The pro-revolutionary movement has lost its Nestor. On December 16 Henri Simon, age 102, died peacefully in his sleep. He will be missed.
It was through struggles at the work place, in which he ran counter to the trade unions and the Communist Party, that the young Henri came to politics. In 1951 he became part of Socialisme ou Barbarie (SOUB), an anti-nationalist left communist group that had split from the PCF. The evolution of SOUB is a complicated story. Henri’s focus was on the actual workers struggle. He was and always remained sharply critical of political groups who want to lead the class and take over the state. For him, they could only be obstacles to the self-organization of the working class. In 1958 he left SOUB and formed with others Informations et Correspondances Ouvrières (ICO), a group with a council-communist orientation. It lasted until 1973 and was followed by the group (a network actually) Echanges et Mouvement. Henri was the editor of its main publication, Echanges (in French and English) which has now announced that it will cease publication after the next issue, which will be devoted to remembering Henri. Echanges was an interesting journal, full of detailed information on struggles going on all over the planet, complemented with articles on the world situation from a pro-revolutionary, council-communist perspective.
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