DOCSLIB.ORG

New Policy Demanded

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
New Policy Demanded Page 2 - H-BLOCKS SCANDAL Page 3 - GENOCIDE by Joe Whelon Page 4 - LABOUR CONFERENCE No. 451 SEPTEMBER 1981 Page 5 - LABOUR DROPS PARTITION Page 6 - IRISH SONGS. Page 7 - IRISH BOOKS. LABOUR TO Page 8 - DONALL MacAMHLAIGH DEBATE IRELAND IN BRIGHTON NEW POLICY DEMANDED OIL BONANZA GET OUT, THE ONLY ANSWER IN IRELAND pROSPECTS of an oil bonanza __"J"HERE are no fewer than fifty-four resolutions on Ireland to be debated at the forthcoming set stock markets in a J Labour Party Conference in Brighton. flurry after reports of finds on the west coast of Ireland. This is a magnificent development for which (he Connolly been needed in this country for Association can claim its share of the credit without denying ytars, a rt.al Labour Party. Speculators from London others theirs. At the same time it is of vi;c.l moved in and hundreds of thou- importance that the Labour sands of pounds changed hands ATROCITY The centre of our policy for tendencies in some of the trade Party should net lose its ma.-s and big windfalls came the way twenty five years has been to unions. character. Now that the Conser- of the lucky ones. make the Irish a political force, vative Party has every prospect of being annihilated the inter- The discovery of oil in com- CONTINUES to direct that force towards con- MASSACRED national firms who suck the nercial quantities — so far it 'THE tragedy oi' Long Kesh con- vincing the Labour Party of the The odds would seem to be blood of the ordinary people has not been found in sufficient * tinues to unfold, scene by need to return to the anti- that at this conference the^e will be wondering what to turn quantities — would transform scene. One after another the the Irish economy, and we imperialist policy of sixty years will predominate. to next. The Social Democrats young republicans go on hunger are being boosted. The British might find the orangemen beg- strike against prison conditions. ago, and finally to bring such a ging to be let in. Those who stand for Irish working class are many of them reformed Labour Party into extremely backard in politics, Tory spokesmen talk merrily freedom should fight hard, but and many of them take their So far the oil that has been about suicide. They do not care a office. fight wisely. The odds are that found has been in deep arrd snap of the fingers. opinions from the television The recommendations of the there will be another conference box. stormy waters, and it would need to be present in very sub- As for the lady who resides in working party, which are dealt before the next general election, Every care should therefore stantial quantities to merit the Downing Street — not usually in- with in the middle pages of this at which we can expect the Con- articulate, words fail us! servative Party to be massacred. be taken that while sound prin- expenditure of large amounts :f issue, are not clear, complete or ciples are fought for unremit- capital in recovering it. There must be no recrimina- Is she mad? totally satisfying, but they tingly, these principles should The British "royals" daren't Set represent a step forward. tions or splits if things do not be presented in a reasonable Another important result of foot in the United States. There go our way this time. manner, and every trace of Atlantic oil would be that the are demonstrations outside embas- Whether the most forward- crankiness or extremism should international plot to foist an sies and consulates. Nobody in the looking resolutions will gain ac- What can emerge out of all be cut right out. Go ahead of atomic energy station on Ire- world supports the British Govern- ceptance is another matter. the current debate and heart-i the people, but not too far land in Co. Wexford would be ment attitude. Only the Turks and searching is something that has ahead. Don't get out of sight. foiled. South Africans have not condemned There are strong conservative it. ILLIONS of pounds are flowing M into the coffers of the "pro- THE IRISH IN BRITAIN MUST ORGANIZE visional" IRA. Nationalist feeling qrHERE hat never been a time criminals are those who impose growing up In favour of a united It is particularly important that the Irish should be organised new is rising every day in Ireland — ' when the Irish In Britain were those conditions. Independent Ireland, ie another im- and to be frank we are not sorry portant factor. that British political parties are more united In sentiment than they about that. To us the men in Long Kesh are declaring themselves on the Irish are today. political prisoners, and that Is that. Well, what does this a!! mean? It question. But what does Mrs Thatcher hope means that the Irish in Britain to gain from it? The poiionous anti - national UT this Is only part of iL The should turn their unity of senti- It