“Communism is when in the absence of money, you exchange goods in order for everybody to acquire what they need”. This was the first explanation of communism Clara Charf heard when she was a child, and it was enough to make her call herself a communist for her entire life.

On November 3^, 2025, at age 100, Clara Charf died not only a communist but as one of the most significant political figures among the Brazilian left. She joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) at age 21. Clara lived half of her activist life operating illegally.

As a woman, becoming a pilot was not an option so she became a stewardess and used her career to assist in sharing Party information in times when comrades were forced into illegality. In the party she met Carlos Marighella and their union lasted almost 30 years. Marighella led a split from the PCB called Acao Libertadora Nacional (National Liberation Action) in 1967, embarking on a campaign of urban guerilla warfare against the dictatorship. Clara and Carlos’s relationship only ended when he was killed in an ambush by the Brazilian police under the military government in 1969.

Clara gave administrative support to ALN actions but never learned to fire a gun. When Marighella died she was exiled in Cuba where for a decade she worked as an interpreter, helping on the fields over the weekends. She returned to Brazil with the Amnesty laws and fought for her husband’s postmortem amnesty, a victory that only came in 2012.

She helped launch the Worker’s Party (PT) in the 1980s and became a reference in women’s liberation politics and the peace movement, launching the Brazilian PeaceWomen Association in 2003 and participating in the Commission of Dead and Missing Politicians.

Clara Charf dedicated her life to ending capitalism and oppression, inspiring many generations to join the struggle. Thank you, Clara Charf! You can rest and we can continue the fight.