RIP "Picket"

That's awful and I'm really sorry to hear that. Condolences and love to his friends, family and comrades.

I was shocked to hear about his death in the other thread. I can't really say anything other than to offer my condolences to those who knew him personally, and that I'll always remember him as a genuinely sincere and helpful person.

RIP Picket

Sorry to hear this whoever it is but can anyone clarify if this was Picket, formerly known as Pikel on Libcom?

So sorry to hear this. RIP Picket.

very sad ... Picket presente!

So sorry to hear this. RIP and solidarity forever.

AES

Yes, it is. Picket

Aw man. I sent him a PM on Feb 26th to ask him how he was as I hadn't seen him on the forums for a while. He didn't reply which was unusual.
Such a shame, he had a great sense of humour and seemed so kind and easy going.

I was looking through some of the discussions he participated in remembering his kind demeanor. Picket was also a very thoughtful contributor and will be missed by people who never met him and were geographically distant. Here is one such contribution, good stuff.

Picket

Syndicalism is both means and end. We recognise the propensity in humanity for mutual aid and solidarity, and seek to develop it amongst our class - the workers. In order to build the new society we are building networks amongst workers through which we can express our solidarity in the struggle to improve our conditions - this is the means. Over time, solidarity and mutual aid will become sufficiently strong - as a matter of a developed social consciousness - that there well be no need for compulsion. This is the end. In overthrowing the forces of compulsion we will also cast aside all the meaningless work we spend so much time doing. So we will have the freedom and free time to fully develop ourselves as human beings. This is the reward. If there are people who are somehow not currently engaged in human social life, we see this as a symptom of broken social relations and expect this to change through our revolutionary process.

Whoa ... Not sure if I read his stuff, but hate to hear about this tradegy

Truly sad to hear

This is such sad news :(

I'm reading through some of his old threads and getting choked up. This one especially:
http://libcom.org/forums/general/it-wrong-me-want-cheer-people-24112013

OK, so let's be clear.

I like music, I like dancing and singing and having fun. And yeah good drugs can be good fun too.

So I'm sitting in my cold flat in this cold, grey town. I put the music on and have a little dance.

It's Saturday night. Not a school night.

I opened my windows and played some dance music, not very loud, not loud at all. Audible but not blasting.

Went outside, in the freezing cold, dressed up in hats and jumpers and stuff, had a little jig on my doorstep. Hoping maybe to get some liveliness going.

One young couple walks by. They seem quite happy, said hello, had a little chuckle with them.

Neighbour gets dropped off by friends, she's friendly enough, but basically "what are you doing out? Is that your music?" "Yeah I'm just out and about! Is the music too loud?

"yeah probably"

"oh ok then".

sheesh.

To me, anarchist-communism is great as political strategy, but it sort of needs to live off a community spirit, a spirit of friendliness and conviviality. I think that's what life is actually about. Enjoying each other's company and having fun!

So I feel the need to sort of sow seeds of that somehow,

Does this make any sense? Sorry. Yes I am on good drugs :D

I hadn't heard from him in a while so was planning on dropping him a line. We had spoken several times of e-mail as he offered several times to help out with libcom on the technical side of things, but whenever we planned to meet it didn't work out. When he was down in London a while ago we planned to meet up but unfortunately I was ill and it didn't happen, so sadly I never got to meet him. He also donated very generously to libcom while he was working.

This is such terrible news. My sincere condolences to everyone who cared for him, his friends, comrades, and family

Reading through all of them, have just seen this one:
http://libcom.org/forums/general/quandry-15112013

I didn't see this thread at the time. I know he did say that he had depression, but looking back on that with hindsight it looks like maybe things were really bad, and he was just putting a brave face on :(

RIP :(

AES

Sorry about the delay in posting this notice since the event of his death. We have, with input and support from some other Solfed members, enquired about his burial place to pay our last respect to our comrade, but we have not been provided that information. The person who contacted our members in Edinburgh about his suicide (his sister) is married to a cop and there was apparently some tension between him and them.

I don't know about burial, but having a google he was cremated at Mortonhall Crematorium

This is such terrible news. My sincere condolences to everyone who cared for him, his friends, comrades, and family

Having lost 4 friends to suicide and quite a few more through drugs, accidents and serious illness my experience is that for the family of anyone that takes their own life, their loss is even harder to come to terms with. Guilt can be the overriding emotion that prevents the grieving process taking it's natural course. I really hope this isn't the case here.
It's very corny, but it really is good to try to think about positive memories. Like most of us I didn't really know Piket very well but we did exchange many PMs and a lot of them were very funny and upbeat. 'Mini raves' were a bit of a theme(instigated by the post about dancing on the doorstep) - after I had told him that I was going to take the opportunity for a mini rave in the bathroom whilst going for a piss, in the last line of his last PM to me on Christmas Eve he wrote: 'hope you enjoyed your 'rain dance''. A joke for the ravers!
I'll make that my abiding memory.

RIP. Those threads he started were heart breaking. xx

My condolences to all comrades who knew him.

Quite shocked to read about this on the other thread this morning. Just want to send my condolences to his family, friends, and comrades. RIP Pikel, libcom was definitely a better place for having you here. You'll be missed.

RIP Picket,
Another good person lost to a shitty disease.

Condolences to all who knew him. I didn't know him, but he said something kind and supportive when a close comrade died (on the "Venting Our Despair & Supporting Each Other" thread) back in 2012. He was going through some awful shit himself, so it touched me to have him reach out to me with empathy and compassion. I wish I could've returned the favor. It's deeply saddening to see another comrade go -- much too soon. Picket, RIP.

I think the type of character he was comes out well in his doorstep jig posts, someone willing to take risks for the sake of expanding relationship horizons with everyone around him. Does anyone know his age?

Really sad news :(
Condolences to friends and family.

Sad news, R.I.P.

I choked up a little when I read this tbh. I remember his post on libcom were kind and considerate. Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person. RIP

Sad news, as has been said.

Perhaps besides doing our usuals, we should give a thought to taking care of each other as well. We are a community of sorts, so should try to remember the commiserational as well as the confrontational parts of that (?)

Sorry to hear about this. Solidarity to Picket's comrades, friends and family

This news left me so sad when I read it I just didn't have any words. Depression is, as Jef Costello said, a shitty disease, a monumentally shitty one. One of the first things I ever posted on libcom was in response to something Picket (then Pikel) had said and he was very open with his struggles with mental health but I also remember him as being thoughtful, with interesting and smart things to say, as well as being funny and kind. He's going to be missed around here and if anyone is able to pass on my condolences and solidarity to his friends and comrades I would really appreciate it.
RIP x