is not to asperse them to the brain-washing of the last twenty B Prevention of Terrorism Act ment into unity of organisation. If slightest degree to say that their The weak spot is that Labour years has been water off a duck's has turned the Irish In Britain Into that Is done we wHI be Invinoible. interest Is not the freedom of Ire- is afraid to come out clearly and back. second class citizens. We are com- An organisation of all the Irish land, but the position of their own say these men are political prison- pletely opposed to terrorism, gov- should be set up for purposes of organisations In the context of Bri- ers. None of their arguments are This was true before the H block ernmental as well as anti-govern- political action. tish politics. They are Englishmen convincing. It is just that they are issue came to the fore, though that mental. But opposition to terror- first, and nobody is entitled to afraid that the Tory propaganda FEW simple principles should has had an important effect. ism has not saved the hundreds blame them for It. agencies would in some way asso- A suffice. For example, the de- whose homes have been raided, or But there Is one thing that w:it ciate them with terrorism, and they mand for a complete and uncondi- The majority of the Irish do not the thousands who have been held keep them steady. That is the or- would lose votes. support or advocate the taotics of inoommunloado although only a tional withdrawal of the English from Ireland, and the eetabllshment ganisation of the million-strong the I.R.A. But they understand tiny fraotlon have been charged Irish-born and the several million They should put a simple case. very well that the reason why with any offenoe. of a united Independent republic. Plus the repeal of the Prevention of Irish descent whose sentiment is Three hundred men have got spe- young people turn to violence Is still fundamentally Irish. The faot that at long last there of Terrorism AoL Apart from that cial category status. The others that they are confronted with In- Is a sizeable English public opinion let there be free debate. What about It? should have the same. tolerable conditions and the real September 1981 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT September 1981 3 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT MRS THATCHER LABOUR WILL H-Block relatives refute THE BLOCK FOR GET BLAME EVERAL htoired close rela- that the Provisionals would give S tive of t^.-e H-Block hunger- anything to have the hunger- FOR BUDGET strikers ha»e c;me out unani- sttrike called off. slanders TO PROGRESS GENOCIDE ALL mously in support of their pro- HE men in Long Kesh are 1 test. This wii after attempts "We find them clear, respon- THE H-Block hunger-strike j i-'K Ci>.il't:ou s B; d*e: was a s.i. now In eflect dying for one were made lait month to divide T sible statements. We find the would have been settled by now is only a third of the cost of one ' _ i'lie It w. F lie Gaol another. They have been in ter- BY the relatue-s a^d induce some British Government guilty of Trident Nuclear Submarine. Just . : w.th l a', out t •- •«§ .ilon- rible conditions for the past five if there had been any Prime of them to b' n^ pressures on the most callous cruelty and 60 per cent of the total annual j — 11111 from d:iv t ta\ to • 11 - years. Those on hunger-strike Minister in Britain other than the H-8'0l* REN to abandon lack of responsibility, care and military expenditures is sufficient • ''ion wh.en add :<-4 know intimately those who have JOSEPH WILLAN their fait. Same well-meaning compassion In the present Mrs Thatcher, said Mr Michael to build 600.000 schools for 400 ' lit to the r.ite mianon already died, who were their but misguaei clergy were In- hunger-strike crisis. We the O'Leary, Irish Deputy Prime Minis- million children, or 30,000 hospitals Bio-engineering - il away B is i .res. postal friends and comrades. The sacri- volved in this with the tacit relatives stand in full support of ter and new leader of the Labour (NOTTINGHAM MINERS' for 18 million patients, or 50 mil- IJ EADERS may have noticed in s and ESB charges go up fice and extraordinary courage support cf »wr« politicians in the protesting prisoners and the lion modern flats for 300 million the media two new labels: ' .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Thatcherism and Women: After Seven Years
