It is with profound sadness that the Revolutionary Communist Group announces the death of our long-standing comrade and friend Trevor Rayne (Rawnsley) on 2 March 2022.
No-one who ever heard Trevor speak on solidarity platforms with the liberation struggles of Ireland, South Africa, Kurdistan and Palestine could forget the electrifying power of his words, his utter dedication to the anti-imperialist struggle. His commitment to socialism as the only answer was unstinting; for decades he held up Cuba as a shining example of what humanity can achieve. Trevor understood the brutal, corrupt nature of the capitalist system that we are fighting, willing to destroy the whole world in its desperate drive for profits. For nearly 40 years, he dedicated his life to building a communist organisation in Britain, in particular through the material he wrote for our newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! He did so with a wealth of erudition, steeped in communist theory and history, but always leavened with a biting and sardonic sense of humour. We republish ‘The Shape of Wars to Come’, an editorial written in 1999, where he identified in the bloodbath of the war on Yugoslavia the re-emergence of inter-imperialist rivalries in the heart of Europe, in a deadly struggle for regional dominance. As the drums of imperialist war beat today over Ukraine, it has never seemed more prescient.
We will be organising a memorial to celebrate Trevor’s life to which all his many comrades and friends are warmly invited – we will publish more details shortly. In the meantime, we highly recommend browsing Trevor Rayne’s articles on this website to read amongst many other topics his analysis of China, his interview with the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan undertaken in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, his reflections on Engels and his scathing indictments of the crimes of the British capitalist state.
Our heartfelt condolences and solidarity go out to Trevor’s family.
