The Barnsby Blog

ANOTHER LOVELY SUMMUER’S DAY
And another day catching up with my lost emails. A good place to start is always with the Morning Star’s Saturday listing of Progressive Websites where one meets such friends as the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and the latest news from the newish Convention of the Left as well as historical matters particularly Graham Stevenson’s Communist Biographies from Graham Stevenson under the peculiar name of www.grahamthewebtaylor.co.uk which Graham assures me was not the name he chose Here is to be found also the website of the Socialist History Society direct descendent of the Communist Party of Great Britain’s famed History Group and also Keith Flett’s very valuable London Historian’s Group not to mention the progeny of Eddie and RuthFrow, the Working Class Movement Library and also the one that isn’t there but ought to be the website of the Labour History Review the journal of the Society for the Study of Labour History. Also on the Morning Star list is the website of the George Barnsby Working Class Library and Free Communist Bookshop and Friends of Bilston Community Collegewhich has this month suffered the death of its
principal, Keith Wymer who created the firs multicultural college in
Britain which was closed by racists and bigots who have tried ever since but failed to wipe out the very idea of community education in Britain but which is the only way to educational advance in Britain.
Also on the MS list are the trade unions , now making a come back with the two million membership of UNITE and the education trade unions fighting to save us from Educational Academies which would take our educational system away from its traditional role of developing Comprehensive Schools and colleges of FE which belong to the local community and not religious faiths of varying purposes or business men with no knowledge or interest in schools but want to turn our educational system into private profit machines.
Then there are websites that protect our culture such as the Bolton
Socialist Club , the Irish Democrat, Karl Dallas writer of songs. Bookshops such as Left on the Shelf, Leicester Secular Society, National Clarion Cycling Club, Musicians against Nuclear Arms, Olympic Poetry, Red Rope, socialist climbing club, Smokestack Books and Radical poetry, Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Committee, Workers’ Music Association and Wortley Hall, the Workerstately Home
Solidarity web sites come next. Form Cuba to Venezuela via Korea,
Spain and Scotland. Women’s organisations. Solicitors organisations such as O.H.Parsons , Pattinson and Brewer and others willing to defend trade unionists from victimisation and activists like me from charges of
deformation.
Why have I spent so much time publicising the Morning Star’s Website Listings? Because it publicised Bilston Community College when no one else would and because we need to tell people of this unique facility. We are against the Torturers and the Nuclear Maniacs and so is the Star. So let us see that it is widely utilised.

POLLY TOYNBEE AND BROWN’S LAST CHANCE.
Polly is one of the most respected non-Party activists who is prepared to call a spade a spade and particularly to understand that the war in Iraq is the great divide which separates decent people from the Torturers and Nuclear Maniacs. So when, in article appeared in the Guardian today boldly challenging Labour to oust Gordon Brown, then bring in Proportional Representation I thought she should have given some thought to who would supplant Brown especially as Brown and his cabinet are all guilty of supporting that war. But no. She discusses has beens such as Blunkett and Hoon, but ignores the only possible candidate who is Diane Abbott MP who is both female and black and is alone capable of saving Britain’s reputation and influence. .

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.

AN ADVENTUROUS SUMMER’S DAY
Last night I wrote of my lost emails. So many of them so much partof my life and I was determined that today they should be found. Martin George had said that he could not visit me for a week and the alternative was to find myself a professional computer repairer who would probably want ?80 to do the work. Yet Martin is so much my computer expert and friend that a wanted to inform him before I ‘went private’ So I phoned the University computerroom where Stuart (the third in command?) said Martin was not there but would
be back in a few minutes. So I phoned again later and again and yet again to be told each time that Martin was expected soon. Bu the time was approaching when I must contact an outsider and at least enquire if he had a time limit if Martin could no mend my computer today.
So I phoned the only person offering computer repairs in the Express
and Star. He had a Wolverhampton phone number and was very helpful. Yes,his deadline was 5pm because he would have to switch the computer off. So the die was cast. I had tried to contact Martin (he was at meetings all the morning I subsequently learned from his lost email) but if it were to be done today it would have to be by a stranger.
When he arrived he informed me that my lost emails were not lost at all, but hidden away and he did some manipulating and there they all were. He also charged me only ?20 for hiswork when I had fears that it would be much more and I thanked himprofusely. His name is David Allen and his mobile number is 07969 344047. It seems that David, a young lad had been made redundant from a local firm and he is still seeking another job, but to help things along he was doing private work and was finding it almost full time work. So we left the best
of friends him being a principled lad not charging as much as he might have done and he being as delighted that I had offered him work as I was to have my emails back. I final note. I was lucky to have used lastnight’s Express and Star for in tonight’s there are no computer ads at all.
So all’s well that ends well and tonight’s BLOG will deal with some of
the emails that I have now recovered.
First must come the topical question of who attended Keith Wymer’s funeral which Colette Wymer emailed me.
Of those I knew John Kyte is the one we feel most sorry for as Keith
worked with John until the last day of his life. Paul Goddard-Patel, financeofficer I wrote of a couple of days ago as I did of Earl Laird and Sim Wignall I know of because she was Clerk to the Governors of BCC and there may be some charity payments which ought to be investigated. Four others on the list I did not know, and there are many more who will grieve for Keith and will assist in restoring Bilston Community College to the City.
However, Colette makes the point that while the family will support our
efforts to restore BCC the family do not necessarily feel the same about BCC which was destructive to both her father and those who loved him. Are there two visions of Bilston Community College here which will be difficult to keep apart?

