From Comrade Dédé on behalf of Bilan et Perspectives, affiliate of the Bureau in France

...Naturally I had understood that that there could be no other conclusion, but this news has upset me deeply. I am thinking of the grief of Franca and of his daughters, of Gea who is still so young. I am thinking of all the comrades who knew and appreciated Mauro for years and years. Mauro came here last summer and I gave him some apricots from the garden. I remember his delight (“an apricot which tastes like apricot”!). I weep once again that I won’t be able to give him any more. Tomorrow I will be with you with all my thoughts...

From the Internationalist Workers Group, affiliate of the Bureau in Canada and the USA

Dear Comrades

It is with lively emotion that we have received the letter of Comrade Jock which told us of the death of our comrade and friend Mauro jr Stefanini, the day after our celebrations of the First of May. For everyone who had the honour of knowing him Mauro was the example of what a communist militant should be. Devoted to those who knew him, and to his family, educated, well-informed, combative, faithful to his comrades, to his class and to his party he was a very interesting man and probably one of the best of his generation of the working class. It is a terrible loss! He played a major role in the adhesion of the comrades of Montreal to the Bureau and for this we will always remember him.

We want to pass on to Franca, Giulia, and to Gea, to his friends, to comrades of the party in Italy and throughout the world all the sorrow we feel at this sad news.

From the G.I.K, Austria

Comrades

We are astonished and sad at the death of Mauro. His death is not only a loss for our movement, and for his family, but for us all! We are well aware of his huge and steadfast work for our goals and for our class. When we contacted BC it was always with him that we discussed, it was he who came meet us to discuss, and when we were in Milan we were guests in his house. It is difficult to accept the fact that he is no longer with us!

From the Internal Fraction of the ICC (France)

We have just heard the news via e mail. We are very saddened. We are with you with all our hearts that knew him closely and struggled side by side with him. It is a great loss, as much personal as political. Although we knew him and met him briefly it was enough to make us feel a sense of deep comradeship, of friendship and affection in all of us. The cause of the proletariat has lost one of its most ardent militants..

What sadness...

Fraternal greetings to all of you...

From the Internal Fraction of the ICC (Mexico)

Dear Comrades

We, comrades of the Internal Fraction of the ICC in Mexico express our most sincere condolences for the death of Comrade Mauro.

The news of his death has made us very sad as it represents an enormous loss for the Bureau, for the proletarian camp, and for the working class.

The best homage we can pay to comrade Mauro is our sincere promise to continue the class struggle in which, we know very well, he was always on the front line.

We send you IBRP comrades, with our communist greetings, a strong and warm embrace.

From the Gruppe Internationaler Sozialistinnen (Germany)

Dear Comrades

It is with immense grief that we learned the sad news of the death of comrade Mauro Stefanini. His death is a great loss for revolutionary internationalists. His ardour, his energy and his humour remain unforgettable for us. In mourning for Mauro we are close to both you and to the family of which he spoke so often. Revolutionaries oppose death by affirming the struggle for life, for the liberation of humanity from the dead end of capitalist barbarism.

Let’s make the death of Mauro a motive for carrying on an even more determined class struggle for communism.

Solidarity and internationalist greetings

From Comrade R (Sweden)

Dear Comrades,

I received Revolutionary Perspectives 36 and I found out about the death of comrade Mauro. Despite the fact that I did not know him I think his death means sorrow and

sadness for those conscious workers and internationalist who challenge this

existing world order in order to make a better one.

Internationalist greetings/R

From Rivoluzione Comunista (Italy)

We learned indirectly after the funeral of the sad event of the death of “Maurino” (Mauro Stefanini junior) militant and leading member of your organisation. The passing away of “Maurino” seriously upsets us as he was the for decades the most conscious expression of Battaglia Comunista in the streets of Milan. We know that “Maurino” has struggled for years against the tumour, contributing right up to the end to political work, sure evidence of the indefatigable faith he held in his internationalist perspectives. Our last image of “Maurino” goes back to the public meeting you held in Calusca on the 14th March 2003 at which were present. When there are fewer pillars like him it shakes the organisation in a way that is felt for long time. This is the worst consequence which we need to face up to firmly. We express our heartfelt condolences and ask you to inform us of any initiative you intend to take in commemoration

Communist greetings

From Pagine Marxiste (Italy)

We have learned only lately of the death of comrade Mauro Stefanini. We were aware of his illness and we followed its development with discretion. We knew him through the meetings between our organisations, appreciating his non-sectarian spirit which enabled us to have straightforward and open meetings of revolutionary comrades, militants in the same political camp. The role that he played in Battaglia Comunista means that his death represents not just a great human loss but an irreparable political one.

In expressing to you and his loved ones our total solidarity we guarantee our attendance at the event you will organise to remember his political contribution.

Letter of the ICC to the militants of the IBRP

It is with great sadness that learned of the death of comrade Mauro. His death unfortunately not a surprise because we had regularly asked of news whenever we met militants of the IBRP (in Berlin, Milan, Paris or Marseilles. The information which we received made us fear the fatal end of his illness. Mauro was certainly the best known of the militants of Battaglia Comunista amongst the ICC because in his capacity as ‘delegatr for international affairs’ travelled abroad the most. A few days ago at the Fete of Lutte Ouvriere where we were in the habit of meeting and greeting almost every year his death affected us a lot. His vivacity and warmth always made a great impression on the militants of our organisation who new him personally.

But there are other reasons why his death has had a particular effect upon us.

In the first place we feel the death of Mauro as a loss for the working class. Obviously, his personal qualities, notably his abilities as a writer and speaker, are part of this. But what is more important for us is his militant dedication, which he kept up even when his illness was getting the better of him. In the second place, we don’t forget taht Mauro was the son of Luciano, a member of the Italian Fraction for whom our comrade MC had considerable regard, for his devotion but also his political lucidity, since he was one of the first within the Fraction to fully understand the implications of the historic period opened by the First World War for the fundamental question of the nature of the trade unions.

One of the consequences of the terrible counter-revolution which descended on the working class after the failure of the world revolution was the near disappearance of a once very lively tradition of the workers movement of the past: the fact that many children of militants (like Marx’s daughters, the son of Wilhelm Liebnecht and many others) took up the torch from their parents and thus kept up the continuity of proletarian combat between the generations. Mauro was one of the rare ones to carry on this tradition and this is an extra element of our sympathy for him...

This is why, comrades of the IBRP, you can believe in the absolute sincerity of our solidarity and our communist greetings.

The ICC