Torvald (Tom) Patterson
December 27, 1964 - March 31, 2005
Activist, Queer Liberationist, Socialist
The New Socialist Group (NSG) is saddened by the death of our comrade
and dear friend, Torvald Patterson, who joined the NSG shortly after
it was formed in 1996.
Below, we reprint some of the many statements which were sent from around
the world to the NSG in memory of Torvald which were read at a memorial
gathering for him held in Toronto on April 9, 2005.
Torvald had long and close ties to the Fourth International's school, which he and I attended for the first time in the fall of 1987. The school was a place not just to learn facts or theories (though Torvald was great at absorbing facts and theories) but also to reexamine our politics and understanding of the world in a critical-minded way. Torvald and I loved it.
Torvald has been one of the few comrades from English Canada we've had at the school in the past 15 years. He came several times as an interpreter-a gifted and enthusiastic one. His love for languages, including sign language, was an expression of his strong desire to communicate across boundaries. He was willing to work at it too, despite being paralyzed by bouts of depression, which got in the way of formal education or training. He was never just an interpreter of course; in the corridors and late at night he was often in the thick of political discussions. He devoted himself to participants' practical education as well-if there were any cute guys among them, Torvald was not the man to leave their sexuality untested.
Torvald participated (both as an interpreter and speaker from the floor) in the FI's most recent World Congress in 2003, where a long resolution on lesbian/gay liberation was adopted. It was always a struggle for him to get money together to pay for his trips. He rarely had a steady job, and at the end was surviving on the laughable income that an "advanced" capitalist state considers appropriate for someone with a disability. These difficulties prevented him from attending the first LGBT Strategy Seminar in 1998. However, he helped with the follow-up to the 2000 and 2002 seminars, particularly by managing a couple of queer left email lists. He'll be missed on the net as well as in person; that was another way he helped people communicate across boundaries.
Queer politics was Torvald's first and foremost political love. The Vancouver branch of Socialist Challenge, as I met it through Torvald in the late 1980s, was the only branch of the FI I know of anywhere in the world ever to be made up of a majority of gay men, organically connected to and playing a leading role in a local gay community. Though I never lived in Vancouver, I felt at home with those comrades in a way that it's hard for a lesbian/gay person to feel fully at home in most Marxist organizations.
I always admired Torvald for intransigently sticking to the ideals of gay liberation in his own life. In hindsight I think that in the first years I knew him, when I was head-over-heels in love with him, I idealized his sex life too much. He gave a lot of sweetness and love to his sexual partners, and thanks to him I got glimpses in these last years of the warmth and affection that exists in the leather community, which is not something an outsider necessarily expects. But besides the difficulties in his relationships that his depression caused, there were forms of alienation there characteristic of the surrounding capitalist society. Torvald never became middle-aged; I can't imagine he would have, not at heart, however long he lived. The example of his life has helped me keep on trying to sustain a queer revolutionary socialist feminist politics against the odds. I hope his memory will help sustain me in the future.
Part of why Torvald will be so badly missed is he was always happy to explain in detail the realities of Canadian society to comrades from other countries-and there are a lot of complicated details in the Marxist analysis of this medium-sized imperialist country of yours, especially for foreigners, who don't pay all that much attention to it-but also to explain what it means being queer, or living with depression, or living with HIV/AIDS, or being into S/M, or working in the sex trade. Even revolutionary socialists were not always happy or comfortable with what Torvald had to say, not that he ever claimed to have the last word on anything. All the more reason for us to keep the discussions going and keep pushing back the frontiers of our sexual politics, even now that he's gone.
Peter Drucker, Netherlands.
My memories of Torvald start with meeting him in Toronto in what I think must have been 1991, through Hamid Sodeifi. Torvald and I were both formed as young Trotskyists in the 1980s (he several years before me), but in different tendencies, so unfortunately (but not surprisingly) what did we do when we first? Argue about what the nature of the Stalinist societies.
If that meeting acquainted me with one side of Torvald, I was fortunate to get to know other sides of him over the years as we from time to time found ourselves at the same demonstrations, activist events or parties like those in the in the basement of the South Africa Centre in Kensington Market in the very early days of ARA or in the socialist-feminist scene, and more often after Torvald got involved with the New Socialist Group shortly after it was founded in 1996.
