When Labour was Labour, and Willesden welcomed back its heroes

NOT only has Labour's annual conference become largely a combination of ministerial photo op and trade fair, but it seems the media have chosen the "up and coming" man whom they think might be next Party leader. We did get a brief soundbite tonight of Tony Woodley, my union leader, suggesting renationalisation of utilities like water, gas, and electricity, as distinct from failing banks; but before viewers started getting the idea politics could be interesting and relevant, there was some hack shrugging off what the unions were saying, and introducing us to the supposedly lovable David Miliband mouthing vacuous phrases about "change".

No wonder Labour veteran Tony Benn has told us he is giving the party conference a miss this year to attend the rival Convention of the Left, also being held in Manchester. I dare say some more devout -or careerist - Labour types will tell us the Convention cannot take any decisions or change government policy. And the Party conference...?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article4795224.ece

I'm not at either, because I'm attending the Oval cricket ground this week, not for the thwack of leather on willow by flanneled fools, but the opening of the inquest on Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead on a tube train at nearby Stockwell Underground. On Wednesday, members of the Metropolitan Police are expected to start giving their evidence. It might seem an open and shut case, as Coroner Sir Michael Wright has told the jury their task is to ascertain facts, and we know the cause of death, seven bullets in the head. But Sir Michael also told them not to make any plans between now and Christmas.

On Wednesday evening however I will be thinking about some other shootings, and recalling the days when Labour, and the labour movement, was very different, as Brent Trades Union Council in north-west London has invited Dave Chapple, from Bridgwater, to come and speak to us about Kilburn-born Howard Andrews, who died aged 101 in Taunton in May this year. A lifelong trade unionist and socialist, Howard - known to friends as 'Andy' - was one of the first to go from Willesden area (now part of Brent) to help the fight against fascism in Spain. He served in a frontline medical unit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2008/05/12/howard_andrews_feature.shtml

Hearing that Dave was interviewing and writing about Andy, someone anonymously sent him a photocopy of a little programme produced for the event which Willesden Borough Labour Party, Trades Council, and Spanish Aid Committee held in Pound Lane School on Saturday, March 18, 1939. to welcome home local members of the British Battalion in the International Brigade.

Howard is listed as Keith Andrews - he had used his brother's name - and there were also George Cornwallis, John Ducksbury, Morgan Havard, Harold Horne, Charlie Hunt, J.Russel, Alec Unthank, Danny Doyle and A.Moulton - who was to reply on the Brigaders' behalf to the welcome from deputy mayor Alderrman WH Ryde, in the chair. The Hendon Left Singers were to perform, and also billed were MP Sydney Silverman, nurse Lillian Urmston, and Maurice Orbach, then a London County Councillor, later MP for Willesden East.
The event was to finish with the Spanish national anthem and the Internationale (when did you last hear that sung at a Labour Party gathering?)

The programme also had a roll of honour, remembering Ben Murray, trade unionist, killed on the Aragon front; Sam Pearson, a Cambridge graduate, mentioned in despatches, who fell on the Ebro; John Unthank, killed in the battle of Jarama; John Stevens, a young trade unionist captured by Moorish troops at Jarama and shot; and Robert Blair, also mentioned in despatches, whose fate was not known since he had been cut off behind enemy lines on the Aragon front.

Those were desperate times, and they were courageous men, and whatever we might think of the kind of political leadership to whose banner they were tied, we can only hope that a fraction of their spirit lives on, especially in these days of economic crisis and fascism again rearing its head.

Thanks to whoever sent the copy of that programme, and hopefully we may yet meet, and see the original, and see if we can get a better reproduction than I've been able to use

Meanwhile if anyone wants to meet Dave Chapple and hear about Howard Andrews, and you are in London on Wednesday evening, September 24, the Brent TUC meeting is at the Trades Hall (under the Apollo Club) , 375 Willesden High Road, NW10, near Willesden bus garage, the nearest tube is Dollis Hill, and the meeting starts 7.30pm.

Honouring Howard Andrews, at 101!

THANKS to Dave Chapple in Somerset for sending this photograph, taken over seventy years ago in Spain. It is not a holiday snap.
The civil war was raging, and this was a mobile clinic on the Teruel front, 1937. The man in the picture is Howard Andrews, from Kilburn in North West London, and he is handing down a pressure cooker containing sterilised bandages and surgical instruments to nurse Dorothy Rutter from Southampton.

