The Young Liberals and the Left 1965–70 Peter Hellyer reviews the relationship between the Young Liberals and the left in the 1960s.

ritish politics today With that cautionary note hardness, single-mindedness lacks a large and active given, and conceding that, since – and all this adds up to our political youth move- I now live in the United Arab intention to capture the left ment directly affiliated Emirates, I lack access to much in British politics … Why am to one of the major research material, I present the I a Liberal? – I’ll never quite Bparties. Forty-five or so years following thoughts and recol- know, but perhaps it’s because ago, however, there was one: the lections. My focus will be on the the Liberals are the only party Young Liberal Movement, YLM, years of the Labour government with the slightest hope of end- comprised of the National League led by Harold Wilson between ing the present depressing of Young Liberals, NLYL, and 1964 and 1970, for the following political cycle. Also, our sup- the Union of Liberal Students, reasons. First, it was during those porters are full of ideals, and ULS, for a short while dubbed the years, mainly from 1966 to 1970, ideals capture the imagination ‘Red Guard’ by an over-excitable that the YLM reached its peak, of the young far more than the media. For this issue of the Jour- claiming at its height 25,000 or hypocrisy and dishonesty of nal, I have been asked to provide so members in several hundred the big parties.2 some of my own recollections branches throughout the coun- of the YLM and its relationships try. George Kiloh, NLYL Chair- Secondly, in those years the YLM with the ‘left’ in British politics. man from 1966 to 1968, outlined often had a somewhat testy rela- A shorter examination of some of the attractiveness of the YLM, as tionship with the ‘senior’ party, the issues discussed can be found he then saw it, in a book written although good relations at a per- in a paper I published in Issue No. by Jonathan Aitken, ‘The Young sonal level between many YL 17 of the Journal.1 Meteors’, published in 1967: leaders and leaders of the party, Others, who also played an both inside and outside parlia- active part, whether at a national In the past the word Liberal has ment, always continued. At the or local level, will have their own always been associated with same time, the YLM developed memories. Their recollections namby-pambyness, but I think extra-party relationships with a and interpretations are likely we’re getting away from that. wide range of other radical move- to differ from mine, because, It’s our intention to show a far ments that were frequently the although we were all involved in more militant approach than cause of severe strains. what can be broadly described as has ever been seen in youth Tony Greaves, Chairman the YL ‘leadership’, the nature of politics before. Our theme of ULS at the beginning of the our activity differed. is originality, irreverence, period and then of NLYL at the

60 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 The Young Liberals and the Left 1965–70 Peter Hellyer reviews the relationship between the Young Liberals and the left in the 1960s.

end, has recalled in a previous ‘senior party’… On the other of the Labour government, but issue how the YLM decided to side were those of us who were which led to the establishment adopt an approach of opening up clear that we were radical Lib- of relationships both with the links with the left: erals and for whom any future Labour left and the extra-par- in politics had to lie with the liamentary left. On one, that of It all grew out of that genera- Liberal Party, however much Rhodesia and apartheid South tion of people who joined the we despaired of its electoral Africa, the YL approach was party when it was advancing failures and its seeming inabil- broadly aligned with, though enormously. There had been ity to campaign effectively or more radical than, the position of Orpington (in 1962), followed at all! Such people around the the party leadership, while on the by a number of near-misses old YL leadership included others the YLs, or at least a signifi- … Then Harold Wilson had Michael Steed, Bernard cant part of their leadership, were become leader of the Labour Greaves, Gareth Wilson and Several often at variance with or in oppo- Party and took over our ‘time Simon Hebditch… and peo- sition to the rest of the party. I was for a change’ message. The ple like Gordon Lishman and major for- primarily active in campaigns on Liberal vote went up in the ’64 Lawry Freedman spanning the foreign policy issues, being NLYL election but overall the result two groups.4 eign policy International Vice Chairman was disappointing … We won from 1967 to 1969, and it is with more seats in the ’66 election, Kiloh and the others on his side issues came these that this article will deal, for but by that time Jo (Grimond) of the divide left the party, sev- the most part through personal was exhausted, the party was eral joining Labour and others to the fore, recollections rather than detailed running out of ideas and didn’t confining themselves to extra- historical research. know where it was going. A parliamentary activity, while the on each of During the last century or so, small group of us younger second group remained within several large extra-parliamentary party members felt something the Liberal Party. Following the which the protest groups have emerged that must be done. We decided to passing of the ‘Community Poli- Young Liber- have maintained links with con- get more involved in young tics’ resolution at the 1970 East- ventional party politics. One people’s campaigning with bourne Party Assembly, proposed als adopted such group was the Campaign for other groups, particularly the on behalf of the YLM by Tony Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Young Communists. We also Greaves and Gordon Lishman, the positions founded in the late 1950s, which decided to try to make the Lib- focus of many