It is with great sadness that we report the death of Hans-Jürgen Schulz (also known as Karl Karew and Fred Sommer), militant of the Fourth International in Germany who died on July 15.
Hans-Jürgen was well known for his close work with the revolutionary socialists of Sri Lanka and his involvement in Kurdistan solidarity work at a time of severe repression of the Kurds in Germany.
He was known for always debating political differences, however big, fairly and objectively and not treating political differences as personal ones.
Below we print an obituary written by Gerd Kersten and Thies Gleiss for the editorial board and the entire team of Inprekorr, the German language magazine of the Fourth International.
"Hans-Jürgen had been a comrade of the Fourth International for over 30 years, and was a long-standing member of the German and International leaderships.
He contributed significantly to building the Fourth International in West Germany and to building and supporting the International in Stalinist Eastern Europe and East Germany, before and after the "Wende" (turn) in 1989.
His participation in the peace and anti-militarist movement, beginning with the early "Ostermärsche" (Easter marches in the sixties) in West Germany, in union activity at his workplace, the "Neue Heimat" (union-owned building company), in the anti-nuclear movement and the (anti-nuke) "Aktionskreis Leben" within the trade unions, and his restless journalistic and theoretical work were immensely important for all of us. Countless books and pieces, reports, articles, and flyers were written by Hans-Jürgen.
Up to the very last moment he contributed to the activities of the "European Marches against Unemployment, Job Insecurity, and Exclusion".
For more than ten years Hans-Jürgen fought against an insidious cancer. He has now lost this struggle. His life’s struggle for just and decent living conditions for all, for democracy and socialism, for world-wide elimination of exploitation and, vitally, internationalism, will be carried on.
We mourn together with his wife and comrade Barbara and his son Joern. We have lost a warm-hearted and ever-optimistic friend and militant comrade."