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
It was my intention to just tell of all the emails I missed but this
is proving difficult. In view of the proximity of the EU elections the
efforts of Nick Kelleher and the Wolverhampton, Bilston and District TUC to carry through the Hope not Hate programme of Searchlight International and distribute their leaflets occupies a high place. So far 23,000 newspapers and leaflets have been distributed by more that 50 people. We now have another 2,200 leaflets and have decided on another leaflet distribution on Sat.30th May meet 10-30 at the Aldi car park Fighting Cocks Wolverhampton. Also an eve of poll leafleting at train and bus depots from 6-30am to 9-30am. Contact Nick at 07932 797139.
Then I have a reply from my friend Nasir Khan to my plea for expert
opinions on the Nuclear Tests of North Korea who has responded by finding Paul Craig Roberts who suggests that the military-industrial complex who control the USA needs together with the Israel lobby and banksters need a constant flow of enemies to keep the tax payers money rolling into its coffers
Another long running campaign has now been finding what councillors are involved in education in Wolverhampton, who supports the so-called Building Schools for the Future. We are now told that this scheme has overwhelming support although it involves acceptingEducational Academies which removes control of schools from the local authority to religious bodies or industrialists and is fiercely contested by anybody who knows anything about education. This includes Tory councillors who fail to reply to my requests
to know who runs and controls the council.
Lastly, on a personal note I’ll mention replies from the Arsenal
Supporters Trust to me asking the cost of erecting a roof over the Emirates Stadium and my desire to visit Arsenal Stadium each of which has progressed although in the meantime other problems have arisen. I’ve also run out of
slogans so, I’ll simply say:

GOODNIGHT

TRACKING DOWN MICHAEL CASHMAN
My computer is on the blink again. This time I’ve received nothing in
my In Box for four days. As I said a couple of days ago I had asked Bob
Hazlehurst to find me an address through which I could contact our Euro MPMichael Cashman. Rob performed this function to the letter and emailed it to me but I did not receive it. So today I have phoned him and got both the Headquarters of the Euro Campaign at Terry Duffy House how that makes me wretch because Duffy was the worst of righwingers who virtually destroyed the Amalgamated Engineering Union in Margaret Thatcher’s days and which has only just been rebuilt as the most powerful union in Britain UNITE twomillion strong.
Bob also found me an email address for Cashman which I have
used, The crux of the matter is that I cannot think that Cashman supports the war in Iraq since he has such a good record of work for peace and multiculturalism and I hope he retains views which he held when first elected at the turn of this century. And as a Socialist he is able to present his views to the public without reference to the stoney hearted right wing New Labourites who run this Euro election and who will not allow any deviation from the policy of Nuclear Madness that puts the planet indanger and all of us on it. However we must wait and see. I have givenCashman my address and phone number and asked him to call on me as I can’tvisit him.

THE LIB-DEMS THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN SAVE BRITAIN’S REPUTATION.
The main business of the day has been to try to persuade Nick Clegg the leader of the Liberal Democrats that he should forsake peripheral matters such as supporting the Guardian’s Campaign ‘A New Politics’ which makes no mention of the war in Iraq and claim his heritage of being the only Party which opposed the war from the beginning.
Inextricably linked with this matter is who should replace Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. There are a number of very worthy male MPs who could replace him such as John McDonnell, or Alan Simpson or Jeremy Corbbyn or,at a pinch Alan Johnson; or female MPs such as Ann Cryer or Lynne Jones. But the times call for something even more radical and the only candidate is Diane Abbott who is both black and female. The problem is that Diane has suffered discrimination in the past and is not likely to put herself forward unless she has a strong lobby to support her. But with Barak Obama the great black hope of the world succumbing to the pressures of the US money market it is all the more important that Britain should be on the side of peace and
the only candidate is Diane Abbott.