YL activists turned had become a powerful force with eral Party more radical in its towards working within the party that were strong links to the Labour Party policies and more campaigning structure and in local communi- by the early 1960s, attracting over in its approach. That’s why we ties. Disagreements between the opposed 150,000 to its annual Aldermas- started at the Brighton Assem- YLM and the party continued but ton marches. After the signing of bly (in 1966) with defence and collaboration, rather than an often to those of the 1963 Global Nuclear Test Ban industrial democracy.3 deliberate seeking of confronta- Treaty, support dwindled, while, tion, became increasingly the the Labour following the election of the By 1970, however, the YLM itself norm and the ‘Red Guard’ phase, Labour government in 1964, some was heading into a decline. Tony which had peaked at the end of government, of the leading figures in CND, Greaves has explained the changes 1967, was finally over. who were also Labour MPs, were as follows: Thirdly, I was myself most but which led constrained by their relationship active during these years. While with the government. During The old YL leadership that had remaining a Liberal (or Liberal to the estab- the 1964–1970 Labour govern- made such an impact in the Democrat), increasing levels of ment, moreover, the foreign pol- mid-1960s was now experienc- overseas work from a London base lishment of icy issues that came to the fore ing an ideological crisis. On from 1970, and then a move to the relationships were specific in terms of geogra- one side of the developing split UAE in 1978, has meant that my phy, rather than being general in were people such as George subsequent involvement in the both with nature, like nuclear disarmament. Kiloh, Terry Lacey, Louis party has been largely confined CND was ill equipped to respond Eaks, Hilary Wainwright and to general election campaigns, the Labour to any of them. A brief description Tony Bunyan, who saw their always in the Scottish Borders. is necessary. allegiance as fundamentally to Finally, during these years, left and the The first issue to emerge was a left-based student and youth several major foreign policy issues that of white minority rule in movement and began to call came to the fore, on each of which extra-parlia- Southern Africa. During the themselves socialists and dis- the Young Liberals adopted posi- 1950s, the process of withdrawal tance themselves from the tions that were opposed to those mentary left. from Empire gathered pace,

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 61 the young liberals and the left 1965–70 extending to Africa. In 1957, A second issue was that of The Liberal to the Soviet Union and those, Ghana had been given independ- the Vietnam War, which esca- including the Young Liberals, ence, and by early 1960 Con- lated from August 1964, with Party was who were more inclined to adopt servative Prime Minister Harold increasing involvement by the the view of ‘a plague on both your Macmillan had concluded that United States. An expansion of strongly houses’. Within the Liberal Party, decolonisation was inevitable, as US ground forces commenced in there had always been a vocal he noted in his ‘Wind of Change’ January 1965, followed by bomb- opposed pacifist wing, and there had been speech to the South African par- ing of North Vietnam in March much discussion during the early liament in February 1960. 1965, this continuing until Octo- to UDI, 1960s of the Rapacki Plan, a pro- Nigeria became independ- ber 1968. The North Vietnam- posal launched by Polish Foreign ent that year, others rapidly fol- ese ‘Tet Offensive’, launched in this being Minister Adam Rapacki in 1958 lowing, including Tanganyika in January 1968, led to an opening of emphasised calling for the denuclearisation of 1961, Kenya in 1963, and Zambia, talks. A programme of ‘Vietnami- Poland, Czechoslovakia and both formerly Northern Rhodesia, on sation’ followed, with US troops by Jeremy Germanies. 24 October 1964, nine days after being gradually withdrawn. The The third major foreign pol- the election of the Labour govern- Paris Peace Accords were signed Thorpe’s icy issue to emerge during the ment. The progress of decolonisa- in 1973 and the war ended in April 1964–1970 Labour government tion then came largely to a halt. 1975 with the fall of Saigon, now speech at was in the Middle East. Following South of the River Zambesi, the Ho Chi Minh City. its victory in the June 1967 War, government of Southern Rhode- Despite American pressure, the 1966 Israel was no longer an embattled sia, representing the largest white- the British government refused Jewish settler-state with a small settler community in any of the to send troops to participate in Brighton Palestinian-Arab minority, but a African colonies, was determined the conflict, minded, perhaps, of clearly dominant regional mili- to retain power, although Bot- lessons learned from the Malayan Assembly, tary power occupying large tracts swana, Lesotho and Swaziland, insurgency, which had ended of land conquered from neigh- each without significant settler in 1960, and from the Malay- in which he bouring Arab states. communities, all became inde- sia–Indonesia ‘Konfrontasi’ from Sympathy for Israel was strong pendent between 1966 and 1968. 