    THATCHERISM AND WOMEN: AFTER SEVEN YEARS Elizabeth Wilson In 1979 the Conservative Party won the British general election led by a woman-paradoxically, after ten years of leftwing feminist activism, it was the Tories that gave the British their first woman Prime Minister. And the most paradoxical aspect of all has been that Margaret Thatcher, the 'exceptional woman' par excellence, has done nothing to advance the cause of women, indeed during her period of office the quality of life for the majority of women in this country has deteriorated. This has been as a direct result of the tremendous class attack launched by the Conservative government against working people, both women and men. The initial reaction of the British left, and this included many feminists, was on the one hand disbelief that the British people could have voted such a reactionary government into power, and on the other the rapid construction of an explanation for this event in terms of an ideology of t hatcher ism'.' The development of this concept rested on a conviction that disillusionment with socialism and progress had willed the whole populace to the Right. Bob ~esso~~and others have recently mounted an extensive and measured critique of the 'Thatcherism' thesis, particularly as it has been developed in the work of Stuart Hall and in a series of articles published in Marxism Today. Jessop and his co-authors argue, for example, that Stuart Hall's notion of 'authoritarian populism', upon which 'Thatcherism' is based, is ambiguous and incoherent. They suggest that the Left has too readily accepted the Right's own assessment of itself and its decisive ideological break with the past.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae of Danny Dorling
    January 2021 1993 to 1996: British Academy Fellow, Department of Geography, Newcastle University 1991 to 1993: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Curriculum Vitae Fellow, Many Departments, Newcastle University 1987 to 1991: Part-Time Researcher/Teacher, Danny Dorling Geography Department, Newcastle University Telephone: +44(0)1865 275986 Other Posts [email protected] skype: danny.dorling 2020-2023 Advisory Board Member: ‘The political economies of school exclusion and their consequences’ (ESRC project ES/S015744/1). Current appointment: Halford Mackinder 2020-Assited with the ‘Time to Care’ Oxfam report. Professor of Geography, School of 2020- Judge for data visualisation competition Geography and the Environment, The Nuffield Trust, the British Medical Journal, the University of Oxford, South Parks Road, British Medical Association and NHS Digital. Oxford, OX1 3QY 2019- Judge for the annual Royal Geographical th school 6 form essay competition. 2019 – UNDP (United Nations Development Other Appointments Programme) Human Development Report reviewer. 2019 – Advisory Broad member: Sheffield Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, University Nuffield project on an Atlas of Inequality. Goldsmiths, University of London, 2013-2016. 2019 – Advisory board member - Glasgow Centre for Population Health project on US mortality. Visiting Professor, School of Social and 2019- Editorial Board Member – Bristol University Community Medicine, University of Bristol, UK Press, Studies in Social Harm Book Series. 2018 – Member of the Bolton Station Community Adjunct Professor in the Department of Development Partnership. Geography, University of Canterbury, NZ 2018-2022 Director of the Graduate School, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford. 2018 – Member of the USS review working group of the Council of the University of Oxford.
    [Show full text]
  • Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists PDF Book
    PARTY ANIMALS: MY FAMILY AND OTHER COMMUNISTS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK David Aaronovitch | 320 pages | 14 Jan 2016 | Vintage Publishing | 9780224074711 | English | London, United Kingdom Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists PDF Book At one point, the Aaronovitch family fall out with their dentist. Rating details. This amount is subject to change until you make payment. Accessibility Links Skip to content. Item location:. Full Terms and Conditions apply to all Subscriptions. Laura Weir. Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Very minimal damage to the cover including scuff marks, but no holes or tears. In this idiosyncratic blend of memoir, history and biography, David Aaronovitch uncovers the story of his family's life by picking through letters, diaries and secret service files, which in turn unleash vivid childhood memories of a lost and idealistic world. Things to do. Report item - opens in a new window or tab. Learn More - opens in a new window or tab Any international shipping is paid in part to Pitney Bowes Inc. Learn about new offers and get more deals by joining our newsletter. No comments have so far been submitted. Sam Aaronovitch was for many years a full-time senior organiser for the party, at one point in charge of its cultural policy — Doris Lessing portrayed him, not altogether fairly, in The Golden Notebook — and the cause seems to have dominated most of his waking moments: going to meetings, writing articles and books, marching. You must be logged in to vote. His bitterness at this scapegoating pervades these last pages, giving them an awkward, unresolved tone.