Despite the heroism and determination of the Spanish people and those who went out to help them, Franco's fascists won, with the backing of the Axis powers. Franco remained in power after the defeat of Mussolini and Hitler, in which Howard Andrews also did his bit, thanks to the Western powers' willingness to work with dictatorship in Spain.

Today the fascist dictators have gone, but those who would like to resume their bloody work have crawled out of the woodwork to spread the poison of race hatred again. Imperialism, too, in its "democratic" form, is readier than ever to plunge us into war for the sake of dominance.

Fortunately there are still people prepared to stand up to the fascists and warmongers, and among them, still setting an example to the young, is Howard Andrews, 'Andy' as he is known to his friends, here seen turning up on his buggy to protest against Trident missiles.

Since moving to the West Country in the 1950s, working - and organising - in the NHS, Andy has been a familiar and respected old campaigner long after lesser mortals have retired from the field. Last year he was there with his buggy to encourage striking civil servants on the picket line in Taunton. That was less than a month before his 100th birthday, which he celebrated with friends and comrades. Then a few months later someone sent me an extract from the Glastonbury rock festival programme:

"Last minute announcement for the Left Field stage - we've just confirmed that a veteran of the Spanish Civil War will be opening the Love Music Hate Racism night on Saturday. Howard Andrews, known as Andy is 100 years old, and worked as a medic in field hospitals as a member of international brigades.He'll be opening the Love Music Hate Racism night with a few words about his experiences of fighting fascism in Spain, and why he supports the campaign against the BNP."

Now Andy is going to be centre stage at another event.
On Friday, February 15, to celebrate his 101st birthday, he will be guest of honour in Taunton at what Somerset trades unionists are billing as a "A Somerset celebration of international workers’ solidarity against capitalism, racism and fascism".

Ken Keable will also pay tribute to Archie Doran of Weston-super-mare, Sidcot School and Morlands Glastonbury, who was killed fighting in the defence of Madrid in 1937. Robert Brinkworth of the Fire Brigades Union is MC, and there'll be speakers from other trade unions, as well as from the International Brigade Memorial Trust, Searchlight magazine, peace groups and migrant workers' organisations. There's going to be music from the Red Notes Choir and
Red Shadow Sound System, as well as food and a licensed bar.

Sounds like a good night, and one for pride in a fine old comrade. The event is organised by the Somerset Association of Trades Union Councils, with the financial support of Taunton TUC and Somerset County UNISON (Andy's union).

Dave Chapple of the Somerset Association of Trades Union Councils says all are welcome, though if you want to come and need more information it's best to contact him.in advance. Likewise, if you can't make it but would like to send a message of birthday greetings and support he will make sure it is passed on - E-mail: davechapple@btinternet.com

From Guadalajara to Glastonbury, Old Comrade, New Friends

SOMEBODY has sent a comment to my posting on Spanish civil war veteran, retired hospital worker and centenarian Howard Andrews. It's actually an extract from the programme for the Glastonbury Festival:

"Last minute announcement for the Left Field stage - we've just confirmed that a veteran of the Spanish Civil War will be opening the Love Music Hate Racism night on Saturday. Howard Andrews, known as Andy is 100 years old, and worked as a medic in field hospitals as a member of international brigades.He'll be opening the Love Music Hate Racism night with a few words about his experiences of fighting fascism in Spain, and why he supports the campaign against the BNP.
http://forums.virtualfestivals.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101164

So all those of us who have slowed down a little since passing 50 had better sit up and pay attention. Not content with showing up on picket lines in his buggy, Andy, at twice that age, is taking the stage at an open air rock festival. Born in Kilburn, he has lived in Somerset for half a century. Must be the air down there. Koech (Strength) and Long Life, Andy! And let's hope people pay attention to your message.
(original posting - http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2007/01/howard-andrews-century.html

Thanks by the way to whoever sent the information. It came anonymously, and about four times so maybe that's four different people, unless someone's computer is playing up! This might be good a time as any to catch up on some correspondence, and mention a few new bloggers on the blog and one not quite so new.