1962 to 1966. Supported by the advocated across the political spectrum in In Angola and Mozambique, Conservatives, however, it did Britain, for a variety of reasons, armed struggle against the Por- provide some political support for the use including the memory of the Nazi tuguese colonial authorities had the United States, this prompt- Holocaust. The Labour Party had commenced in 1961 and 1964 ing widespread criticism from the of British strong relations with its Israeli respectively. Further south, the left, both within and outside the V-bombers counterparts, these relations South African government had Labour Party. extending deep into the Labour shown its determination to hold It was argued by the United to end the left, while many leading Liberals, on to power, through, for exam- States that if one country fell including Jeremy Thorpe, were ple, the Sharpeville massacre under the influence of Commu- rebellion. also firm supporters of Israel. As of March 1960, an event which nism, with which movements of small-scale Palestinian resistance led directly to the conversion national liberation were assumed commenced, the Israeli response of the small Boycott of South to be associated, then surround- prompted a reassessment of the Africa movement into the Anti- ing countries would follow. The nature of the state and compari- Apartheid Movement (AAM), a Vietnam War was the major test sons with the settler-states in body with which many Liberals, ground of this ‘domino theory’. Southern Africa. Within the Lib- including Jeremy Thorpe MP, On the British left, the simplis- erals and on the left, the Israel/ were associated. The small South tic identification of independence Palestinian issue was to prove the African Liberal Party had come movements with Communism was most divisive of all foreign policy under increasing harassment fol- not accepted. The Non-aligned issues in the late 1960s. lowing Sharpeville, with many Movement had been founded in It is in the context of these of its members being arrested or 1955, including Egypt, Yugosla- issues that I shall examine the ‘banned’ to prevent them from via and Commonwealth member relationship of the Young Lib- attending gatherings and under- India amongst its leading mem- erals, myself included, with the taking much other activity. bers, while, through the Move- rest of the British left during the Confident of South African ment for Colonial Freedom, which 1964–1970 Labour government. support, the Rhodesian govern- at its peak had over seventy Labour Younger than the first wave of ment, led by Ian Smith, resisted MPs as members, there was wide- the YL leaders of the period, I pressure from London to move spread support for decolonisation. first became an active Liberal towards majority rule and issued The 1962 Cuban missile crisis not after leaving school in December its Unilateral Declaration of only prompted the further growth 1964. The winning Conserva- Independence on 11 November of CND, but also stimulated more tive in the October 1964 general 1965. Sanctions were ineffective debate on whether British interests election in my constituency, East and a low-level insurgency com- were best served by a close align- Grinstead, had been elevated to menced. Opposition to white- ment of foreign policy with the the House of Lords to make way dominated rule in southern Africa United States. On the left, there for Geoffrey Johnson-Smith, who became an important foreign pol- was further debate between the had lost his seat in London, with a icy issue for the British left, both Communist Party and members by-election set for February 1965. within and outside parliament. of the Labour Party sympathetic With several months to go before

62 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the young liberals and the left 1965–70 starting studies at Sussex Univer- of the YL and ULS delegates, as with which several leading Lon- sity, I volunteered to help the Lib- well as their confrontation with don-based YLs were involved, eral candidate, Richard Holme. the leadership, attracted extensive including Louis Eaks, then NLYL The result was a creditable sec- attention from the media, which Chairman, myself, Simon Heb- ond place, the Liberal share of the happily dubbed them the ‘Red ditch and the slightly younger vote rising to 31.5 per cent at the Guard,’ a nickname that contin- Peter Hain, who had moved with expense of Labour. ued to be used until late 1967. The his parents, members of the South Involvement in the local YL heady degree of publicity stimu- African Liberal Party, to Britain in branch followed, while during the lated a growth in YL and ULS 1966. summer I worked at Liberal Party branches around the country. Seeking to block a planned Headquarters under Michael Prior to the ‘Bomber Thorpe’ tour by the South African all- Meadowcroft. In September, I speech, the Liberal Party already white cricket team in the sum- attended my first Party Assembly had close relations with the Anti- mer of 1970, STST, supported by as a constituency delegate, pro- Apartheid Movement and in 1966, many other groups, launched a viding me with an opportunity to David Steel, elected as an MP at campaign in late 1969 and early establish links with the YL leader- the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Pee- 1970 to disrupt rugby matches ship and with others from around bles by-election the previous year, being played by the South Afri- the country. became the AAM President, a can Springboks. All but one of the At the time, Sussex University post he held until 1970. These matches were greeted with large was a stronghold of the Trotskyist links were further developed by demonstrations, including the ‘Militant Tendency’, then com- NLYL, which became an affiliate invasion of pitches. The exception mencing its campaign to infiltrate organisation of AAM with a rep- was the match at Galashiels, in the Labour Party. I joined the resentative on the AAM National the Borders, the home of Scottish small Liberal and Radical Society Committee and, subsequently, rugby, where STST responded although I became more active individual YLs were elected to a request from David Steel, with the Brighton YL branch. members of the AAM National still AAM President and the local An early focus of campaigning Executive. MP, that there should be no mass was opposition to the Rhodesian Liberal and YL involvement protest. Instead, he and his wife, UDI, which took place within a in campaigning against Smith’s with a few colleagues, picketed few weeks of my arrival at univer- The Brighton Rhodesia and against apartheid the ground, with thousands of sity. The YLs worked closely with were important in establishing