    [Show full text]
  • West European Communist Parties: Kautskyism And/Or Derevolutionization?
    INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or “target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “Missing Page(s)”. If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting througli an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark, it is an indication of either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, duplicate copy, or copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed. For blurred pages, a good image of the page can be found in the adjacent frame. If copyrighted materials were deleted, a target note will appear listing the pages in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is part of the material being photographed, a definite method of “sectioning” the material has been followed. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand comer of a large sheet and to continue from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. If necessary, sectioning is continued again-beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete.
    [Show full text]
  • Industrial Militancy, Reform and the 1970S: a Review of Recent Contributions to CPGB Historiography
    FJHP Volume 23 (2006) Industrial Militancy, Reform and the 1970s: A Review of Recent Contributions to CPGB Historiography Evan Smith Flinders University The historiography of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) has grown rapidly since its demise in 1991 and has created much debate for a Party seen as only of marginal interest during its actual existence. Since 1991, there have been four single volume histories of the Party, alongside the completion of the ‘official’ history published by Lawrence & Wishart and several other specialist studies, adding to a number of works that existed before the Party’s collapse. In recent years, much of the debate on Communist Party historiography has centred on the Party and its relationship with the Soviet Union. This is an important area of research and debate as throughout the period from the Party’s inception in 1920 to the dissolution of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1943 (and even beyond), the shadow of the Soviet Union stood over the CPGB. However an area that has been overlooked in comparison with the Party in the inter-war era is the transitional period when the CPGB went from being an influential part of the trade union movement to a Party that had been wrought by internal divisions, declining membership and a lowering industrial support base as well as threatened, alongside the entire left, by the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. This period of CPGB history, roughly from 1973 to 1979, was heavily influenced by the rise of Gramscism and Eurocommunism, in which a significant portion of the Party openly advocated reforms and a shift away from an emphasis of industrial militancy.
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Front Politics and the British Novel, 1934- 1940
    Popular Front Politics and the British Novel, 1934- 1940 Elinor Mair Taylor Doctor of Philosophy University of Salford School of Arts, Media and Social Sciences (English) 2014 Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Central Figures ............................................................................................................................... 2 The Popular Front .......................................................................................................................... 7 Cultural Crisis .............................................................................................................................. 13 The Popular Front Novel .............................................................................................................. 19 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................................ 33 Part One: Realism and Modernism Chapter One: Anti-Fascist Aesthetics in International Context ....................................................... 37 1.1 Realism & Formalism in International Literature ................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 'Flying the Red Flag? Communists in the National
    1 ‘FLYING THE RED FLAG? COMMUNISTS IN THE NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS, 1945-1985’. SHERYL BERNADETTE BUCKLEY Ph.D. Thesis 2015. 2 ‘Flying the Red Flag? Communists in the National Union of Mineworkers, 1945-1985’. Volumes: I Sheryl Bernadette Buckley Submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Salford School of Arts and Media 2015 3 Contents I Communism and Coal pp.12- 38 1.0 The end p.12 1.1 Being British Communists p.13 1.2 The industrial strategy p.15 1.3 The Labour Party p.20 1.4 Building British Bolsheviks p.23 1.5 Perceptions of the strategy and party responses p.27 1.6 Perceptions of strength p.29 1.7 The CP and the NUM p.31 1.8 Self-identification p.37 II Literature Review pp.38- 61 2.0 Studying the CP and the NUM p.38 2.1 Why communist history? p.37 2.2 Ownership of the communist past p.40 2.3 Transparency p.41 2.4 Debates p.42 2.5 The CP and the Soviet Union p.44 2.6 The Cold War and industrial politics p.44 2.7 The link between King Street and coalfield Communists p.46 2.8 Proving the link: evidence p.48 2.9 Horner and the party p.49 2.1.0 Post-nationalisation changes? p.51 2.1.1 Unofficial strikes p.52 2.1.2 Official strikes p.53 2.1.3 Agitators or instigators? p.54 2.1.4 Wage militancy and surplus labour p.55 2.1.5 Economism and politicisation p.56 2.1.6 Scargillism p.58 2.1.7 Main research objectives and originality p.61 III Sources and Methods pp.62-71 3.0 The Historical Method p.62 3.1 Sources p.62 3.2 Labour History and Study Centre, Manchester p.63 3.3 Working
