Paul Foot, revolutionary, writer and investigative journalist, public speaker and campaigner died on July 18 at the age of 66. Paul suffered a heart attack at Stanstead airport on his way to Ireland for a holiday with his partner and 9 year-old daughter.
Paul's death saw hundreds of tributes - not only in Socialist Worker, which would be expected for this long-time Socialist Workers Party leader - but in the mainstream press.
Some WelC from those whose lives Paul had touched in his relentless campaigns against injustice such as in the Carl Bridgewater case, or the execution of James Hanratty. Others were from people who had many political disagreements with Paul, but respected his commitment and integrity.
Paul was a strong supporter of the turn of the SWP to the Socialist Alliance, and then to Respect. He attended and spoke at rallies of the London Socialist Alliance from his wheelchair during 1999 when he was still recovering from a stroke. Later he stood a the mayoral candidate for Hackney Socialist Alliance.
Paul's words - both written and spoken - will be a weapon in the fight for socialism for many years to come.
Paul's last column in the Guardian newspaper on July 7 2004 concluded as follows: "Who says history doesn't repeat itself? Twenty-seven years ago, in 1977, Birmingham Labour MP, Roy Jenkins, scuttled off to a wellpaid job in Europe, and resigned his seat.
"The Labour candidate who lost the subsequent byelection was Terry Davies. He later won the seat, but is now scuttling off to a wellpaid job in Europe, causing another byelection.
"And there the historical repetition ends. I was the Socialist Workers party candidate in that 1977 byelection, and came bottom of the poll with 0.8 per cent of the vote.
"My friend John Rees, who is standing there now for the Respect coalition, promises me he will do better."
Respect and John Rees were of course able to achieve that two days later with 6.4 per cent. Building Respect as an organisation that can consistently get those sort votes and better as well as have an active presence on the streets and in the workplaces is a fine way of remembering Paul Foot. already stretched.
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Socialist Resistance supporter Basil Hinton died on July 17 2004 after a two month struggle with cancer.
Basil had a long record of far left political activity in Oxford going back to the 1970s. He was active for a long time in Mike Pixton Basil Hinton spent a large part of his life campaigning for socialism and justice. In this, he is irreplaceable. This is about that part of his life.
Someone who left Oxford many years ago said that what he remembered most about Basil was his voracious appetite for reading. That was when I first met Basil, some 25 years ago.
Basil became convinced that the struggle for a better future meant transforming society, not just the odd reform.
If old organizations were not up to the task and it was necessary to build new ones, John Lister Basil joined the International Marxist Group in the mid 1970s and left to join the Workers' Socialist League several years later mainly because of the strength of their industrial work in the Cowley car plant.
He remained a member of that group after it merged with Socialist Organiser and was then a member of the Socialist Group after the split with Matgamna in 1984.
Basil was a founder member
of the International Socialist
Group, of which he remained a
member throughout the rest of his life.
Throughout this period, Basil
was always among the first to volunteer to travel to mass
pickets, protests and conferences.
Until shortly before his death he was the main distributor of
Socialist Resistance to Oxford
supporters.
Once Basil had left the Temple Cowley then Littlemore Labour Party, before transferring to the Socialist Alliance and then Respect a couple of years ago. He worked for a long time at Oxford University Press and then at the Church Army Press. He was a delegate first Basil would do it. This is what he believed. That was what he read about-socialism, what it is and how to get it. It changed his life.
Someone else suggested that a fitting way to remember Basil would be a procession of paper-sellers - one for every journal that Basil sold. The truth is that Basil educated himself and expected others to learn.
His ability to carry around papers to sell was legendary, but even more impressively he read them all too!
To those he worked with, he was gentle, supportive, never aggressive or violent, even with his political oppoAlways in the thick of
the action, Basil
(circled) on a picket
lines outside the
Cowley Assembly
Plant since demolished) from SOGAT and then GPMU, to the Trades Union Council and served on its executive.
He was long active in trade union and anti racist work in Oxford and particularly in solidarity work with Irish republicanism.
Mild-mannered, unassuming, determined and committed. He was respectful and was respected. Basil would cooperate with anyone to achieve his goals.
Basil was utterly dedicated. If something had to be done, Basil would do it rather than leaving it not done. Basil's activity for the Labour Party is unsurpassed.
Members in Temple Cowley and Littlemore can recall occasions during elections when Basil was the only canvasser.
For Basil the issue was straightforward. To win the election, you had to put in the THE MIRACLE MAESTRO IS BORN. Labour Party he showed huge energy and commitment in campaigning to build the Socialist Alliance.
He was probably the most active comrade in Oxford working for the Alliance up to and throughout the parliamentary election campaign of 2001 — attending every organising and
Basil is survived by his wife Gladys, to whom he was married for 47 years. Gladys spoke to the crowd at Oxford East Community Centre after the funeral about how she was angry with Blair because she now felt there was no one to represent an ordinary working girl like herself. work. If that meant he had to do the work himself, he did it. The alternative - not doing it and risk losing - was too awful to contemplate.
Basil quite literally got his hands dirty. When some of us
political meeting, carrying out prodigious amounts of leafleting, and always being available to assist with campaigning work as we travelled around on the "battle wagon" (he also lent valuable advice on successful techniques he had learned as a Labour activist). Basil's work and commitment helped the ISG earn the respect of other comrades within the Alliance, and put many younger and fitter comrades to shame. There was every indication that If he had not been struck down by the illness that finally ended his life, Basil would have been equally central to this year's Respect EU election campaign.