I'll always remember the glee with which he reported his latest piercing. I consider myself fortunate to have experienced his kindness, his ribald humour, his fascination with languages and books, his internationalism, his courageous out queerness in the face of heterosexism and gay "respectability," and his frank talk about living with HIV, as well as his commitment to activism and socialism. Remarkably, Torvald maintained this political commitment for over twenty years, many of which were barren for socialists, and it never never wavered despite his difficult struggle with depression (which often prevented him from doing things he wanted to do) and what he described to me as the challenge of trying to relate to people who radicalized in the global justice movement and didn't understand politics in the way that socialists like he did.
In what turned out to be our last conversation, in early March, Torvald told me about a family member stumbling across a bag of his SM gear and we shared a wry joke about it. I had no idea that the day would come so soon that I would be writing to share these memories with others gathered to celebrate his life, a life that touched the lives of so many other people.
I'll close in the spirit of the tradition of which he was a part,
Torvald vive!
La lucha sigue!
Sebastian Lamb
In thinking about Torvald after receiving the sad news of his death, I remembered the photo of him carrying the NSG banner during the North Bay Day of Action against the Harris government.
Several things struck me about that photo.
First the banner itself. Not only was it made by Torvald -- an example of all the ostensibly little things that give life to a socialist group -- but it was utterly unlike any other left banner. Fittingly, purple and pink figured prominently among the colours that comprised it. And its design was much more interesting, much less linear than one often finds on left banners, which are often notoriously boring. But not this one.
Then there is the wonderful smile on Torvald's face. As debilitating as depression can be, Torvald clearly revelled in the struggle: in marching, demonstrating, chanting, blockading. The struggle was, I think, a kind of anti-depressant forhim.
Like most socialists, he had all kinds of personal quirks (we are,after all, the people who just don't fit into capitalist conformity). And I always admired the way he celebrated, even flaunted his own. Torvald made our group and our movement more energetic and colourful,more quirky and human. Not for him were the robot politics of some ofthe far left. I hope that we will all celebrate that in him -- his zest for life, love, desire, colourful performance -- and resistance. They all go together. Or ought to. Certainly Torvald never stopped trying tobring them all together. And for that he made our socialist organizing much, much richer.
In friendship, comradeship, love and solidarity,
David McNally
Tom Patterson was a kind, optimistic, and deeply intelligent friend of mine, and I am very saddened by his death.
During the course of the faction fight that broke out in Socialist Challenge in 1993, I became influenced by the queer politics that Tom brought to that struggle and the feminist politics that Julia brought to it. In many respects, I suppose, this brand of politics within our faction was one of the major reasons we prevailed.
Nevertheless, looking back on those events now, I also tend to think that if it were not for the regroupment with members of the International Socialists that took place in 1996, the SC faction in Toronto would not have survived -- or at least not prospered.
All of us have our weaknesses. As people probably know, Tom's biggest weakness was his depression. In my opinion, the depression caused him to achieve less from his comparatively short life than his talents indicated. I always hoped, for example, that he would write more than he did. I hoped this for him, and I hoped it for us. His understanding of a whole range of political and social issues-I particularly remember a brief encapsulation he once made to me of the variety of tendencies within European social democracy in response to something or other I had said-was astonishing, even humbling for others.
But we then need to put Tom's struggle with depression in a wider perspective. For the fact is that we continue to live in dark times. It is both saddening and distressing how many of our friends and comrades are dying in what should be the best years of their lives. Over the last ten years or so, we have lost two of our best Quebec comrades, Francois Moreau and Michel Mill, and now we have lost Tom, a valued Toronto comrade.
One of the things that Tom's death makes me reflect upon is just how badly we are coping, collectively. We need not look far to see how the inhumanity and alienation of capitalist relations is reflected concretely in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.
After deaths like this, I think we need to take stock.
Are we looking after each other enough? Do all of us have enough money for basic necessities? Are those of us who have more sharing with those who have less? Are we eating properly? Are we taking care of our health? Are we drinking or smoking too much? Are we offering each other enough love and support?
As I get older, I tend to dwell on this theme more. if we want to challenge capitalism, we have first to help each other to survive it.
Terry Murphy
Seoul, Korea
Since I heard the news of Torvald's death less than 10 days ago, my in box has been full of beautiful tributes from people who knew him, loved him and are missing him dreadfully.
