via Dai Reid Andrew was given a very fitting sitting send-off at his funeral yesterday. An irreconcilable atheist and Marxist materialist, Andrew would not have wanted a religious ceremony. Instead the service at the Crematorium reflected on his life, passions and commitment. National executive and leading members from at least five unions were present at a very large funeral, with mourners flying in from as far away as Greece and Scotland. His brother Robert described his early life including his friendship in primary school with John Toshack! One of his sons, Philip, introduced the beautiful Paul Robeson song Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child and Dave Bartlett, Andrew’s closest friend and comrade, reminded the audience of Andrew’s life as a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, trade unionist and political activist. And the coffin disappeared behind the curtain for the last time to a powerful rendition of The Internationale from the audience. Andrew would have approved. Hear, hear! After a post funeral reception in the Ffynon Wen, a memorial meeting in Andrew’s honour was held later in the afternoon at a city centre hotel. There were four main speakers - Craig Lewis described Andrew’s role as a trade unionist; Linda Taaffe recounted Andrew’s political skills and abilities, reminding the meeting that Andrew could easily have become a Labour MP if he had dropped his principles and gone along with the right wing; Alec Thraves explained Andrew’s role as a leader of the Socialist Party in Wales and the sacrifices he made to raise finance for the Socialist Party. And the fourth speaker was Andrew Price – a clip was played of Andrew speaking at a rally for a strike of UCU members in 2008 led by Andrew that can be viewed here youtu.be/vcifUjbNJCQ. A number of fine contributions were made from the floor including one by Andrew’s son, Philip, who explained why the struggle for social justice must continue, as he said “my Dad knew what was right and fought for it”. In his speech Alec explained that every year Andrew organised a sponsored bike ride on an adapted bike to raise funds for the Socialist Party which he donated at the Socialism festival every year, raising over £1000. He had already collected £74 this year towards his 2014 sponsored ride before he died. Sadly he would not be able to complete his appeal this year, but Socialist Party Wales had launched an appeal in his name aiming to raise £2300 to take to Socialism 2014. At the meeting a fantastic £2600 was pledged towards the appeal. So a very sad day, but an uplifting one as we remembered the life of a great socialist. We mourned…and we WILL organise.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 17:16:01 +0000
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