He will be greatly missed, and I am very sorry to have been out of the country and unable to attend his funeral and subsequent meeting. reckoned we had done our stint of flyposting and pretended it was something for young people, Basil put us to shame.
The brush and bucket of paste, followed by a drink in the Community Centre - or the other way round - was a fairly typical evening.
Basil was an example to others. Especially when it came to the issue that Basil felt most strongly about -Basil opposed oppression all over the world, but never more than his own doorstep or across the Irish sea, where he saw British forces waging war in order to keep Ireland divided and weak.
Basil rigorously applied the notion that a nation that oppresses others can never itself be free. For Basil it was obvious what had to happen. Peace and progress in Ireland were impossible unless Britain left.
Here Basil revealed another mark of his character - personal courage. For such a view, unpopular at the best of times, was treated with great hostility by state and media. You were called a terrorist sympathiser, constantly at risk of physical assault.
Yet Basil never flinched. Where others weighed up personal safety, Basil went ahead. Attacked marches to defend Irish hunger-strikers
commemorate Bloody Sunday, spat in Cornmarket while leafletting to free the Birmingham 6 - Basil Hinton prepares to give a workshop on
Ireland at the
Centenary event of
Oxford & District
Trades Council Basil inspired others, and ensured that such campaigns survived and grew.
Basil's activity, determination, courage, gentleness, the scope of his convictions. and his particular dedication to Irish causes make him irreplaceable.
Basil - a very modest person - would no doubt have dismissed this view of himself, perhaps accurately and sceptically adding 'that's the sort of thing people say when you die
And I regret that I didn't say these things to him when he was alive.
But Basil would certainly have expected us to continue his struggle for a just and socialist future. On behalf of those up and the down the country, and elsewhere, fortunate enough to have worked with Basil -friends, campaigners, Oxford Trade Council to which he was a delegate for so many years, and comrades, I want to thank Gladys for this opportunity, and to offer her our deepest sympathy and best wishes.
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We welcome letters of up to 400 words. Longer letters may be cut for space reasons. You can email us, or post to PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU EDITORS:, Terry Conway, John Lister, Liam MacUaid, Brown, John Bulaitis, Andrew Burgin, Kathy Lowe, Pauline Roland, Piers Moystn, Karen O Toole, • DESIGN: John Lister Solidarity Network and individuals including Patrick Baker, Andrew Burgin, Brenda and Brian Bushell, Mathew Caygill, Duncan Chapple, Julian Coppens, Frances Curran, Norma Dowd, Andy Gibbons, Jamie Gough, Catriona Grant, Marcus Greville, Patrick Hall, Rick Hatcher, Wayne Holmes, Nick Lidgett, Frank McMahon, Lesley Mahmood, Alan McCoombes, Martin Milne, Piers Moystn, Liz Peretz, Sue Phillips, Surykant Raithatha, Norman Traub, Rick Simon, Colin Smith, Murray Smith, Sarah Taversham, Doug Thorpe, Tory Traub, Tessa van Gelderen, Bill Walton, Roger Welch. Published by SOCIALIST RESISTANCE, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. Printed by Web Press International, London EIS, EDITORIAL BOARD: Mandy Baker, Julia Brandreth, Paul SPONSORED BY: International Socialist Group, Socialist SATURDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER AT 10AM Lobby of Home Secretary David Blunkett's surgery over treatment of asylum seekers - particularly Naseh Ghator. For further info contact: Sheffield CDAS: [email protected], phone 07787 146 690. Firth Park Advice Centre 9 Stubbin Lane Sheffield 5 11-12 SEPTEMBER CND Conference City Hall, Queens Walk, London SE1. MONDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2004 8.00am Demonstration outside Westland Helicopters Yeovil SATURDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER National Launch of NOID. Peace Reggae ~ Funk ~ Hip Hop ~ Samba ~ Soukous ~ Afro-House ~ Soul ~ Soca ~ Salsa ~ Bhangra Bar Lorca, 261 Brixton Road, Brixton SW9, London 2004, 8pm-3am FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 24th 6pm Central London Critical Mass South Bank, under Waterloo Bridge, to leave by 6:45pm. Make sure you bring some noise, light, life, leaflets and enthusiasm with you! SATURDAY 25th SEPTEMBER 10.00am Demonstration: Switch off Star Wars. Demonstrate from midday at Flyingdales at the start of 'Keep in the first week of October 2004. Space for Peace' week. www.yorkshirecnd.org.uk THUR 30th Sept. 7:30-9:30pm. Bristol West MP Valerie Davey & Jenny Tonge MP talk about the situation in Palestine.. Bristol Redland Friends Meeting House, 126 Hampton Rd, (off Elgin Rd FRIDAY 1ST OCTOBER -SUNDAY 3RD OCTOBER Big Blether 4 - Scotland's biggest activist gathering. Campaigns and social organisations come together to make camp in a green space for a weekend of information and inspiration. At Culdees, near Aberfeldy, Loch Tay, Scotland. E10-£30. OUR NEXT ISSUE will be published More info: www.bigblether,org.uk Loch Tay, Scotland SUNDAY 3rd OCTOBER, 10.00am Demonstration at USAF Lakenheath Lakenheath Action Group Weekend. Protest at the main gates on the third followed by a direct action day on the fourth. Into at www.motherearth.org/lakenheathaction Contact [email protected] Lakenenheath OCTOBER 14-17 European Social Forum Alexandra Palace and venues in central London SUNDAY 17th October "Stop Bush, Stop The War. Another World Is Possible."