the his constituents walking past him the local Labour Party, encour- Assembly radical credentials of the party, at into the game. At the June 1970 aged by South African exiles least on this issue. Collaboration general election, several months studying at the university, includ- was also the with the Labour left followed as later, the issue was still a hot topic ing Thabo Mbeki, later Nelson occasion well as with the major southern for Liberal canvassers in the Bor- Mandela’s successor as President African liberation movements, the ders and Steel’s majority fell to of South Africa. when the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union 550, the lowest in his many years The Liberal Party was strongly (ZAPU), the African National as an MP. By that time, STST’s opposed to UDI, this being Young Lib- Congress (ANC) of South Africa, objective had been achieved – the emphasised by Jeremy Thorpe’s and the South West African Peo- South African cricket tour had speech at the 1966 Brighton erals drew ples Organisation (SWAPO) of been cancelled. Assembly, in which he advocated Namibia, these becoming regu- While the senior Liberal Party the use of British V-bombers to the atten- lar visitors to the party’s annual and the YLs (and STST) were end the rebellion. The Brighton Assemblies. united in their opposition both to Assembly was also the occasion tion of the Within the party, there was the winter rugby tour and to the when, as noted by Tony Greaves broad agreement on support for cricket tour due to follow in the (above), the Young Liberals drew media, partly AAM and the liberation move- summer of 1970, there was serious the attention of the media, partly ments. Indeed, in at the 1967 disagreement over whether or not through the tabling of a resolu- through the Blackpool Assembly, a YL resolu- that should extend to civil diso- tion calling for withdrawal from tion on southern Africa was pro- bedience. In February 1970, for NATO and adoption of a neu- tabling of a posed by myself and seconded by example, the Liberal Party Execu- tralist foreign policy. A similar David Steel and was passed over- tive voted to censure Louis Eaks, motion had earlier been passed resolution whelmingly, although an amend- still NLYL Chairman, for his at the 1965 ULS conference in ment to remove a commitment to public remarks supporting such Manchester calling for a united calling for supporting the armed struggle of the disruption. non-nuclear Europe. Proposed by withdrawal liberation movements was passed The active campaigning by George Kiloh, who had become after it had been accepted from the both the YLs and the senior party NLYL Chairman earlier in the from NATO platform, without consultation, by placed the Liberals firmly on year, the Assembly resolution was David Steel. This difference on the the left on the issue of southern defeated after fierce argument. and adoption armed struggle in southern Africa Africa and also established the Another YL resolution, pro- was paralleled by disagreement on credentials of the YLs within the posed by Greaves and Terry of a neutral- support for direct action in Britain burgeoning but fissiparous extra- Lacey, then Vice Chairman of itself, on this and other issues. This parliamentary left. Both the YLs ULS, called for ‘workers’ control’ ist foreign became particularly apparent dur- and the party, moreover, generally in industry, it, too, being defeated ing 1969, with the formation of the shared the same goals, despite dif- after a fiery debate. The views policy. Stop the Seventy Tour committee, ferences in tactics.

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 63 the young liberals and the left 1965–70

This was not to be the case on the ‘Tet Offensive’ led to a much because of the violence associated the other two broad issues, those greater awareness of the conflict with the two London demonstra- of the Vietnam War and the Cold in Britain and the YLs joined a tions in 1968. There was also con- War and, later, on the Arab–Israeli coordinating committee estab- cern about the association of the conflict. On these, YL initiatives lished by VSC to organise another YLs with other left-wing groups, had a major effect on relations demonstration in March. including Communists of both with the senior party, the former The committee included some Soviet and Chinese varieties as causing occasional, albeit serious, rather uneasy bedfellows. The well as several Trotskyist factions, concern to party chiefs, but the Trotskyists and Maoists openly that were clearly illiberal. There latter leading to open conflict. supported the North Vietnamese were many in the senior party, As the escalation of the Viet- and the NLF. The YCL, on the and, indeed, in the YLs, who nam War began in late 1964, other hand, following the Krem- felt that this was, at best, naive. both the YLs and the senior party These lin line, supported a negotiated Indeed, some senior party mem- quickly adopted a policy of oppo- included peace rather than a military vic- bers came to the false conclusion sition to the war. The Union of tory. The YLs were accepted as that the YLM had been infiltrated Liberal Students and the National the Young members of the committee partly by ‘Communists’. League of Young Liberals passed because their credentials had been Other events during 1968, anti-war resolutions at their con- Communist established on southern African however, ensured that the YLs ferences, these being followed issues and partly because of the had few illusions about the nature by another resolution jointly League, ‘Peace in Vietnam’ policy of the of the Soviet Union. Following proposed by both to the Liberal senior party. However, a number the YL anti-NATO resolution Party Council which was again who always of those YLs who were actively at the 1966 Brighton Assembly, passed. The party then organised involved tended to align them- there was a marked increase in a national campaign, with YL viewed the selves more with the ‘Victory to the amount of