One of my reactions has been to feel that I have nothing to add, that I didnt know him as well as many of the others whose words I've read so far. But then I think that while words will never say enough, then each addittional voice may be a comfort to others as those I have read so far have been for me.
I first met Torvald or Tom as he was then a long time ago , I think its more than 15 years, when he visited London and came to my flat. I don't actually remember him - or how the occassion came about in the first place. It happened at a difficult time in my life and I think I have buried some memories that were or are too painful. I know it happened because I have talked with him and others who were there since. But we got to know each other over the last 6 years or so (my sense of time is really not very precise) through a series of seminars on lesbian and gay liberation organised by the Fourth International in Amsterdam. We both attended all three and before one of them (the second I think) we both attended the FI youth camp.
Many people have mentioned that while for all LGBT people coming out is a continuous process, Torvald was a particularly shining example of this. For me personally at the time we really connected what I found particularly supportive and inspiring was his openess about his mental health issues. At the time I was really battling with depression myself and have not found this an easy issue to talk about on the left - even less so than issues around sexuality. Knowing Torvald and talking with him helped me live through that part of my coming out.
I'm also conscious that all the memories that have been shared with me so far have been from gay men. I wanted to say something about how I loved the way that on Torvald leather never felt agressive or macho, was never counterposed to be warm and open about either his emotions or his body.
I wish I could be with you today as I wished to be with those who celebrated Torvalds life last week. It is good to share memories in words, but I am bereft not to share tears, laughter and embraces too.
love and solidarity,
Terry Conway
International Socialist Group, Britain
He was an exemplar of the very best of his generation. Coming from a part Mennonite background in Manitoba, he early saw the injustice and oppression generated by capitalism and made a commitment to dedicating his life to the struggle for a better world, a world in which social, economic, and political justice prevailed over greed, profit, and inhumanity.
I first met him over twenty years ago, long before he became Torvald, when he was just Tom Patterson, a teenager whose energy, enthusiasm, zest for life, and ceaseless activism were unbounded. He became a socialist, a Trotskyist, and an ardent supporter of the Fourth International. He wrote well-informed articles for the publication Socialist Challenge, was active in numerous struggles for social change, and put his fluent command of French to good use translating contributions to the socialist literature and interpreting at socialist gatherings. Being gay, he was especially cognizant of and active in the struggles against the oppression of gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.
One's life is more than just political activism. Torvald was one of the most humane and caring individuals that I have ever met. He was, in the fullest meaning of the term, a decent human being. He faced the awful disease that ultimately took his life with courage and hope, despite periods of intense depression. When I last saw him in Toronto in November, he told me that he was feeling better than he had in a long time and was looking forward to becoming more active again. Like all such exemplars, he will be greatly missed by his friends, his comrades in the New Socialist Group, Solidarity, and in the Fourth International, and by all those who worked with him in the social movements of which he was so vital a part. There can be no more fitting tribute to Torvald than to continue the struggles for social justice to which he devoted his life.
Patrick M. Quinn
Chicago Branch - Solidarity
Torvald. I can't believe that you are gone.
Torvald and I met in Amsterdam at one of the LGBT seminars at the school. I thought he was an overwhelming presence and I guess he made me a little shy. Torvald's way of approaching people, warm and physical and intimate, could be a little intimidating to a guy like me, always afraid of being unmasked. Just a little.
He stayed with me in Rotterdam two years ago and we decided to go on a bike trip. It was hilarious. As Dutch as I am, I forget that people in other parts of the world are less used to bikes. Well, Torvald had a hard time riding that bike, overcontrolling it and almost falling down a couple of times. After the trip we had coffee in some local bar. We talked. About work and politics and guys. About his fear of getting sick. I had no idea that would be the last I saw him.
I am heartbroken. Torvald, my comrade. Smart and funny and beautiful, in your leather pants, wearing that wicked smile. You're gone now. But you are present in our struggles for a world we can be happy in.
Goodbye Torvald. It was really great meeting you.
Paul Mepschen (Dutch section of the FI)
The Solidarity Political Committee mourns the passing of Comrade Torvald Patterson, and extend our condolences to his friends, family and his comrades in the New Socialist Group. Many of us have fond memories of political and personal discussions with Torvald at meetings of Solidarity, Socialist Challenge (Canada), the New Socialist Group (NSG) and the Fourth International. His personal and political integrity and passion, and his commitment to a critical Marxism capable of dealing with the challenges of gender, sexuality, race and nationality is one we all share. Torvald's wit, warmth and commitment will be sorely missed.
