Ann Rogers Remembered

Andy Brooks remembers Ann

by New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends gathered at the Party Centre over the weekend to pay tribute to the life-long commitment of Ann Rogers to the communist cause. Ann, who passed away in June, was a leading member of the New Communist Party and was National Organiser and Editor of the New Worker during the turbulent times of the 1980s and 1990s when the very existence of the Party was at stake.

Leading comrades had paid their last respects to Anne at her funeral in July but they, along with others who could not attend the final service, returned to the Party Centre on Saturday to remember her life and her immense contribution to the cause of peace and socialism.

Throughout her life Ann was actively involved in campaigning work in the labour movement, CND and the communist movement and this was highlighted by NCP leader Andy Brooks and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) at the memorial meeting on Saturday. National Chair Alex Kempshall, who opened the meeting, spoke of the first time he met Ann while others including Bob Ede, a founder-member of the NCP, and Peter Hendy recalled more fond memories of her life.

Ann spent many years working to make the New Worker the outstanding communist journal that it is today – a point made by Theo Russell in a rousing appeal that raised £283 for the fighting fund.