    [Show full text]
  • A New Model for Marriage and Motherhood in Postwar Britain, 1945-1960
    Dominican Scholar Humanities & Cultural Studies | Senior Liberal Arts and Education | Theses Undergraduate Student Scholarship 5-2020 A New Model for Marriage and Motherhood in Postwar Britain, 1945-1960 Caroline Bland Dominican University of California https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2020.HCS.ST.03 Survey: Let us know how this paper benefits you. Recommended Citation Bland, Caroline, "A New Model for Marriage and Motherhood in Postwar Britain, 1945-1960" (2020). Humanities & Cultural Studies | Senior Theses. 3. https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2020.HCS.ST.03 This Senior Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Liberal Arts and Education | Undergraduate Student Scholarship at Dominican Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Humanities & Cultural Studies | Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Dominican Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A NEW MODEL FOR MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD IN POSTWAR BRITAIN 1945-1960 By Caroline Bland A senior thesis submitted to the Humanities Faculty of Dominican University of California in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities Dominican University of California San Rafael, California May 16, 2020 ii This thesis, written under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor and approved by the department chair, has been presented to and accepted by the Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Religion, Philosophy, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Cultural Studies. The content and research methodologies presented in this work represent the work of the candidate alone.
    [Show full text]
  • Douglas Oliver and Political Poetry Joe Luna
    1 Douglas Oliver and Political Poetry Joe Luna Ah! he is gone, and yet will not depart! – Is with me still, yet I from him exiled! For still there lives within my secret heart The magic image of the magic Child – S.T.C. Art is redemptive in the act by which the spirit in it throws itself away. – T.W.A. The work of the British poet and novelist Douglas Oliver (1937-2000) is not now widely read or discussed by many people beyond certain communities of poets, critics and students of the UK and North American experimental and avant-garde poetry scenes. Yet during his later life, at least, Oliver was the recipient of a wide range of plaudits and enjoyed some impressive public claims for his poetry. The reception of his work by the mainstream of the English press and literary organs was often as enthusiastic as its celebration in the pages of smaller, avant-garde journals. Writing in The Times, Peter Ackroyd named Oliver’s collected poems Kind (1987) “the finest poetry of the year.”1 Patrick Wright and Howard Brenton both heaped praise on Oliver’s The Infant and the Pearl (1985) and Penniless Politics (1991) in the London Review of Books and The Guardian respectively, with Brenton in 1992 claiming the latter poem had set “the literary agenda for the next two decades,” invoking both Eliot and Milton as comparable precursors.2 Bloodaxe Books reprinted Penniless Politics in 1994 with Brenton’s ecstatic recommendation as a foreword. Oliver was declared by Ian Sansom in 1997, again in The Guardian, to be “one of the very best political poets writing in English.”3 By the time of his death in 2000, Oliver had become one of the most publicly and internationally visible of all the poets whose writing careers began in earnest in the college rooms, grounds, domestic environs and pubs of Cambridge, UK in the 1960s.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Economy and the New Capitalism: Essays in Honour of Sam Aaronovitch/ Edited by Jan Toporowski