Political Committee of Solidarity, US
Learning of the death of our valued friend and comrade Torvald was a shock and a great sadness. Alas he didn't enjoy the arrival of Spring or the pleasures of Schadenfreude at the Pope's demise. Although Torvald had been very ill this winter, we thought he had recovered considerably.
I know that many people near and far feel this loss, including his comrades here in Gauche socialiste. Some of us, such as Susan, Bernard and myself met him in the years leading up to the merger between Gauche Socialiste and Socialist Challenge, in the efforts to rebuild an organisation of struggle throughout the Canadian state. Many of our younger comrades met Torvald for the first time during the counter-summit and protests against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001.
I'm also conveying the shock and sadness felt by Torvald's comrades and colleagues involved in interpretation and translation at the bodies of the Fourth International and many Social Forums and other events devoted to making another world possible. We will miss Torvald's often pithy comments about speakers and the inevitable "langue de bois" - ritualistic, set phrases - found in all organisations of the left and workers' movement - and not only those.
This world was a very difficult one for Torvald and is a very difficult place for many of us who cannot muddle on through life blind to the ills of capitalism and oppression, be it the exploitation and misuse of workers around the world, sexism and heterosexism, the destruction of our planet, and the suppression of voices crying out for a different life.
I extend a last heartfelt kiss and warm hug to our comrade and friend Torvald.
Marie, on behalf of Gauche socialiste, section de la Quatrième internationale au Québec.
Torvald and I had so much in common and knew each other for more than a decade and a half. Although he was a bit older and radicalized a bit earlier, we both came into politics at the tail-end of the 60s and 70s radicalization, before the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc regimes. We were both very interested in languages -- French in particular, given our common understanding of the importance of the Quebec "national question" to Canadian politics. We both worked as interpreters at FI and radical-Left gatherings in Europe and here. And we closely tracked the work of FI sections and sectarian minutiae from the four corners of the earth.
And yet, for all that, Torvald and I were never that close, or rather never had the kind of intense and intimate friendship and political relationship so many others have described having with him. Seeing the way he has touched so many people, I can't help but regret this and feel that we could have been wonderful friends and comrades. I guess there are many failures in life, and this is one I won't have a chance to overcome.
I join with all of you in celebrating Torvald's life and mourning his loss.
Raghu Krishnan, Toronto
Torvald Patterson was a warm and delightful person who was very committed to the struggle. He touched lots of peoples lives in many different ways. We need to remember him as someone who in situations sometimes of great adversity for him tried to do the best he could - which is all we can ever do.
I first met Tom (later to become Torvald) at the Marx Centennial conference in Winnipeg in 1983 when he was a young and enthusiastic left queer activist. He was very exuberant and had a real quest for knowledge. This was before his Trotskyist days. I later ran into Tom/Torvald in Vancouver where he was very active in the queer movement and in the longstanding activist community paper, Angles. He had a long history of involvement as a left queer activist there and he became very involved in Socialist Challenge. When he moved to Toronto I ran into him as a queer activist and as an anti-racist activist. When I was in Toronto in 1994 and involved in the Repeal the Youth Pornography Law campaign Torvald was the person who co-ordinated the marshalling for our rally and march. Later I worked with Torvald in the context of the New Socialist Group and also in relation to some of the police repression taking place against queer sex in Toronto.
In remembering Torvald we have to remember the significance of queer struggles in the struggle for another world, and remember the significance of sex, desire, and friendship in that struggle. We also have to refuse to forget and continue to remember the lessons of the AIDS activist movement as we struggle to continue to address AIDS and living with AIDS in our lives. While we need to step up struggles to get the treatments available to people in Sub-Saharan Africa who need them and get the resources transferred to Africa needed to begin to stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic there we have to remember that the AIDS crisis here while perhaps less intense than in the past, is still very much with us and needs to remain a vital part of our activist agendas.
