Luke Daniels, president of CLS said:
The sad news has reached us of the passing of Avis Hart. She was for more than 50 years the partner of Richard Hart (1917-2013), co-founder in 1974 of Caribbean Labour Solidarity (CLS). It was cheering to visit Avis and see her smiling, a year ago when Margaret Busby and I were warmly hosted by Avis’s good friend Ros Martin during the Bristol Radical History Festival. Here is a lovely tribute that Ros posted on LinkedIn earlier this month, reporting that “Avis died peacefully at her daughter’s home in Bristol in the company of her children Siu ming, Andrew Hart and grandson Nicco who cared for her in their home in Bristol”:

What can I say?

My tribute to you, Avis, is to recognise; that it is the woman behind the man that washes, cooks, cleans, entertains his guests for there would have been plenty coming in at all hours unannounced, in Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada, London and Bristol wherever you made your home. It is the woman behind the man that is uncredited in the important and unending labouring in the background, typing up manuscripts of the many, many correspondences, pamphlets and books on the history and labour struggles and resistances across the English-speaking Caribbean as well as raising his children. She is the one who keeps the almanac filled of calendar dates of mtgs, events, reminds the man of where he needs to be and what needs remembering….

You have your own story and agency, Avis, the woman’s story. An extraordinary raconteur of your own life growing up in Jamaica of Chinese adopted parents. Self- taught from life itself you said.

I cherish our friendship, the many chats and recollections of the Jamaica you grew up in and places you travelled as part of the struggle. And more than anything else much, much laughter.

May you rest in peace as you join Richard and the ancestors.