First, as the agony and chaos in Gaza shaped into civil war last week, and there was little that you could call good news, this message from a Palestinian woman reached me:

Dear Friends,

I have decided to start a blog: http://margo-bouba.blogspot.com/
It is nothing elaborate or as politically controversial as some of the others.
The reason why I started it is to show a different side of Palestine and Palestinians. Some of you might think it's not the time, that while battles rage in Gaza I should write about that and what's happening there and the state of affairs on Palestinian political life. But everyone else is already doing that, everyone is so consumed by it...
I wanted to write something different; just things about mundane life. I feel that because of the opportunities that I've had that it makes me all the more responsible to show that life here is not just about the conflict. That some aspects are surprisingly ordinary, even if the violence overshadows everything else. Yet, I always insist that there is more to Palestinians than just the conflict and I think more people need to realize that! So, I hope that this helps in some small way. We'll see how it develops and whether I will keep it up... So check it and if you feel so inclined, leave comments, I would love to hear what you think.

Best, Margo

I think, having visited the blog, that If you can keep your head while others, so-called leaders, around you are losing theirs, then you might be part of the answer that people need, my sister.

BTW, the message from Margo was passed on to me by Julia Bard, of the Jewish Socialists' Group, who says Margo was one of her students on a journalism course at Goldsmiths, and has just returned to Palestine after four months in the United States.

Then there's Mick Hall, with whom I've sometimes agreed and sometimes argued on the Labour Briefing Readers List. It was Mick who introduced us via that list to 'The Blanket' , an online magazine started by former Irish Republican POWs. http://lark.phoblacht.net/ Now Mick has started a blog called Organised Rage at http://organizedrage.blogspot.com/ and so far it has been taking a particular interest in Irish politics. His blog is subtitled "The View from The Tower Block", but his is no Ivory Tower viewpoint.

Next, I don't think I mentioned when reporting the Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) meeting in London last month that among the people who spoke from the floor was a young guy from Down Under who happened to be passing through. He told us how a group of them in Australia had got more attention than they expected when they started something similar to IJV out there.
I meanwhile had recognised his name as a fellow-blogger, Anthony Loewenstein, and having only previously met in cyberspace (or on the blogosphere, was pleased to go up afterwards and introduce myself and shake hands. His website/blog address is worth a visit, at
http://antonyloewenstein.com/

Last, but by no means of least interest, I was pleased to welcome a communication yesterday concerning a Manchester personage, about whom I'd previously written, from someone who calls themselves Meursalt, who I see has started a blog called Nothing to Put Here at http://whataboutasongtitle.blogspot.com/
Beyond seeing that he is a shopworker in Manchester, I know nothing about Meursalt except that his politics are left-wing, but from looking at his links, hard to pigeonhole, which makes them more interesting, nu?

The old ones won't lie down!

CIVIL Servants battling to defend jobs, pay, pensions and public services took strike action on January 31, hitting tax collection to hurt the Blair government, but also causing postponement of court cases, cancellation of driving tests, and closure of many offices and public buildings around the country, to remind everyone of what an important job they do.

Somerset trade unionist Dave Chapple took this photograph outside the Department of Work and Pensions/Child Support Agency in Taunton High Street. The man in the disabled buggy who came to show his support for the members of the Public and Commercial Services(PCS) union picketing is former hospital worker Howard Andrews.

Howard, or "Andy" as he is known to many friends, is due to celebrate his 100th birthday on February 15. He has had an eventful life. As a 16-year old, growing up poor in Kilburn, north-west London, he managed to claim he was older so he could enlist in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He served overseas, in India and China, and what he saw gave him a lasting hatred of colonialism. Back in London he got a job at Queen Charlotte's hospital, but he also joined first the Independent Labour Party and then the Communist Party, speaking at meetings about his experiences, as well as selling the Daily Worker outside Kiburn tube station.

After attending a rally in Trafalgar Square in 1936, 'Andy' decided to go out to Spain with medical aid, and stayed there working at a republican front-line hospital. They were attacked by Italian planes.

After wartime army service in World War II, Andy moved to the west country, working at the hospital in Taunton, where he organised a branch of the health union COHSE, and represented it for many years on the Taunton trades union council. Since retiring he has continued his trade union links and also been active in peace campaigning, leading a demonstration last year against the Blair government's Trident missile replacement programme.