In love and solidarity
Gary Kinsman, Sudbury
I knew Tom first when he was 17, working at the Liberation Bookstore in Winnipeg. I remember so clearly his physical warmth even then, as he always had a warm hug for friends, coworkers and comrades. In the next year, as our paths crossed again at the Marx Centennial Conference and most notably in protests against the US invasion of Grenada, our friendship grew more intense and more political, as he was introduced to Marxism and the work of leading Trotskyists like Ernest Mandel. I remember inviting him to a supper at Mitch Podolak's house to celebrate the 66th Anniversary of the October revolution, and I think it was about that time that his commitment to revolutionary politics first took a strong hold.
Tom quickly became very committed. I remember well how in 1983 or 1984, while he was on probation, (Tom had asked me to attend court with him - I have many mental pictures of him over the years, but this picture of him in a pale blue suit in a Winnipeg courtroom keeps creeping in....) he insisted on still being part of a group who was adding pro-choice graffiti to anti-choice posters across Winnipeg, whatever personal consequence that might mean for him. I also remember in 1983, when Peter Evans, who was the first person with AIDS in Canada to go public, came to Winnipeg, how important it was to Tom, then 18 years old, to make sure that he went and hugged Peter. Tom spent many evenings/nights/weekends at our apartment exploring our books and ideas and offering his own. I was working shift work at the time, and I even remember occasions when he would come and spend the entire midnight shift at work with me. It was, to say the least, an intense and passionate time.
After I left Winnipeg, we started out with regular phone contact and then distance and time left us as much less frequent contacts. Shortly after he came to Toronto in 1990, I moved away and again, my last evening in town was spent with him - an evening where he was bearing his own sadness at the death from AIDS of a Vancouver comrade. As my politics changed, I always sensed that Torvald took more and more pleasure in describing me as the person who introduced him to Trotskyism. Over the years, our contacts became sporadic but there was always warmth, a big hug and, of course, discussion of the current situation and what was to be done.
In love and solidarity,
Patrick Barnholden, Sudbury
I first met Tom in the late '80s. Before we met I would see him in La Quena coffee house. I must have had some previous knowledge of him, but I would have noticed him anyhow. He was intense and animated.
No doubt I was aware that he was from the other side of the fusion of 1977. I believe he had been active in the Revolutionary Marxist Group in Winnipeg. Was he the one who authored the graffiti on Winnipeg streets, "Workers of the World, Caress"?
In 1989, when I joined Socialist Challenge, it was Tom and Harold who met with me in Joe's Café (long before the boycott).
Tom's activity in Vancouver went back at least to '86. That year in the midst of a labour upsurge he organized a small group to go to a large labour rally and lead the chant for a general strike. For at least one person this whetted the appetite for more of the same.
Tom was instrumental in launching Front for Active Gay Socialism (FAGS). I will leave to better informed people to discuss the work of this group. But from the point of view of Socialist Challenge this group had a big impact. Two activists joined Socialist Challenge and each made a big contribution to our work. Not something a small left group can take for granted.
Tom was very out. I remember he would show up at demonstration with a denim vest covered in buttons and dominated by the words Commie Fag. My memory suggests a hammer and sickle as well, but I can't be sure.
From time to time Tom was immobilized by bouts of depression. This would cause distress as he normally carried a big load in the branch. I remember being at his apartment during one of these periods and coming away thinking that the work there was less suited to a cleaning person and more suitable for an archeologist.
Our period of collaboration was little more than two years and after he moved to Toronto we remained in contact, but did not maintain an active friendship. Even so, he made a big impression on me and I feel keenly the loss of this fellow fighter.
Ken Hiebert, Vancouver
As a relative newcomer to Toronto, I never actually had the pleasure of meeting Torvald in the flesh. However, many years ago we had an extensive email correspondence on many issues related to socialism from below, identity politics and in particular disability rights. He was not always able to write regularly due to health issues but I always found what Torvald had to say enlightening, empowering and non-sectarian. He was extremely modest about his own activist work and always concerned about what others had to say. Torvald was more than a little self-critical of his own personal political past as well as his political allies (a humourous reference to the 1961 Belgian General strike comes to mind immediately).
I think that the best way to honour his legacy is to continue the struggle for a world of social justice.