A CELEBRATION FOR THE LIFE OF KEITH WYMER.
Today I have received the programme celebrating the life of Keith as ‘ loving husband, caring father, staunch Socialist and avid sportsman’ whose funeral took place on the 22nd of May. The order of the service was: Song - The Lincolnshire Poacher; - a Reading by his son Phil Wymer; Song - the Red Flag; Reading Patrick Wymer; Song - Jerusalem; Reading Natasha and Collette Wymer; Song - Cuando Voy al Atrabajo Victor Jara and a Manifesto from the last album that Victor Jaro wrote before he was murdered in Pinochet’s 11 September coup in Chile in 1973.
The participants then moved from the Crematorium to the public house
Hammers and Pincers where celebrations took place. I am promised a summary
of the speeches made. The programme contains a long list of things and
people that Keith loved. The list contained lots of food and some of the
people were Tony Benn, Roy Hattersley, Bertrand Russell and Charles
Dickens. Things he did not like were Fools, Bureaucrats ,Margaret Thatcher, the BNP and NF and throwing things away.
The highlight of the proceedings were that Keith Wymer had written his own obituary which I shall paraphrase as follows: I spent 39 years in
education and had the satisfaction of working in teams assisting students to a better life. Policies put emphasis on Equal Opportunities for All, a Democratic Approach, creating a context where individuals could develop their full potential without regard for race.I have also had the benefit of a loyal and supportive family and friends. Four children have meant that I have never been lonely or isolated. No father could be more proud or grateful. One of Peta’s most notable achievements have been keeping the family together.
I can only end by quoting the family farewell to Keith:
A light is from our household gone,
A voice we loved is stilled:
A chair is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled

CHINA OPTS FOR WIND POWER
In a mad, mad, world here is a decision of such sense and sensibility
that the whole world must applaud. China, the second greatest power on earth, landlocked, over vast areas without coal or oil, has decided to plump for renewable energy. As usual, huge investments amounting to 400 billions of pounds will be pumped into the scheme which will see vast areas covered with solar farms and roof panels to exploit the renewable power of nature.
I’ve often said of Britain that if anyone thought we wanted nuclear
power in a territory surrounded by water and floating on coal, they needed their heads examined, and so it has proved. Yet New Labour has always been obsessed with nuclear power and these maniacs deliberately risk the destruction of the planet. That is why they must be put under arrest and tried for crimes against humanity before such a calamity occurs.

LIBERTY 75 YEARS PROTECTING FREEDOM IN BRITAIN.
Liberty (which used to be called the National Council for Civil
Liberties and before that, lost in the mists of time, Freedom from
Conscription which first occurred in 1917 during World War One and later in the 1930s when World War again threatened. and was resisted by the Labour movement) is celebrating with a Conference on Saturday June 6th at the Methodist Central Hall, London where a large number of progressive speakers will put their views on Our Common Values and How they can be Preserved.
All of the advertised speakers are, as far as I know, opposed to the
war in Iraq, but two of them have played a special role in championing the sensible people on the side of that great chasm which divides mankind today into civilised people who oppose the war in Iraq and the murderers and torturers who support and fuel that war.
One of them is my good friend Tony Benn who left Parliament after 50 years ‘to do some useful work for Peace and Socialism’. The other is Diane Abbott MP who has a special role to play in freeing us from the tyranny of New Labour but who needs some persuading to take up this role. The role is to be the first black and female Prime Minister of Britain. Only this can estore the position of Britain, especially as Barak Osama the first black US president is reneging on his promises to end the imperialist wars of the US as he becomes enmeshed in the coils of the US money men.

A NEW POLITICS?
The Guardian launches its policies for reshaping government in Britain with a four page supplement offering a chance for all to join the vigorous and wide ranging debate on the reform of British democracy.
Printing comments on topics such as A Written Constitution, The
Monarchy, .Electoral Reform, Parliamentary Protocol and at a rough count twenty other topics, not one deals with the war in Iraq. Thus all these good people go all around the Wrekin, as we say in the Midlands, and never reach the one and only issue on which they are agreed but do not speak , namely that ending the wars is the central, indispensable action to be taken to save peace and cure the economic crisis. Britain is awash with Committees and Conventions which very properly demand and deserve our support, But the key action must be their unity in preserving peace and multiculturalism.