Dave Chapple is planning a book about Howard Andrews.

Meantime if you want to send a greeting for Howard's 100th birthday, you can get contact details for him from Dave at davechapple@btinternet.com,
and you can also inquire about the book.

Reg Weston (1913-2007):

Farewell to Veteran Communist and Fighter

From Kent comes sadder news, Gill Emerson and Dave Turner reporting the death, after a short illness, of veteran Communist Reg Weston, aged 93, on 26 January 2007, have sent this obituary:

Reg was born in 1913 at Stamford Hill, in the London Borough of Hackney. He left school at 15 to work as a trainee reporter in Fleet Street and went on to have a lifelong career in journalism, in both the national and local press.
In his early 20s, Reg was an active member of the Independent Labour Party. The party had disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 1932, after Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald had formed a "National" government with Tories and Liberals so he could cut pensions and unemployment benefit.

While the ILP tried to steer its own course, part of its membership was drawn into the orbit of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CP). Reg joined the CP in 1935 and became Secretary of a newly-formed party branch in the Southgate area of Enfield, in North London. Among the members of the branch was leading CP theoretician Rajani Palme Dutt.

On 4 October 1936, Reg participated in the Battle of Cable Street, the legendary mass mobilisation in the East End of London against Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. In old age, Reg wrote a vivid memoir of his experiences on the day.

During the Second World War, Reg saw active service in the Eighth Army, for which he was awarded five decorations, including two campaign stars (the Africa Star and the Italy Star). Reg spent three years of the war in action: in the Tunisian battles, in the Salerno landings and in the ensuing Italian campaign – including all the battles for Monte Cassino and the struggle to break through the Gothic Line. Throughout these battles, Reg was with the Royal Artillery, serving as a signaller in charge of a forward observation post.

Reg would often recall his experiences in Italy – particularly the warmth with which he was greeted when he encountered Italian Communists in newly-liberated areas and revealed his party membership.

After the war, Reg resumed his career in journalism and in 1946 he went to work on the CP’s own paper, the Daily Worker, where he became chief sub-editor on the day shift. However, his time on the paper was cut short in September 1952, when he was fired by the editor, Johnny Campbell.

Reg’s dismissal came about as a result of a dispute following the sacking of his friend Freddie Deards, who had been a sub-editor on the sports page. The row seems to have been ostensibly about money, with Reg and Freddie Deards objecting to being paid substantially below the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) rate for the job. In theory, journalists at the Worker received the full union rate – but most of this was actually deducted in "voluntary contributions" to the CP.

Reg maintained that "What really happened was that we couldn’t take any longer the class divisions, the privileged free-loaders (enjoying Soviet crumbs) and the hypocrisy" at the paper, so "We grumbled and criticised. We made cynical remarks". Following his sacking by Campbell, Reg left the CP.
He went on to work as a sub-editor with the Press Association (PA) for many years, continuing to be a staunch, and active, member of the NUJ, of which he was made a life member.

After his retirement from the PA in the 1970s, Reg moved down to North Kent. He lived for 25 years in the village of Higham, where he was Clerk to the Parish Council for a time. He became well-known in the nearby town of Gravesend, and the rest of Kent, for his tireless political activity in the county, which began following the death of his wife Constance (widow of the artist Maurice Sochachewsky), after only a few years of marriage.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Reg was a leading member of Gravesend Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Higham and Shorne Peace Supporters group. He was also prominent in Gravesend Anti-Nazi League’s fight to drive the National Front out of the town. During the Miners’ Strike of 1984–5, Reg supported the Kent miners with practical solidarity, organising meetings and collections – notably a food convoy from the local Sikh Temple to the Kent pit villages.

In 1985, Reg rejoined the Communist Party and, during the years leading up to the dissolution of the party, he supported the tendency that published the newspaper The Leninist – somewhat to the irritation of the CP’s Kent District leadership.

In the early 1990s, Reg was a leading member of Gravesend Anti-Poll Tax Union and he was imprisoned for his refusal to pay the tax. During the 1992 general election campaign, Reg turned up at the Kent village of Meopham to heckle John Major and wave a placard declaring "Rich Tories, the real poll tax parasites". For his pains, Reg was, as the Daily Telegraph reported, "kicked, punched and hit with an umbrella by a cohort of silver-haired ladies".

