Bill Livant was a communist intellectual whose main purpose was to provide theoretical tools to people engaged in revolutionary struggles. The Red Scare after WWII did not diminish the admiration Bill felt for the Soviet Union during the war. The subsequent execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg was an ideological turning point for him.
While doing his Ph.D at the University of Michigan, Bill was a prominent radical who contributed to the Students for a Democratic Society movement that resulted in the Port Huron Statement as well as organized opposition to US imperialism in Vietnam.
On the faculty at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, he was notorious among administrators for aligning himself with the students when they demonstrated. He was a charter member of the Waffle, an off-shoot of the New Democratic Party formed to take the new political formation in a thoroughly anti-capitalist direction. At the same time, he engaged in ongoing union solidarity and was able to influence the writing of occupational health and safety legislation eventually adopted by the NDP government. He actively supported Third World national liberation developments, participating in grassroots diplomacy and fair trade with various nations emerging from colonialism and fighting against neocolonialism. Hence, he was loyal to Cuba from 1959 onward and exhilarated by what is happening in Venezuela today.
But most of all, Bill was an advanced theoretician consistently guided by the Eleventh Thesis on Feuerbach. In his teaching work, he was deeply inspired by Mao's mandate to make Marxist methodology accessible to the masses. Bill taught what might be called “dialectical literacy.” Attending to a diverse range of problems in the fields of social psychology, practical linguistics, media studies, evolutionary biology and the philosophy of labor, Bill categorically focused on the movement of material contradictions or asymmetrical relations in motion. That he was able to make his complex abstractions immediately relevant, increasingly intelligible and ultimately fertile for the praxis of his students was his special skill.
A lifelong reader of Monthly Review, Bill regularly incorporated MR in his teaching and activism. For a number of years he received 50 copies a month for use in the classroom and distribution at political events. An independent socialist himself, the independent socialism of MR was for Bill an absolutely indispensable element of his critical consciousness and faith in the future.
Bill Livant May 24, 1932 - June 2, 2008
Dr. William Paul (“Bill”) Livant passed away following a stroke at Victoria General Hospital on June 2nd, 2008. He is survived by his sons Paul and Benjamin, his daughters-in-law Eileen and Monica and his grandchildren Jacob, Hannah and Max Livant. His beloved wife Marianne Fischer Livant passed away in 1998.
Bill was a Brooklyn native who carried the love of his first home with him throughout his life. He graduated from Swarthmore College with a Bachelor’s degree and the University of Michigan with a Ph.D. in psychology. Bill and Marianne married in 1957 and had their first son Paul in 1958 and second son Benjamin in 1960. The family emigrated to Canada in 1967 when Bill accepted a faculty position at the University of Regina.
Over the 22 years that Bill was in the Department of Psychology he gained a reputation as a most popular lecturer who would often play the piano for students. He was less popular with the administration of the university as he maintained a committed solidarity with students and their causes. For example, Bill assisted students in publishing the radical newspaper Prairie Fire in the 1970s out of his family basement and was a longtime supporter of the socialist periodicals Monthly Review and Briarpatch, among many other progressive causes.
Bill and Marianne retired in 1989 and moved to Victoria, where Bill continued to work with various activist groups and causes, especially with the Latin American immigrant community in support of Cuba and Venezuela. Bill’s scholarly interests were broad and included Marxism, evolutionary philosophy and revolutionary social movements worldwide. He also loved music and had been a gifted classical pianist in his earlier years. A memorial for Bill is planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, or donations, committed activism within any cause or charity dedicated to freedom from oppression and war is welcome.
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
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The obituary at the top of this blog for Bill (composed by his daughter-in-law, Dr. Monica Mary Prendergast) has also been published in the Victoria Times Colonist and the Regina Leader Post, both of which have links to guest books; Remembering.ca and Saskobits.com.
The second obituary here composed by myself is due to appear in the July/August annual double issue of Monthly Review. Hence, my focus on Bill's political identity in general and association with that periodical in particular. I am hoping to be able to acknowledge Bill here in the near future for being an extraordinary personality and wonderful father.
Then - Ben
I first met Bill only six or seven years ago, and although I belong on the extreme outer fringe of his family I felt quite a jolt when I heard that he had died.
Some of my friends in Sydney, Australia, were quite astounded when I remarked how I sad I felt. After all, how close can one claim to be to one's daughter-in-law's sister's father-in-law, who lived on the other side of the world?
Being in Bill's company - even on only a few occasions - was enough to show me what a 'presence' he was and how much influence he had on the way everyone around him conducted their lives.
My son Len treasured his connection to Bill, through his wife Gabrielle, Monica's sister. I heard about Bill long before I met him, I think because Bill was something of a surrogate father to Len, his own (decidedly left-wing) father having died while he was still at school.
For my part, I'm taking up the invitation to play a tribute to Bill on my violin at the memorial. From my repertoire of Celtic music I've chosen three pieces, for the following reasons:
1] Coolin - in recognition of Bill's individuality. I imagine him standing on a hilltop, encouraging others to come up and see the world as he saw it.
2] Schottische (from a set that the Bush Music Club of Addison Road often plays at dances) - in celebration of Bill's clearly thought out and clearly stated ideas, together with his unfailing courtesy.
3] Harvest Home - a dance tune of Irish origin, chosen because it is in the form of a conversation. It’s as if a perfectly rational statement is made by the first speaker, then this is unexpectedly countered by a proposition that is way off the subject. This jousting continues back and forth until in the end the two speakers arrive at an amicable agreement to disagree.
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