Ravi Malhotra
Toronto Centre NDP (for identification purposes only)
When I saw Torvald, he'd always tell me about his new piercings, FI minutae, what books he was reading. We shared an interest in socialist sci-fi, and I remember going to his apartment and finding a space to stand in, while he pulled out selections from the massive piles of books. With the same level of comfort he told me about his battles with BPD and when he was HIV+. Torvald spoke with equal compassion about his own struggles & others: certain people you sense you can trust, that there's no subterfuge, and Torvald was one of them. He had empathy for others, a wry sense of humour and the best tattoo I've ever seen. I hadn't seen Torvald in a few years before his death. But I was proud to know him as a comrade, and I miss him.
Greg Sharzer, Montréal
Ken and I remembered Tom for his intelligence, insightfulness and his quiet humour. Tom touched the lives of many people here in Vancouver. He had an influence on me by introducing me to Marxism that will last me the rest of my life. Both Ken and are heartbroken at the news of his passing as are many others. I was really touched when I read Craig's description of his orphaned cat. The fact that Tom would choose to adopt such a pet in the first place I think says a lot about what a caring and loving person he was.
Paul Craik and Ken Renneberg, Vancouver
Trotskyist Greetings to Comrades and Friends of Torvald Patterson:
As an atheist, I'm not writing to grieve the death of a comrade; rather, I am writing to restore the memory of the struggle and friendship that I shared with Torvald during particularly difficult political times in Ontario. The world situation, as grave as it is, does not spare the time for public grieving, only for organizing and carrying on the aims of world socialist revolution.
I knew Torvald Patterson, Tom as he was known to me at the time, for two brief years in Toronto from 1991 to 1993 while I was a member of Socialist Challenge in the city. As no doubt others will recount, he was a tireless campaigner for Trotskyism, Queer activism and anti-fascism. I sent evenings with Tom leafleting the gay bars in Toronto, informing people about queer-bashings that had taken place in the city and helping to build protests against them. Tom was thorough and disciplined in his work and always conducted himself with good humour and much physical rigour. It was sometimes difficult to keep up with his pace. Our 2-hour postering sessions covered most of the bars in downtown Toronto and when we had time we fit in the bathhouses with myself postering in the lobbies while Tom leafleted inside.
These were terrible years in the Province of Ontario, and the situation only deteriorated during and after my time there. Tom was active on the organizing committee of Anti-Racist Action at the time I knew him and I saw him on the protests that tried to shut down the racists Ernst Zundel and Paul Fromm. We all know the history of anti-poverty work at the time and I am pleased to hear from others accounts that Torvald continued to assist in the valuable work of OCAP.
On a personal note, I had many good discussions with Tom in the afternoons at the Robarts Library, of the University of Toronto. I was never quite sure why Tom was in the library, probably waiting to meet friends, but I learned a lot and gained from his friendship in my breaks. I was doing research at the library at the time and was using it as my home base. The library was a meeting place for many activists in town. It was nice to have his friendship, however brief, in the midst of acute political struggles. Torvald was a vegetarian and came to my one-room apartment for a couple of meals. His conversation was always light hearted and educational. He developed my knowledge of gay life and struggles. We shared some personal details concerning health issues we faced and discovered we were both on the same medication at the time.
It was with sadness that I learned that Torvald had contracted HIV. I hoped he would have had more years to spend in political struggle than he did. Nonetheless I know his example and passing will strengthen our resolve and prompt us to continue the struggle for human emancipation.
Long live Trotsky's International.
Ellen Ramsay, Vancouver
On behalf of Socialist Alternative and the Committee for a Workers International I'd like to express our deepest sympathies to all of Torvald's friends, family and comrades.
I got to know Torvald (or Tom as he was then) in 1999 when I was involved in organizing a support campaign for striking members of UNITE 1764 at the JB Fields factory in Trenton. These workers, predominantly women, had been abandoned by their higher paid male colleagues and by their union and were out on strike alone. We wanted to help the strikers by organising pickets against stores carrying JB Fields products such as Eaton's and Mountain Equipment Co-op. Torvald threw himself into the task with a tremendous amount of energy and humour and we succeeded in getting MEC to agree to stop carrying the products, largely because of his efforts. Since those days, I've enjoyed talking to Torvald on several occasions and looked forward to another opportunity to work with him. Like many others, I'm the poorer for not being able to. We are all the poorer for losing him. The best tribute we can make to Torvald is to carry on and continue to fight for the better world he so desired.
Comradely,
Andy Lehrer
Socialist Alternative - Committee for a Workers International