Latest post on Left Futures

The greatest leader Labour never had

Tony Benn and a miners bannerThe death of Tony Benn this morning is a very sad event for the British Left. He was for so many of us within the Labour party the greatest leader that Labour never had. Tony inspired not only my generation which grew up in the 60s and 70s but generations before and after mine. He was a towering advocate of Socialism in Britain for a third of a century. He was seen as a leader by a wide section of the Labour movement and the Left beyond it, and Tony saw his role as a leader to give hope.

Over the next few days we will carry pieces by a number of people who knew Tony Benn and worked with him. In the meantime, we invite you to place your own thoughts on record in comments below. We shall also update this piece with some of those we find elsewhere.

Not all the fine words that will be said today about Tony Benn today will be said honestly. It is a source of sadness to those of us who knew Tony that, until he was seen as sufficiently harmless to become a national treasure, he was so despised and blamed by some in our party, accused of opportunism and destructive ambition when he was, in our eyes, so honest and always put principle and what he saw as his duty before his personal interest, above all in his decision to fight the 1983 election in Bristol when virtually everyone around him urged him to seek nomination in a safer seat.

This morning, Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour party paid Tony an entirely appropriate tribute:

The death of Tony Benn represents the loss of an iconic figure of our age. He will be remembered as a champion of the powerless, a great parliamentarian and a conviction politician.

Tony Benn spoke his mind and spoke up for his values. Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him, everyone knew where he stood and what he stood for. For someone of such strong views, often at odds with his Party, he won respect from across the political spectrum.

This was because of his unshakeable beliefs and his abiding determination that power and the powerful should be held to account.

He believed in movements and mobilised people behind him for the causes he cared about, often unfashionable ones. In a world of politics that is often too small, he thought big about our country and our world.

Above all, as I had cause to know, he was an incredibly kind man. I did work experience with him at the age of 16. I may have been just a teenager but he treated me as an equal. It was the nature of the man and the principle of his politics.

I saw him for the last time a couple of weeks ago in hospital. He may have been ailing in body but was as sharp as ever in mind. As I left he said to me “Well, old son. Let’s have a proper talk when you have more time.” As he said of his wife Caroline at her funeral, he showed us how to live and how to die.

All of my condolences go to his children Stephen, Hilary, Melissa and Joshua and his wider family. In their own ways, they are all a tribute to him as a father, a socialist, and a most decent human being.”

Back in 1981, the TUC was non-too happy about the arrival of the Benn deputy-leadership campaign for a packed fringe-,meeting in the Spanish Hall of the Blackpool Winter Gardens. But some things change for the better. Today, Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC said:

Tony Benn was a friend and an inspiration to me personally and to the whole labour movement. He believed history shows us that big progressive changes in society are driven not by political elites, but by the endeavours of ordinary working people. His commitment to our causes meant that he was a familiar face at union events from Congress to the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs festival.

His unceasing willingness to march alongside us and the deep sincerity he showed to everyone he encountered in the labour movement means that he leaves many friends, and has personally inspired the activism of many people from all walks of life.

 Billy Hayes as a Merseyside postman was the 1981 Benn deputy-leadership campaign organiser in the Union of Post Office Workers – not, it has to said, one of the unions expected to vote for Tony. Today he said:

Tony Benn was a Labour colossus, whose principles remained unshakeable throughout his life. He was an honorary member of the CWU because of his role as postmaster general, and he never stopped fighting for the rights of all workers. It was a huge privilege to work so closely with Tony Benn, who was a sincere friend of the union. Britain has today lost one of its greatest politicians.

7 Comments

  1. Robert says:

    Benn once said “The labour party is not socialist it just has a few socialist in it”, or something along those lines.

    Today the left is one great man short and he will be deeply missed.

    sadly labour is now one socialist less in a party which is more or less to the right toward the Progress ideal of labour.
    I do not know anymore come the next election and labour wins will we see socialism or conservatism Tory Lite.

  2. Matty says:

    Tony was a fantastic speaker and came up with some of the most memorable lines. He had five questions to anyone with power:
    ‘What power have you got? ‘Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? and How can we get rid of you?’

  3. John Reid says:

    Whilst mourning him, and remembering his great humility and kindness, I have to even now question, the headline the greatest leader Labour never had, maybe you feel that, but in my heart of hearts, had he been leader by ousting Michael foot as his, plan, would have been had he won the deputy leadership, the Labour Party now would be as popular as TUSC, if it existed at all, his legacy w as the 83manifesto, that let Thatcher remain in power years more than she should have, and then Blair feeling he had to go so far way from the 83 manifesto, that he supported Iraq and 90 day detention
    RIP Tony benn

  4. Eric Evans says:

    John Reid, I think you may find that Blair did more harm to the Labour Party than ever Tony Benn would have done. Benn was about principle, not popularity and to blame him for Blair is a bit of a stretch I think. It might well have been better for Labour to spend a period in the wilderness than to end up with the totally ineffectual neo-liberal rump that is calling itself “Labour” at the moment. But you and I are both guessing. We shall never know.

  5. swatantra says:

    I always thought that Denis Healey was the greatest Leader that Labour never had?

  6. The title of the piece, is of course, pretty accurate of at least some of the most nostalgic of the former Bennites who somehow marry the radicalism of their youth with today’s quite different Labour Party, as though there is some continuity.

    I think the author is half-right when writing “It is a source of sadness to those of us who knew Tony that, until he was seen as sufficiently harmless to become a national treasure he was so despised and blamed by some in our party, accused of opportunism and destructive ambition.”

    It is sad that this socialist was patronised in his latter years as a ‘national treasure’ and when he probably spoke at his best.

    But the author is misremembering the rest. It must be the Right he is referring to when he writes “he was so despised and blamed by some in our party, accused of opportunism…”

    But back in the day, there was another group who thought precisely thought about Benn.

    Us Trots (and when that group actually had some social weight). No end of rubbish will now be written about the ‘golden boy’ of British socialism.

    I was there and that’s not how it was – http://redsouthpawpunch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/tony-benn-man-of-misremembered-yesterday.html

  7. If Labour had won the 1979 Election, then Tony Benn was to have been the Minister responsible for putting the North Sea oil revenue into a sovereign wealth fund.

    By that means, Norway has acquired the highest per capita income in the world.

    That could have been Britain.

    Benn’s Britain.

© 2024 Left Futures | Powered by WordPress | theme originated from PrimePress by Ravi Varma