THE NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR EXPLOSION.
I’m being pressed by my friends to make clear the view of the GB Working Class Library and the he Committee of Peace and Multiculturalism on my views on this matter.
First I would say that in principle I am against the
proliferation of nuclear weapons and stand with CND and Liberty among many others who believe that all such weapons of mass destruction should be abolished.
But I must confess to not knowing enough about the N.Korea situation to make a judgement and must rely on such people as my friend Nasir Khan, Martin Jacques, Stuart Hall and Eric Hobsbawm to
instruct me.
One thing is quite clear, if you possess nuclear weapons you
will not be attacked by the imperialist powers possessing such weapons which means overpoweringly the USA and Britain. N.Korean friendship with China, their changing relations with South Korea and Japan both of whom might be a threat to North Korea are delicate situations whichneed very careful handling.
We are back to a position akin to Northern Ireland and the
Troubles where I was opposed to terrorist tactics which killed
indiscriminately innocent men, women and children (which occurs when US and
Britain wage war today in Iraq and elsewhere) but I could not deny those who felt so desperate at their hopes of changing their enslavement that they used such terrorist tactics. This was the situation of the IRA at the time.
Those who condemn N.Korea are invited to use this BLOG for a reasoned retort.

BAN ALL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

THE PLEASURES OF SUMMER.
In days long ago when we were fit and healthy there were certain fixed points that marked our summer. One was the Hay-on-Wye Festival to which we would travel in our first car (an Austin Seven Van with its side panels knocked out and replaced with glass) to the annual Festival of the Town of Books and come back to Wolverhampton with the car loaded.
Another fixed point was the Jazz Festival at Upton-on-Severn where as likely as not rain bogged down our car, but the wonderful jazz made up for it watching from huge marquees local favourites such as the big, fat man who copied Fats Waller and made jokes about the Black Country, although there was not a racist bone in his body, Tommy Burton , as well as the leading jazz bands of the day and were bound to run into Ken Purchase our Wolverhampton MP and great chum of ours.
Yet another part of the summer school holiday was my determination to be come a historian instead of a history teacher ; the difference being that teachers taught from other peoples history whereas a historian taught from his own, original material. This usually involved archaeological excavations or field work at such sites as Hadrian’s Wall, or further north to Skara Brae and the Neolithic sites of stone circles and henges such as Stonehenge and pottery and hill forts of Derbyshire, and Wiltshire and also the Long Barrow burial mounds.
Then the Bronze Age remains, round burial mounds,
bronze axes and domestic drinking vessels and then on to the Romans and their roads and civilisation and a return to less civilised ways as Romans made way for Anglo-Saxon tribes and on to the Norman conquest. Here is the Battle of Tettenhall which we are determined to investigate
Each year either excavating or field work took place until I was an
archaeologist capable of conducting my own excavations with school children in both Bilston and Oldbury. My great hero was the Communist V.Gordon Childe But local archaeologists such as Nicholas Thomas whose book ‘A Guide to Prehistoric England’ became my bible andisdedicated to Gordon Childe, and Martin Webster whose Roman excavations I attended taught me that prehistoric
sites are all around us and this is the heritage I have passed on to pupils I have taught.

HAY 2009.
Hay on Wye becomes more political every year and Guardian 2 publishes
a Guide to this year’s proceedings which includes a section Entitled Books that have Changed My Life and I was particularly interested to read the answers of people I know. Howard Jacobson, Jewish and a lecturer at one time at Wolverhampton University of which he didn’t think much. He surprised me with a quintessentially English choice of Palgraves Treasury of the best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language which he said was his mother’s book from which she read aloud to him and from which he learned that language mattered above the story and that love and grief and loneliness interested him more than other subjects.
Then there was Martin Jacques a Communist who claimed that reading Antonio Gramsci’s Selections from the Prison Notebooks transformed the way he thought about the exercise of power in western societies. Although written in an elusive style partly to avoid Mussolini’s censors each new reading brings new insights on politics and culture. I have sympathy with his choice, but feel that I have a better choice that I will reveal later.
AC Grayling, another Marxist had a surprising collection, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is to be expected and also Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, but not the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists as books with some of the philosophers’ deepest problems. Although when I think about this is just what the book is about.
My own choice would be a book I carried with me throughout my years in Burma. with its front concealed beneath a floral designed cover.It was the Historical Writings of Marx and Engels some of which I cannot comprehend to this day.such as the eight chapters of the Peasant War in Germany by Engels, or the Revolution in Spain by both Marx and Engels which are articles and notes from the New York Daily Tribune in 1854.
More to my liking were The Civil War in the USA, Articles from the
Vienna Presse (1861-2) which deals largely with the US Civil War and British reaction to it and includes the Address of the International Working Men’s Association to Abraham Lincoln on his election as President congratulating him on his decision to oppose slavery and to which Lincoln replied saying that he hoped to complete the task with the support of the organised working class of the world. This letter almost word for word we sent to Barack Obama
a few weeks ago, but unlike Lincoln he has not so far replied.
This book comprising nearly 1,100 pages shows that Marx and Engels were almost as much concerned with the US as they were with England and this vast tome of over 1,100 pagesturned me into a Marxist in a way that nothing else has ever done.