attention being involvement, to collect signatures the NLF’ faction than with the paid to the Young Liberals, to an anti-war petition. YLs with YCL group, whose policy was both by the Young Communist The YLM also began to close to that of the senior Liberal League and by the embassies of develop relationships with other great suspi- Party. the Soviet bloc in London. One groups opposed to the war, or, The demonstration, on 17 result was the extension of invi- more generally, to the United cion, partly March 1968, which attracted tations to visit the Soviet Union States. These included the Young over 20,000 people, of whom a as guests of the Komsomol. One Communist League, who always because the few hundred, at most, were YLs, such visit, by Louis Eaks and viewed the YLs with great suspi- was noteworthy because of vio- myself, took place in Decem- cion, partly because the YLs, with YLs, with slo- lent skirmishes with the police. ber 1967 and January 1968. Our slogans such as ‘Make Love, Not gans such as Talks between the United States hosts, who had prepared a con- War’ and often with long hair and and North Vietnam commenced ventional programme of visits garb inspired by the US ‘flower ‘Make Love, in the summer of 1968, but the to collective farms and the like, power’ movement, appeared to bombing of North Vietnam con- were somewhat taken aback be insufficiently serious, as well as Not War’ and tinued and a much larger demon- by our requests and questions. lacking a coherent ideology. (In stration took place on 27 October Thus in Moscow, we insisted on return, the YLs viewed the YCL often with 1968, with the YLs again being visiting the tomb of the Rus- as boring and under the thumb of members of the coordinating sian anarchist Prince Peter Kro- an irrelevant party led by unchar- long hair and committee. Over 200,000 peo- potkin, in Kiev we asked party ismatic apparatchiks). Others with ple took part, the vast major- officials to explain the nature of whom the YLs came into contact garb inspired ity of whom marched peacefully the Ukraine’s separate national included Trotskyist bodies like down Park Lane, although a small identity, and in the Latvian capi- the International Marxist Group by the US minority, who did not include tal, Riga, we spent hours with (IMG), the International Social- any of the YLs participating in a young artist who carefully ists and the ‘Militant Tendency’ – ‘flower or watching the march, broke explained the history of Latvia’s then building up strength within away and once again confronted forcible annexation by the Soviet the Labour Party and, in par- power’ the police outside the American Union and the validity of its con- ticular, the Labour Party Young Embassy. In the same month, tinued desire for independence. Socialists – as well as Maoist movement, the US bombing of North Viet- A subsequent series of articles I groups. nam was finally halted, US troop wrote for Liberal News led to a for- In October 1967, the Vietnam appeared withdrawals began in early 1969, mal letter of protest to party head- Solidarity Campaign, established to be insuf- and the Vietnam War gradu- quarters from the Soviet Embassy as an umbrella campaign group in ally became an issue of declining saying that my articles had ‘dis- 1966 by activists associated with ficiently seri- importance for the British left. torted Soviet reality’. I considered the Bertrand Russell Peace Foun- The involvement of the YLs in that to be a great compliment. dation and the IMG, organised a ous, as well the anti-Vietnam War campaign Despite this, however, the Brit- small demonstration outside the had caused some embarrassment ish YCL and the Communist American Embassy in Grosvenor as lacking for the senior Liberal Party, partly Party maintained relations with Square, with which the YLs were because of their apparent identi- the YLs, and we were invited to not associated. In January 1968, a coherent fication with the ‘Victory for the attend the World Youth Festival in the launching by the North Viet- NLF’ faction, in contradiction to Sofia, Bulgaria, in August 1968, as namese and their NLF allies of ideology. official party policy, and partly were other member organisations

64 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the young liberals and the left 1965–70 of the World Federation of Lib- with the Vietnamese people, The YLs, In early 1969, still NLYL eral and Radical Youth, WFLRY, deciding to mark this by a tree- International Vice Chairman, I most of whom came from West- planting ceremony. The loose though still attended a conference in Cairo, at ern Europe. alliance of radicals decided that a which all the major African liber- The World Youth Festivals, more forceful display of opposi- critical of ation movements, with whom the which had begun in 1947, were tion to American policy would be YLs already had good links, were organised by the World Fed- appropriate, with over 1,000 join- NATO and present, along with representa- eration of Democratic Youth, ing a rapidly organised march to tives of Fatah and the Palestine WFDY, and the International protest outside the US Embassy. of US policy Liberation Organisation. This Union of Students, IUS, both When the police arrived, the was followed by a visit to Leba- Soviet dominated. Previous Fes- demonstrators sat down in the in Vietnam, non, Syria and Jordan, organ- tivals had been tightly control- road. As mounted police rode became vocal ised by the World Federation of led and the organisers clearly over the crowd, chants likening Democratic Youth, still trying to intended the Sofia event to follow them to France’s anti-riot police, critics of the engage with the YLs, despite our the same pattern. The early part of the CRS, rose. Hostile to US unruly behaviour at the World 1968, however, had been a time of policy though all of the demon- Soviet Union, Youth Festival the previous sum- radical ferment through much of strators may have been, antipathy mer. Other participants included Europe. to Soviet-style