Ed Rooksby
Added 2021-02-16 19:58:58 +0000 UTCLike so many others, I was extremely sad to hear that Ed Rooksby has passed away, at just 46 years old, apparently due to long Covid - a condition he had been struggling with for nine months. I knew Ed mostly through his writing and social media presence but he always struck me as very kind, strikingly humble (he seemed to be really quite unaware of how smart he was) and generous. Ed was teaching in the politics department at York University when he died and had been working on a book on historical and current theoretical debates in socialist and social democratic strategy. Sadly, it seems that that book is unlikely to appear, though of course it is to be hoped that at least some of the material will see the light of day (though I wonder how Ed would have felt about that - since he was a very cautious and careful scholar who seemed extremely averse to making any claims that he didn't feel very sure about).
Ed was kind enough to be the guest for the pilot episode of PTO (subsequently released as episode 11) and was always very supportive of the podcast. We discussed socialist strategy, Syriza, Nicos Poulantzas' theory of the state and the Corbyn moment in Britain, all in relation to his excellent article in Critique. You can listen to the episode here. First though, everyone should read Ed’s reflections on his experience of nine months with long COVID, a condition we know little about and the prevalence of which (and the degree of suffering caused by) does not show up in the official statistics which count deaths, cases, and “recovered”: a category, covering a wide range of outcomes, that it seems Ed belonged to - until he didn’t.
Rest in peace Ed.
Comments
Thank you, Alex. That was lovely. I've been feeling very sad about Ed. I loved him on the show and his Twitter account was always interesting. I only really had jokey exchanges with him, but I enjoyed what academic writing of his I read. I shall remember him as a very kind man with an eccentric sense of humour💜xxx
Jane Pickering
2021-02-16 22:30:42 +0000 UTCHaving read, and "enjoyed" Ed's beautifully written piece, back in January, I don't think I've got what it would take to read it now, knowing how it all ended. I will reread it, just not yet - I'm not strong enough. I never had the privilege of meeting him, just had one or two exchanges, between mutuals on Twitter. But enough for me to get a sense of the man. Amply confirmed by the public outpouring of grief today. I can only imagine what he might have thought, could he have known. Would it be mad to suggest that this, but x120,000, is a measure of the havoc wrought by Johnson et al. over the last year?
Simon Duane
2021-02-16 20:24:47 +0000 UTC