KEITH WYMER.
Nothing on the Wymer front today. I still await a list of those who
attended the funeral together with tributes they paid. These I am promised
for tomorrow. But meanwhile he is in the thoughts of people throughout the world.

SALUTE TO KEITH WYMER.

KEITH WYMER AND THE WOLVERHAMPTON RACE EQUALITY COUNCIL.
Keith Wymer lived many lives and one of the most important was his
connection with WREC. Remember we are dealing with the worst educational
crime of the twentieth century - the closure by racists and bigots of
Bilston Community College (BCC) and, interconnected with this, the failure of public servants to reply to correspondence addressed to them.
I have spent much of today in contact with Keith Wymer’s family,
particularly with his daughter Collette and everyone one of them show a marvellous commitment to their father’s work and legacy. the educational crime of the century was to close WREC and something must be said of its origins with which Keith was connected. It was set up by devoted anti-racists as the Wolverhampton Council for Racial Harmony by a motion of mine as secretary of Wolverhampton Communist Party and later became the WREC
Keith Wymer was a Socialist who worked closely with Communist Party members and WREC recognised the value of both the College he had set up and his personal contribution. So when there was a change of Director of Education in Wolverhampton WREC passed a motion, again originating from me, recommending that Wymer should be appointed, because he would radically transform education in Wolverhampton as Tim Brighouse was transforming it in Birmingham. Keith applied for the job but was not offered it the post going to Roy Lockwood, considered a ’safer pair of hands’ than Keith and I wrote
of Lockwood ‘Lockwood’s weaknesses in yesterday’s BLOG.
Also on the WREC committee at that time was another prominent member of BCC, Paul Goddard-Patel. Paul was the finance officer of BCC who was criticised for not having accountant’s qualifications although he was good at his job and had that other BCC qualification of being a polymath by having other interests, namely that his garden was opened to the public inthe summer and he was an expert horticulturalist.
The vice-principal at BCC at that time was Frank Reeves who took on most of the legal work in arguing against the Further Education Funding Council’s decision to close BCC. Frank also is a poet of note who wrote Black Woman in the Night Sky a book of Multi-Cultural, Anti-Racist and Progressive Verse published by the Progressive Writers’ Association. Frank also wrote the only book on the history of racism in Wolverhampton with particular reference to Enoch Powell. Race and Borough Politics covers the period from 1945 to the 1980s.
Keith Wymer fell out with Reeves who he accused of undermining his
authority and ideas, and the family is adamant that they will have nothing to do with Frank Reeves. On this point me and the family differ. I knew Frank well particularly when he was a member of Wolverhampton Communist Party about the time I had to retire with a heart problem when I was 63 and others took my place in the CPGB, and I would like to see Frank acknowledging his roots.and renewing his friendship. But that is up to Frank and we’ll see whether he replies to my email suggesting reconciliation.
The true polymath connected with Frank Reeves at the time was Niranjan Singh Noor, universally known as Mr.Noor who was at that time national secretary of the Indian Workers’ Association as well as a member of the local IWA. Mr.Noor myself and Lance Dunkley were engaged in the opposition to the madcap scheme of building a completely new school and bussing to it every ethnic minority pupil in the town. The Tory local authority also appointed as head a man who had experience of controlling natives in the British Empire. He then invited Enoch Powell to open the school and of course there was almost universal rage at what he had done. Ernest Rhoden continued as a controversial head of the school and was involved in the local turban scandal where children were forbidden to come into school wearing a turban. Mr.Noor called him the racist that he was promptly sued
by Rhoden for defamation of character and before an all-white jury he was found guilty and fined £50,000 pounds which neither he nor the IWA could possible pay and Mr.Noor had a nervous breakdown. When he recovered Mr.Noor was employed at BCC where he became the key person in providing anti-racist training.
Mr Noor was also a national Punjabi poet and had a national
Punjabi College named after him.
Mr Noor had a very sad and painful death by choking and no one was more upset than Frank Reeves who was one of his dearest friends and admirers..
Yet another pioneer of Bilston Community College was a woman who had a famous Jewish Communist father, Anna Frankel. This knowledge I owe to my wife Esme who herself played a role in local politics as the manager of the last Communist bookshop in Britain, Key Books in Birmingham where she was the manager. She
also became secretary of the party when it was converting itself from CPGB to Democratic Left. Anna Frankel associated herself with Frank Reeves and I have also sent her the same reconciliation note. But whether she responds we shall see.