Communism was as did much a neo-anarchist Dutch radical and In January, Alexander Dubcek equally strongly felt. an apparatchik from East Germa- had become First Secretary of the On the way home, the YL of the rest of ny’s Frei Deutsche Jugend. Meet- Czechoslovak Communist Party, delegation visited Prague, at the ings with Fatah leaders, a tour of launching a programme of liber- invitation of the Czech Young the British a refugee camp and a visit to a alisation that became known as Communists, and felt honoured guerrilla camp were part of the the ‘Prague Spring’, challenging to be asked to deliver a speech at left, both programme. I returned to Lon- Soviet control of Eastern Europe the local equivalent of London’s don convinced that the Palestin- for the first time since the 1956 ‘Speakers’ Corner’ in support of within and ians did, indeed, have a case, and Hungarian uprising. In April the newly liberal Czechoslovakia. that the almost unthinking sup- and May, student movements in On 21 August 1968, a week or so outside the port for Israel in Britain, includ- Germany and France, led by an after the delegation returned to ing within the Liberal Party, eclectic mix of anarchists, Trot- London, Soviet tanks rolled into Labour Party. needed some re-examination. skyists and Maoists, had attracted the Czech capital and the Prague The gradually emerging evidence a large following, and in France a Spring was over. The Young Lib- of close ties between Israel and the student occupation of universities erals were among organisations white regimes in Southern Africa in Paris grew into a general strike participating in protest dem- was sufficient to convince some that had brought the government onstrations outside the Soviet other Young Liberals, including of President Charles de Gaulle Embassy in London and relations Louis Eaks, who became the YL close to collapse. While the UK with the YCL were never the Chairman during the 1969 Easter was little affected, a student occu- same again. conference, that we should take a pation of the Hornsey College of The YLs, though still critical of closer look at the issue. Art in May, in which YLs were NATO and of US policy in Viet- Mild expressions of disapproval involved, provided a small degree nam, became vocal critics of the of Israeli policies followed, these of excitement. Soviet Union, as did much of the attracting a barrage of criticism European participants in the rest of the British left, both within from within the party, coupled Sofia Festival included not only and outside the Labour Party. with suggestions that any criticism Soviet-style Young Commu- As the war in Vietnam wound of Israel was driven by an underly- nists, from both sides of the Iron down, with the beginning of the ing anti-Semitism. YLs active in Curtain, but also a melange of US withdrawal, disagreements the campaign against apartheid revolutionary Western European between the YLs and the senior were infuriated by the allegation students, young Czechs eager party on what approach to take to and people who had begun as gen- to spread ferment among other the Soviet bloc began to fade. tle critics were pushed to become Eastern European delegations, The third major foreign policy more determined opponents of Yugoslavs keen to emphasise that issue to come to the fore in the Israeli policy. they were not part of the Soviet late 1960s was the Arab–Israeli The 1970 NLYL/ULS Easter bloc and many others, including a dispute. As the Israelis, victors in conference at Skegness, attended, small, but active, group of Young the June 1967 War, consolidated for the first time, by a representa- Liberals, including myself and control over the West Bank and tive of Fatah, saw a major argu- Phil Kelly and John Kelly, both Gaza, the Palestinians launched ment over the extent of support from ULS. None were inclined a small-scale military resist- for the Palestinians. Louis Eaks, to accept the tightly regulated ance, led by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah elected as Chairman in 1969 and programme designed by the Bul- movement. In March 1968, an seeking a second year of office, garians and their paymasters and Israeli foray across the River Jor- supported a resolution backing conflict of some kind was almost dan was blocked by the Jordanian the Fatah policy of a single state inevitable. The issue of the Viet- army and Fatah, this leading to in Israel/Palestine while Lawry nam War provided the oppor- increasing publicity for what was Freedman, backed by several oth- tunity. The Festival organisers still a very small and ineffective ers, argued for support for a two- announced a Day of Solidarity organisation. state solution. The resolution, as

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 65 the young liberals and the left 1965–70 passed, was somewhat confusing, and Maoists on trying to analyse Another of the leadership who were based calling for a single state, though in terms of class what appeared, to outside London. While branches without mention of Fatah, and for the YLs at least, to be a movement source of of the Union of Liberal Students ceasefire lines to be respected and of resistance to military occu- often worked closely on campus for the belligerent parties to enter pation was also a source of disa- strain within with other left-wing groups, on into negotiations. It also called for greement. In consequence, the both international and domestic the youth wings of the Israeli Lib- YLs’ best connections were with the YL lead- issues, branches of the Young Lib- eral Party (which was allied with Arab groupings, like the General erals, closely linked to, and often the extreme right-wing Zion- Union of Palestinian Students, or ership was a major force within, local con- ist Herut Party, led by Menahem with those around the newspaper stituency associations, were more Begin) and the Israeli Independ- Free Palestine, founded in 1968 the fact likely to undertake the bulk of ent Liberal party to be expelled and later