    Political Economy and the New Capitalism Political Economy and the New Capitalism examines key developments in capitalist economies at the end of the twentieth century and brings together essays by leading economists in honour of the late Sam Aaronovitch, the veteran left- wing economist. In his work, Sam Aaronovitch emphasized the need to take into account the most recent developments in capitalist economies. In this spirit the essays in this volume focus on key issues raised by contemporary trends, including: how the apparent triumph of capitalism reflects on Marxism, the role of the collapse of Communism in undermining the post-war Keynesian settlement, and the relevance of Keynesianism to contemporary capitalism. Political Economy and the New Capitalism also examines the relevance of Sam Aaronovitch’s pioneering empirical studies of British capitalism in the light of modern developments. A wide range of problems are reviewed from industrial concentration today to the co-ordination of economic policies in Europe. Aaronovitch’s work on the role of finance in the British economy is the subject of sustained reflection. Individual chapters examine orthodox and left-wing criticisms of finance, exchange rate instability, and employment, growth and regions in the context of European Union. This work concludes with a bibliography of the published writings of Sam Aaronovitch. This volume collects the reflections of some of the most distinguished thinkers in economics today including: Meghnad Desai, G.C.Harcourt, Pat Devine, Egon Matzner, Malcolm Sawyer, Sir Alan Budd, Jan Toporowski, Philip Arestis, Eleni Paliginis, Victoria Chick and Ben Fine. Political Economy and the New Capitalism provides a vital and critical survey of key issues in political economy at the end of the twentieth century and will be of interest to students and researchers in political economy, the British and European economies, international, financial and industrial economics.
    [Show full text]
  • The British Communist Party and the Limits of the State in Tackling Racism
    Bridging the Gap: The British Communist Party and the limits of the state in tackling racism Evan Smith (Flinders University) Since the 1960s, many involved in anti-racist campaigning in Britain had argued that any positive action that the institutions of the state (such as the police, the judiciary and the Home Office) could take to combat racism would be hindered by the racism that was pervasive within these institutions. Many on the left, in the anti-racist movement and within Britain’s black communities had criticised Lord Scarman for his statement in his 1981 Inquiry into the Brixton riots that ‘“Institutional racism” does not exist in Britain’1 and this denial of institutional racism, which was prevalent in the thinking of the Government at the time, left many radical activists within the anti-racist movement unwilling to be involved in any state-related anti-racist activities. However the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), as a large and influential body within the British labour movement, was an important radical organisation, which sought to work with the state in anti-racist campaigning. This stemmed from a strategy of working within a parliamentary democratic framework and establishing a broad left alliance, which would involve many trade union and Labour Party members, who may not be willing to take any radical actions. This article will examine how the CPGB appeared to counter the radical trend amongst anti-racist campaigners and how they attempted to work with the institutions of the state, primarily in campaigning for the enforcement of the Race Relations Act.
    [Show full text]
  • Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists by David Aaronovitch
    1/3 Review Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists by David Aaronovitch London: Jonathan Cape, 2016 [ISBN 9780224074711] Don Milligan his is a strange book, it’s a biography; it’s political, but not a political biography. Ostensibly, it’s about TDavid Aaronovitch’s parents and growing up in a communist household in the sixties. It briefly sketches the history of the Communist Party of Great Britain from its foundation to its low point following the General Strike of 1926, and on to the highpoint it enjoyed for a year or two after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. This was followed, by decline, stagnation, fracture, and finally, by dissolution. David Aaronovitch’s, father, Sam Aaronovitch was a leading member of the Party, who’d fought his way out of the grim poverty of London’s Jewish East End in the nineteen thirties for a life of penury as a Party full-timer. An autodidact, Sam Aaronovitch was an impressive character, he’d haunted the public libraries as a teenager, and he read and read throughout his life; writing, lecturing, and organising for the Party well into middle age. Eventually, when passed over for promotion to one of the Party’s top jobs, as London District Organiser, he decided to try for a formal education, and astonishingly, in 1967, at the age of 47 without a qualification to his name, he was accepted at Balliol to study for a PhD in economics. Although David is still plainly proud of his Dad’s achievements, he is reticent on the contribution that Sam and his Mum, Lavender, made towards his own ascent through university, the National Union of Students, to life as an award-winning journalist and litterateur.
    [Show full text]