A DUTY TO THE WRONGLY ACCUSED.
Life is littered with cases of people wrongly accused who rot in jail
and are forgotten except by the minority who will sprend their life seeing that justice is done. In the West Midlands one can think of the so-called Walsall Anarchist Bomb Plot of the 1890s More recently there has been the Birmingham Six and the Shrewsbury Six to be followed bythe Shrewsbury Two of Ricky Tomlinson and Des Warren.
Yet none can compare in political significance with the closure of
Bilston Community College which left careers in ruins, characters
assassinated and financial situations attenuated. Yet here is the example of the loyalty of the whole family and the thousands of people whose lives were improved and changed by contact with Keith Wymer and the enlightened work he did at Bilston Community College

LET COMMUNITY EDUCATION BE RESTORED IN BILSTON
AND INTRODUCED ELSEWHERE.

MORE ON KEITH WYMER.
My thoughts today have been on another large swathe of people who knew and respected Keith. This is people connected with the Wolverhampton Race Equality Council. Keith was a member for many years and the City council and Bilston Community College naturally worked together. I’m not sure whether Keith became its chairman but we worked together on racial matters. The College vice-principal, Frank Reeves brought a delegation to WREC and appeared before a committee of which I was chair to explain what the Bilston Community College was trying to do and it was agreed that we should work closely with each other.
One result was that when the Wolverhampton Director
of Education resigned WREC recommended that his successor should be Keith Wymer and if this had occurred education in the City would have been changed as radically as it had been in Birmingham. But it was not to be and the City opted for what they thought was a ’safe pair of hands’ andappointed Roy Lockley with whom I became very friendly until very recently when he has supported the crass scheme to tear down all our Secondary schools and replace them with Educational Academies.
This is an abrupt departure from the traditional support of Comprehensive Schools and I can find no decision
that was made to make this fundamental and reactionary change.
Their will be many people connected to the WREC who will be sad to hear of Keith Wymer’s death and I mention the following people taken from the WREC Annual Report of 2002. Frank Amadedon of the Nigerian Welfare Society, Bajan Devis chair of WREC, Ian Cowie delegate of the Society of Friends, Mr Rai a doorkeeper of the back door of the Civic Centre who sent his own money to further the development of good relations in the town, but was sent back to him as the Council refused to accept his plan for a trophy to be given each
year to a person who had done most to promote good race relations. Others I recall working with in WREC were the Indian Workers Association delegates Surjit Singh Khalsa who I have also worked with recently in demanding that Bilston Community College be restored, the two delegates from Wolverhampton, Bilston and District TUC, Nick Kelleher and Kamiajit Singh a great Indian representative another one who met an early death when in his prime. Lance Dunkley a leader of the African-Caribbean Community forty years ago and the
leader still. and very many others I did not know but most of whose
societies had received training programmes from Bilston Community College and will want to pay homage to Keith Wilmer. I shall continue to investigate other sources, for instance the Chilean comrade whose name I forget who is exiled here in Wolverhampton and who fought against the terror of Pinochet.

OUR EUROPEAN UNION CANDIDATES FOR THE ELECTION.
I spoke last night of Maurice Cashman our delegate for the election in early June. Google provided me with material about him which I put on the BLOG last night. Google has also provided me with information on his co-partner Neena Gill and since no one else will provide such information I give it to you here. Neena was elected an MEP at the same time a as Maurice Cashman in 1999. Nina was awarded her first degree in 1979 by Liverpool Polytechnic and completed a professional qualification two years later. She is fluent in several Asian languages as well as Italian and she is nowstudying French and German. Here duties within the EC include President since 2007 of relations with India. President 2004-2007 of relations with South Asia. Vice President 2002-2004 of EP delegation for relations with South Asia countries. She is also working on a vast range of topics within the EU including sport trade unions, trade and gender problems. Again, contact Google yourself for other information.
Once again, like Cashman, she seems a thoroughly decent and hard
working person. It would seem almost impossible for such a person to be
guilty of supporting the war in Iraq until you remember that the EU itself
is in favour of the war and is thus a partner of the torturers and
warmongers such as Gordon Brown and his Cabinet that I am not prepared to vote for. So while I still have no email address of Cashman and Gill to ask them this question personally, my Postal Vote remains opened but not filled in and at the moment it is a
bank holiday and I cannot contact anyone who can tell me whether they support the war or not.

VOTE FOR PEACE NOT WAR.

(NOT IN DATE ORDER)

1932 WOLVES FIRST MASCOT, MOLINEUX GROUND (MAJOR BUCKLEY) (LARGE PHOTOGRAPHS ON DISPLAY MOLINEUX MUSEUM)

MEMBER OF ST PETER’S SCHOOL BOXING CLUB AGED 13 AND 14.