edited by Louis Eaks for that some their political activity, including from the World Federation of many years. YL support for the involvement in local and parlia- Liberal and Radical Youth unless Palestinians, and the resulting of those mentary elections, within a Lib- they accepted the principle of a strain on relations with the senior eral Party framework. Through secular democratic state.5 party, continued during the chair- who were their experience of, and frus- The disagreement within the manship of Peter Hain, who suc- tration with, the conventional YLs over the Israel/Palestine issue ceeded Tony Greaves in 1971. London- campaigning techniques, the was to some extent responsible As mentioned earlier however, collection of views that came to for the failure of Eaks to gain re- by 1970 the YLM was heading into based came characterise the ‘Community election as Chairman and he was a decline, the reasons for which are Politics’ approach were begin- defeated by Tony Greaves, a Jewish perhaps worthy of further study. In to focus their ning to emerge. In contrast, many Chronicle report on the conference terms of their involvement in the of the London-based leadership being headlined ‘Young Liber- international issues cited above, attention were often related only peripher- als reject extreme pro-Arab’ and with the exception of southern ally, if at all, to their local Liberal noting that the ‘extremist chair- Africa, only a minority – probably primarily on associations. man’ had been replaced by ‘a more a small minority – were associated, Moreover, throughout the moderate anti-Zionist.’6 and the nature of these issues was, single-issue heyday of the YLs, the National The policy adopted, however, in any case, evolving. As noted in Executive of NLYL included was sufficiently critical of Israel to the quotation from Tony Greaves, campaign- representatives from the regional prompt a furious response from above, an ‘ideological crisis’ had federations who were often the senior party, in particular emerged within the YL leadership. ing, often on uncomfortable with the ideologi- from Jeremy Thorpe, who had This had several aspects. First, as international cal approach of the London-based succeeded Jo Grimond as party correctly stated by Tony Greaves, leadership and of the leader- leader in 1967. Several prominent there was a division between those issues, in ship of ULS. Among these were Liberals, including some major whose views had evolved in such a David Penhaligon, representing party donors, were also Jewish, way that they no longer considered contrast to Devon and Cornwall and later and threats were made to cut off themselves to be Liberals (or liber- MP for Truro from 1974 to 1986, financial support. The sister par- als) and those who ‘were clear that many mem- and Howard Legg, represent- ties in Israel, fellow members of we were radical Liberals and for ing Wessex, who has now been a Liberal International, were not whom any future in politics had to bers of the local councillor for over twenty amused either. lie with the Liberal Party …’. years. Coming from rural areas Having adopted a pro-Pal- Another area of disagreement, leadership where the political issues of the estinian policy, the YLs found partly, but not wholly, coincid- day were different from those in themselves with a peculiar col- ing with these ideological divi- who were the larger towns and cities, and lection of allies. The Labour left sions, was whether or not it was where often the Conservatives, was still largely pro-Israel, partly acceptable to adopt direct action based out- rather than Labour, were the main because of links with the left- or civil disobedience in pursuit opponents, they too were more leaning Mapam Party in Israel of campaigns, such as that against side London. concerned with domestic issues and partly because many promi- the South African rugby tour. as well as being worried about the nent members of the Labour left Many members of the senior party YLs becoming involved in law- were themself Jewish or of Jewish objected, on principle, to the breaking. Happy to be radical, origin. Insofar as there was a pro- breaking of the law, with a similar they were never comfortable with Arab element within the Labour view being adopted in many YL revolutionary left-wing rhetoric. Party, it was to a large extent branches around the country, par- The April 1970 NLYL con- made up of people who had come ticularly those which were closely ference at Skegness marked the to support broader Arab nation- linked to their constituency Lib- beginning of the parting of the alism as part of the anti-colonial eral Associations. ways between the two separate struggle (the British withdrawal Another source of strain within ideological strains. Tony Greaves from Aden having occurred as the YL leadership was the fact that became Chairman, defeating recently as the end of 1967). Many some of those who were London- Louis Eaks, with another former of these Labour ‘pro-Arabs’ were based came to focus their atten- ULS officer, Gordon Lishman, to the centre of the party on tion primarily on single-issue winning election as Organising domestic issues. campaigning, often on interna- Vice Chairman, a post he had held On the extra-parliamentary tional issues, such as Israel/Pales- in an acting capacity since the res- left, the insistence of Trotskyists tine, in contrast to many members ignation of his predecessor a few