In 1993, Reg played a key role in a successful campaign to drive Gravesend neo-Nazi John Cato out of the town. As a consequence, Reg faced threats of murder from the fascists, and threats of arrest and prosecution from Kent Police – neither of which intimidated him in the least.

In the early 1990s, Reg broke with the "Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)", as the group around The Leninist styled itself following the demise of the actual CPGB. He was subsequently involved with the Socialist Workers’ Party – but soon decided that that organization was not a congenial political home either.

Even in his final years, when he was living in residential care after a bad fall in 2002, Reg still managed to play an active part in politics. In a well-publicised symbolic act in 2003, he sent his war medals to Chris Pond, the then Labour MP for Gravesham, saying he wished to return them to show his disgust at the MP’s support for the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

Reg was a remarkable man who devoted a large part of his life to radical socialist politics in the workplace, in the community and on the streets. He was an indefatigable activist – not for nothing was his favourite poem "Say not the Struggle Naught availeth". He was incredibly widely-read, with a keen interest in history and literature; he was knowledgeable on many subjects and always keen to share his knowledge with others. Friends and comrades who valued Reg's presence and political contribution are planning a tribute event later this year.

Howard Andrews' Century

"BUGGIES FOR PEACE,
SAY NO TO TRIDENT"
veterans like Andy just won't lie down!

JUST when I think I might get away with telling friends and comrades I'm "feeling my age" and might need to take a rest, along comes yet another report of some activist many years older than me who just won't lie down.

West Country trades unionist and socialist Dave Chapple has written to tell friends that International Brigader Howard Andrews, of Taunton, Somerset, England, known to his pals as Andy, will be 100 on the 15th February this year.

Dave has tried to persuade Andy to let them hold a "party occasion" to celebrate his centenery, but Andy said he did not want the fuss and performance.

"Andy has had a few problems with his health lately, including a fall, but he is in reasonably good shape, and continues to live by himself and look after himself, which includes all the cooking and shopping. He just has a 'home-help' come in to clean for an hour a week.

"On 11th February Andy is going into hospital for an operation- but he expects to be out for his birthday!"

Only last Autumn Andy made it to Spain to spend a week with comrades commorating the fight against fascism in Spain. It was in August 1936, after attending a rally in Trafalgar Square, that the young Communist from Kilburn talked it over with his brother in the Independent Labour Party, and decided to go out with Medical Spain for Spain.

He had already served in the British Royal Army Medical Corps(RAMC), joining as a teenager to escape poverty. It was an education. In Mumbai he watched women, some with babies on their back, loading coal onto ships. In Shanghai, in the same year 1926 of the general strike in Britain, British troops guarded business interests before Chiang Kai Shek suppressed the workers.

In Spain, Andy worked in a clinic near the Ebro front where they took care of the wounded. Local people helped him with supplies. Being a hospital did not prevent them being bombed and strafed by Italian planes.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10144

After serving in the Royal Artillery during World War II, Andy decided in 1955 to move out to Taunton, Somerset, where he worked in the hospital and revived a branch of the health workers' union COHSE. He became branch secretary, and delegate to Taunton trades union council until his retirement.

Recently he attended a meeting of the Taunton Peace group, and successfully proposed an Anti-Trident nuclear missile protest outside his old workplace, Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital, which will go ahead after his birthday.

Recently a Civil Servant called about the question of a centenary telegram message from the Queen of England: Andy told him that he didn't want a telegram, saying that:

' Me and the Royal Family haven't been friends for ages.'

Maybe some of those in the movement who have queued for honours should take note of this example!

If anyone wants to send a Birthday Card or greeting to Andy (Howard Andrews) you can get more information and discuss it with Dave Chapple -

davechapple@btinternet.com

Meantime, I'm not even two thirds as old as Andy, and having cried off two meetings and one very attractive social invitation last week on account of having "a bad leg", I'd better watch it or friends will be accusing me of "coming the old soldier" or sarcastically offering to buy me a buggy.

On a more serious thought, the 20th century should have been the century of people like Howard Andrews. It was stolen by the likes of Franco, Hitler, and Stalin too. Andy has more than earned his longevity into this century. He has deserved better than for this to be the century of Bush and Blair. Let's take inspiration to make it not.