1942 FOUNDER MEMBER OF WOLVERHAMPTON RACING CYCLING CLUB (STARTED BY PERCY STALLARD)

1942 WARTIME HOLIDAYS AT HOME,, BOXED ON MOLINEUX GROUNDS. MY OPPONENT JOHN WARREN. WON TROPHY. (JIMMY WILDE GLOVES PURCHASED BY MY FATHER, NOW DONATED TO WOLVES MUSEUM AND ON DISPLAY BY SIR JACK HAYWARD SUITE,. OCTOBER 2007).

WON ARMY `INTAKE’ RIFLE-SHOOTING COMPETITION, BORDER REGIMENT CARLISLE, MY PRIZE, TWO HALF CROWN SAVING STAMPS.

1943 WON RASC INTAKE ARMY BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP, HADRIANS CAMP CARLISLE. WON TROPHY.

DISCHARGED FROM ARMY 1946, AWARDED `THE KINGS SILVER WAR BADGE’. FOR DISABILITY.

1950 FORMED TEAM AND PLAYED FOOTBALL FOR `CROWN CRISPS’.( TAUGHT WALKER’S BUTCHERS OF LEICESTER.) HOW TO MAKE CRISPS. NOW ACKNOWLEDGED BY WALKERS AS THEIR FOUNDER AND INVITED TO THE FACTORY AT LEICESTER..

JOINED 8TH BATTALION HOME GUARD RIFLE CLUB SHOOTING FULL-BORE AND SMALL-BORE. WENT TO BISLEY, ALTCAR, WITH CAPTAIN CLIFF EVERALL LT COMMANDER JOHN WILCOX. AND MAJOR HEYOE (RACHEL’S DAD). WOLVERHAMPTON 303 FULL BORE CLUB 1950s.

MEMBER WINNING HOME GUARD TEAM, BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE FOR STAFFORDSHIRE 8TH BATTALION HG.

BRITISH NATIONAL AWARD, HOME GUARD RECORD SCORE OF 1399 X 1400 WITH MATCH RIFLE. . PRESENTATION AT BRIDGNORTH BY COL CLIFFORD COMMANDING OFFICER 8TH BATTALION HG.

WON STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP FROM OLYMPIC SHOOTER BILL GODWIN (KYNOCH).

MEMBER OF THE 22/44 HG RIFLE CLUB LANESFIELD.

FOUNDER OF THE JAMES GIBBONS RIFLE CLUB AND RANGE, BIRMINGHAM NEW ROAD, OPENED BY THE MAYOR OF WOLVERHAMPTON COUNCILLOR HARRY BAGLEY

ACHIEVED `WORLDMASTER STATUS’ ( GOLD AWARD) 1957..NATIONAL SMALLBORE RIFLE ASSOCIATION. ONLY WOLVERHAMPTON MAN EVER TO WIN THIS SINCE 1906. SCORE 398 X 400.

FOUNDER OF BRITAINS FIRST MUNICIPAL AIR RIFLE RANGE AT BILSTON BATHS, OPENED BY THE MAYOR OF WOLVERHAMPTON.

SHOT FOR ENGLAND AT AYR IN SCOTLAND AFTER GRAND AGGREGATE. 1965

WINNER `NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE CUP’ ABERDEEN.

WON NATIONAL BRITISH LEGION TROPHY TWICE AT BISLEY

WINNER OF THE PARKER HALE TROPHY AT SCOTTISH HOME COUNTRIES EVENT (INVERNESS).

BLACK COUNTRY CHAMPION AT KYNOCH RANGE BIRMINGHAM.

QUEEN ALEXANDER CUP BISLEY (TWICE), BLUE RIBBON OF RIFLE SHOOTING. (IN OVER 100 YEARS OF COMPETITIVE RIFLE SHOOTING, NO WOLVERHAMPTON MAN HAS EVER WON THIS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD). 1964/1971. ONLY ONE OTHER STAFFORDSHIRE MAN TO WIN TWO, OLYMPIAN BILL GODWIN (KYNOCH).

MANAGER OF BRITISH TEAM, WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS LINZ AUSTRIA. 1979.

NATIONAL RIFLE COACH MUNICH GERMANY FOR THE NSRA.

MANAGER AND COACH NATIONAL AND BRITISH RIFLE AND ARMBRUST TEAMS OVER SEVERAL YEARS IN SWITZERLAND, GERMANY AUSTRIA HOLLAND BELGIUM.

APPOINTED INTERNATIONAL SHOOTING JUROR BY IAU. (INTERNATIONAL ARMBRUST UNION) SWITZERLAND.

FOUNDER PRESIDENT NATIONAL AIR RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION

FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF BRITISH MATCH CROSSBOW ASSOCIATION WITH MR GODREY DEINER SWITZERLAND.