66 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the young liberals and the left 1965–70 months earlier. Both then pro- on other issues, wise heads in the Acknowledgements posed the successful ‘Community senior party, such as Frank Byers, I noted at the beginning of this Politics’ resolution at the Party Tim Beaumont, Gruffydd Evans, article that many of my former Assembly later in the year. Eaks himself a former NLYL Chair- colleagues in the leadership of the failed to obtain Assembly back- man in 1960–61, and the Head of YLM will have different recol- ing for a resolution supporting the Liberal Party Organisation, lections and interpretations of YL the principle of a single state in Pratap Chitnis, ensured that, for activity in the period 1965–1970. Israel/Palestine and then drifted the most part, lines of commu- I have benefited enormously from away from the YLs to focus on the nication were kept open. Indeed, comments made on a first draft by Israel/Palestine issue. the YLs were effectively used as Tony Greaves who, rightly, raised In the same year, George Kiloh ‘stalking horses’ during an abor- points that I had overlooked or joined the Labour Party, later tive attempt in the late 1960s to to which I had paid insufficient explaining his decision as follows: force Jeremy Thorpe to resign as attention, including the concern leader. Frustrations and irritation, felt by many members of the ‘sen- Back in ’65, I remember quot- on both sides, did not lead, as some ior’ party, and by other YLs, at the ing myself. I didn’t want to be feared, to an open split. Instead, willingness of the Young Liberals in the Labour Party because it those YLs who felt they could no to associate with openly illiberal was like ‘an old waiting room longer call themselves Liberals organisations and to engage in in a station’. Semi-derelict and simply moved on elsewhere. On breaches of the law while cam- nothing was going anywhere. the role of those who remained, as paigning on foreign policy issues. The remark made sense then. practitioners of ‘community poli- He also reminded me that most The Labour Party was like that. tics’ and as candidates, councillors YL branches took little part in I joined with difficulty, but I and, later, parliamentarians, I am the relationships with other ‘left’ joined because there were more not qualified to comment. organisations that were so much people like me there. We were Looking back, the Israel–Pal- a feature of the London-based a minority in the party, but we estine conflict, which has always YL leadership during the period. were there nevertheless.7 crossed the conventional bounda- While I would not wish to asso- ries of ‘left’ and ‘right’, has proved ciate him in any way with my Others did the same, like Terry over the years to be the most conclusions, the article is much Lacey and Phil Kelly, who went intractable of the foreign policy changed and, in my view, substan- on to edit Tribune, the organ of the issues with which the Young Lib- tially better, because of his input. conventional Labour left, and has erals engaged so actively from David Rich of the Community served intermittently since 1984 as 1965 to 1970. The Vietnam War, Security Trust kindly shared with a Labour councillor in Islington. the ‘Cold War’, the Soviet bloc, me the results of his research into Yet others, such as Hilary Wain- Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and apart- the evolution of the debate over wright, devoted their attention heid South Africa are all fading Israel/Palestine amongst youth primarily to radical extra-parlia- memories, but there is still scant and student groups from the late mentary activity, without joining room for optimism in the search 1960s onwards. Labour, while Tony Bunyan, for for peace in the Middle East, several years the YLM National although few now doubt that a 1 P. Hellyer, ‘Young Liberals – the Organiser and now the Director two-state solution in Israel/Pal- “Red Guard” era’, Journal of Liberal of Statewatch, moved to focus on estine is the most desirable option Democrat History, 17, Winter 1997– civil liberties issues. Others effec- The large, and opposition to the polices of 1998, pp. 14, 15. tively withdrew from active polit- Israel’s successive governments is 2 J. Aitken, The Young Meteors (Lon- ical engagement. irrever- now widely spread throughout the don: Secker & Warburg, 1967), It is worth placing on record political spectrum. And the large, p. 120. Quoted in Craig Taylor, that only a small minority of YLs ent, often irreverent, often impractical and ‘Promises, promises’, The Guard- focused between 1965 and 1970 naive Young Liberal Movement of ian, 6 September 2003. http://www. on the foreign policy issues men- impractical the period is now little more than guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2003/ tioned above as the major part of an historical footnote. sep/06/weekend.craigtaylor. their political activity, particularly and naive 3 A. Slade, ‘From Angry Young Man outside university campuses and Peter Hellyer is a member of the to Simmering Old Guru – Inter- the hothouse atmosphere of the Young Lib- Editorial Board of the Journal of view with Tony Greaves’, Journal radical extra-parliamentary left in Liberal History. International Vice- of Liberal History, 45, Winter 2004– London. For the most part, with eral Move- Chairman of NLYL 1967–69, con- 2005, pp. 30–34. the possible exception of southern ment of the currently a member of the Executive 4 T. Greaves, ‘The Year Things Africa, YL branches devoted the of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Began To Change’, Liberator, 300, bulk of their activity to local cam- period is and subsequently an aide to David pp. 12–13. paigning, developing the experi- Steel, he has worked in the United 5 David Rich, pers. comm., 4 January ence that was later to serve the now little Arab Emirates for over thirty years, 2010. party in such good stead as support currently as an adviser to the Gov- 6 Jewish Chronicle, 3 April 1970. for ‘community politics’ grew. more than ernment’s National Media Council. 7 Craig Taylor, ‘Promises, promises’, Although there were serious He has returned frequently to take The Guardian, 6 September 2003. disagreements between the YLM an historical part in election campaigns in the Scot- http://www.guardian.co.uk/life- and the senior party on aspects of tish Borders, most recently in the 2010 andstyle/2003/sep/06/weekend. these foreign policy issues, and footnote. general election. craigtaylor.

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 67