18 April 2011

Dear Richard,

Please convey to the entire family of your beloved father, Philip Koritz, our most heartfelt condolences over his passing.

We cherish the moment when we met him in the Philippines in 1986, soon after our release from prison and while he was attending the International Solidarity Affair  of the Kilusang Mayo Uno.
We developed further our friendship and comradeship with him in the course of many years of cooperation, including a number of visits to The Netherlands.

We are all proud of his long outstanding record as a highly principled communist fighter, as a militant and effective trade union leader for many decades and as a fearless  champion of civil rights  and inter-racial unity in trade unions, under the most difficult circumstances such as  those in North Carolina when he organized and led the strike of tobacco factory workers  in the mid-forties.

We honor Comrade Philip Koritz for  propagating the  revolutionary ideas of the working class,  for exerting arduous efforts and making sacrifices in the course of revolutionary work, for  contributing significantly to the American trade union movement and for dedicating his life to the socialist and communist goals of the proletariat and to the cause of proletarian internationalism.

As his Filipino comrades, we wish to express our deepest sense of gratitude to him for his steadfast solidarity with and support for the new democratic revolution led by the working class in the Philippines.  He was constantly interested in the Philippine situation and in the development  of the revolutionary forces.  He shared with the Filipino people the hope that upon the basic completion of the democratic revolution the socialist revolution would follow.

He was always determined to help the Philippine trade union movement and build  its relations  with the American trade union movement.  He gave his advice on the American political and trade union situation and contributed to fostering solidarity and cooperation with the Filipino people and the Filipinos in the US.

We are aware that Filipino organizations have acknowledged his work and contributions in support of the proletariat and people of the Philippines. We are aware that no less than the  Communist Party of the Philippines has expressed to him the highest appreciation.

Comrade Philip Koritz has lived a full and meaningful life in the service of the American and international proletariat.  He leaves a legacy that will continue to grow.  He shall always live  through the continuing struggles and victories of the the workers and peoples of the world.

Most sincerely,

Jose Maria Sison & Julieta de Lima