from the First Intergalactic Gathering for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism. He was inspired by the Zapatista movement and he conveyed his passion about the movement to many, many people. I remember him first from the experience with organizing for the International of Hope gatherings (a movement to extend Zapatista ideas, which took place in many cities worldwide). And, in a way, the International of Hope really does describe Bob. Bob was the community optimist, the guy who could take setbacks and keep on going – in fact, I think he never talked about any alternative but to keep on fighting. Bob was also an internationalist – he was inspired by and participated in struggles from Chile to Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina and also very much locally.
Bob loved getting people together to do and talk about radical shit. Whether it was organizing the International of Hope gatherings in Vancouver, helping to get people together to go to Seattle and Quebec City, organizing potlucks of radical labour activists, or floating the idea of starting a community assembly, Bob was about getting people together to talk stuff out, learn to trust each other, and take action.
What I’ve tried to learn from Bob is the ability that he had to work in a non-sectarian way – yet without becoming pragmatic or betraying his principles. Bob did not betray the social movements that he worked with in his youth, but worked to strengthen and transform them. Many could learn from this example. Bob believed passionately in community, but he also believed in political integrity.
Bob showed me that radical politics are not just a symptom of youth. I’m at the age when I’m supposed to grow up and realize that the revolution is not just around the corner. We’ve been told that it’s time to grow up and reject the fairytale of that real transformation can occur – that it’s time to settle for lesser of evils. Bob, on the other hand, was always there to mentor and teach new activists and radicals. Because of this commitment, Bob often had difficultly getting work, even though he was a gifted teacher. Often passion and political integrity don’t go hand in hand with decent paychecks.
One of the last things that I worked on with Bob was to gather community support for striking HEU workers. Bob was totally committed to walking the picket line, leafleting and making sure that people were ready for the anticipated general strike.
Bob put his heart into social movements and teaching. And, in the end, his heart stopped maybe from too much love for people and justice, or maybe it was just tired and time to stop. Bob’s heart might have stopped – but be sure that ours are full of the knowledge and inspiration that he has left us.
With much sadness,
Maryann Abbs
