After several days in intensive care because of a lung problem, treated without success at Hospital Muñiz, our comrade Gaby passed away.
She was 47, and she was a militant since the historic events of 2001. Mother of 2 daughters –Nahir and Malena–, both members of the PSTU, she became a widow after the early death of his partner, the father of her daughters. As many other female workers, she was head of household, and raised and educated her children. And she still found time and strength to dedicate to the revolutionary militancy.
Teacher activist and fighter –a “warrior”, as we all knew her–, she was pro-secretary of SUTEBA Matanza.[1]
We reproduce a text of Roberto García, close militancy comrade of Gaby:
A memory hits straight to my chest: during the historic events of december 2001, Gaby, with her face covered and her eyes red because of pepper gas, was protecting me and shouting at me to go back, while she threw stones and protected the entire column of SUTEBA Matanza.
That is who she was. Alway concerned about, and unwavering by, the disputes to impress a class policy to the demonstrations of #NiUnaMenos and the Women’s Encounters.
She was a reference to her students, a different teacher, a shelter against violence, abuse or marginalization.
Morenist at heart, she got angry many times but never left; she debated fervently, being right ot not, always willing to contribute to the party. A red soul.
Other parties’ militants respected her because she was honest and straightforward; passionate even when her disease was consuming her. Every step forward by the bureaucracy at her school or neighborhood was taken as personal, and she always hit back.
Today, our telephones are full of memories and stories as our heart is full of pride, because she is ours; she belongs to her and our party, the PSTU.
The strong pain we feel as revolutionaries does not exhaust us nor it bends us to our knees. Nothing is over. Revolutionaries do not have a heaven, we want heaven in Earth; and we have history, tradition, which is not made only by our old teachers: it is made by workers daily with their struggles. And, above all, the strange kind we are part of: the ones that want the world to be different than it is.
You are not with us anymore, Gaby, and that is inexorable. But your cell, your regional, your party –we all keep something yours; something material, tangible: the example translated into action.
And we will not give up the fight, like our dead and you never did.
We have no consolation today. But we will continue tomorrow. Your memory encourages us.
Gaby… To Socialism!
Roberto.
**
[1] Unified Union of Education Workers, district of Matanza.
Our Dearest Comrade, Gabriela Bardaro, Gaby, Has Left Us
