Wolfgang Weber (1949-2024): A revolutionary intellectual and fighter for Trotskyism

In the early hours of November 16, Wolfgang Weber, a longtime leader of the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, died at the age of 75 after five years of serious illness.

Wolfgang devoted over 50 years of his life to building the Trotskyist party and fought tirelessly politically and theoretically for the independence of the working class.

A political appreciation of Wolfgang’s life leads to an assessment of the fundamental historical questions and tasks facing his entire generation. This was above all the struggle for the continuity of revolutionary Marxism. This had been attacked by Stalinism, fascism and Pabloism to such an extent that, historically speaking, it hung by a thread. It was defended and further developed, in the years in which Wolfgang became politically conscious, only by the International Committee of the Fourth International, whose leading section at that time was the British Socialist Labour League under the leadership of Gerry Healy.

Wolfgang’s life is inextricably linked to the construction of the ICFI and its German section, which had been destroyed by Pabloism. As a child of the postwar period, he drew the conclusion from Nazi rule that the working class had to be freed from the crippling influence of the Stalinist and social democratic bureaucracies in order to prevent another catastrophe. He dedicated his life—and his enormous intellectual capacity—to this task.

[wsws.org]

Capitalism is in a terminal crisis worldwide, producing only war, social inequality, cultural decline and fascism. And the international working class is more extensive and more closely connected than ever before. A tremendous storm is brewing in which it will find in Trotskyism the decisive weapon for the victory of the world socialist revolution.