Saturday afternoon, more than two hundred people marked the death of Pierre Beaudet. He had been my friend for over fifty years.
He had contributed to the creation, and to the maintenance for nearly thirty years, of Alternatives, an organization of international solidarity. Thousands of young Quebecers have been made aware, through internships and courses, of the international reality. Hundreds of foreign activists have been there, or have taken part in conferences that it organised.
An early activist against apartheid, he had hosted Bishop Desmond Tutu here. Sensitive to the evolution of Latin America, he brought in Lula, whose election will launch the decade of the left in Latin America. A tireless animator of multiple forums for debate, he had been the organizer of the Quebec 2001 movement against the project of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and one of the initiators of the World Social Forum (Porto Alegre 2001), which later declined in multiple national forums. A prolific author, he was the soul of New Notebooks of Socialism.
Pierre Beaudet was probably one of the best-known Quebecers in the world; not rich and powerful, but actors close to the people. However, we look in vain here for the slightest article which announces his death and his work. He had the fault of being on the left, as recalled by the foreigners present and the very many testimonies received. This is no doubt a crippling blemish in today’s consensual Quebec. See tall and wide shading door, here.
To see in video