CHAIRMAN OF WOLVERHAMPTON SMALL BORE RIFLE ASSOCIATION). AN OLYMPIC VENUE FOR THE BIRMINGHAM BID, NOMINATED BY VISITING RUSSIAN DELEGATION TO THE RANGE.(VLADIMAR RAZENOF) PERSONAL FRIEND AND RUSSIAN NATIONAL SHOOTING COACH.

FOUNDER OF `SHOOTING FOR THE DISABLED’ WITH SIR LUDWIG GUTTMAN AT STOKE MANDERVILLE.

RIFLE SHOOTING REPRESENTATIVE CENTRAL COUNCIL PHYSICAL RECREATION. `CCPR’. LONDON AND BOURNEMOUTH., CHAIRMAN, DUKE OF EDINBROUGH

FOUNDER AND LIFE MEMBER OF WOLVERHAMPTON SPORTS ADVISORY COUNCIL

LIFE MEMBER OF NATIONAL SMALLBORE RIFLE ASSOCIATION

MEMBER OF BISLEY NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

MEMBER OF THE GUN TRADES ASSOCIATION.

PIONEERED TELEVISED RIFLE SHOOTING FOR BILLY WRIGHT `ATV SPORT.’. (LETTER ON DISPLAY BILLY WRIGHT CABINET MOLINEUX GROUND)

AWARDED CERTIFICATE BY NATIONAL BOYS CLUBS ASSOCIATION

AWARDED TOP AWARD BANNER BY NATIONAL AIR RIFLE AND PISTOL ASSOCIATION.

`AWARD OF MERIT’ CERTIFICATE BY WOLVERHAMPTON COUNCIL.

FORMED AND RAN COACHES COURSES FOR `SPORT FOR ALL’ AT PARK VILLAGE AND MORETON SCHOOLS. ALSO FOR BLACK COUNTRY PUPILS AT DUDLEY. (COACHING CERTIFICATES PRESENTED BY DEREK ANDERSON ACTION SPORT.

FOUNDER OF THE BRITISH BENCH REST ASSOCIATION, (TELESCOPIC SIGHTS) WITH FACILITIES OPENED BY THE MAYOR OF WOLVERHAMPTON COUNCILLOR JOYCE HILL, AT ALDERSLEY STADIUM.

INSTRUMENTAL IN OBTAINING £ 240,000 FOR REFURBISHING OF THE ALDERSLEY RIFLE RANGE, FROM LOTTERY FUNDING IN A MULTI MILLION POUND PACKAGE FOR STADIUM DEVELOPMENTS.

AWARDED LARGE PRESENTATION CANNON BY WOLVERHAMPTON AND DISTRICT RIFLE CLUBS 1974. (NOW ON SHOW MOLINEUX GROUND)

AWARDED SPECIAL BRONZE DISC, MADE AND PRESENTED BY GOODYEAR RIFLE CLUB. “THE FIRST SHOT” FIRED AT 100 YARDS, A CARTON BULL’S EYE. ALDERSLEY OUTDOOR RIFLE RANGE 19TH MAY 1974.

FINANCIAL SUPPORTER OF THE WEDNESFIELD HIGH SCHOOL BB SHOOTING TEAM TO AMERICA.

PROPOSED AND PASSED BY WOLVERHAMPTON RIFLE COMMITTEE THAT THEIR RANGE AT ALDERSLEY, BY CALLED `FRANK SPITTLE RIFLE RANGE.’. NOV 10TH 1994..

WRITING THE HISTORY OF WOLVERHAMPTON RIFLE CLUBS AND SHOOTING TEAMS FOR THE WOLVERHAMPTON HERITAGE SOCIETY WEB SITE FOR JOHN SHARMAN.

AWARDED SILVER FIGURE FOR SERVICES TO LOCAL AND NATIONAL SHOOTING SPORT BY WOLVERHAMPTON UNITED SERVICES CLUB. (ON DISPLAY WOLVES MUSEUM)

WRITING AND PRODUCING A BOOK ABOUT `PUB SHOOTING’ IN THE BLACK COUNTRY, ENTITLED `RING MY BELL’. 1995

FOUNDER OF WOLVERHAMPTON `BELL TARGET’ ASSOCIATION. (AIR RIFLE).

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION HISTORIC ARMS AWARD FOR “CLASSIC BELL TARGET” BISLEY 1996.

FAMILY

SETTING A NATIONAL RECORD FOR CLOSE FAMILY INVOLVEMENT IN BRITISH RIFLE SHOOTING, `FOUR,’ AT GREAT BRITAIN LEVEL, AS OFFICIALS AND SHOOTERS ENTITLED TO
WEAR A GREAT BRITAIN BLAZER BADGE.

ESTABLISHED AND PIONEERED THREE PASSIONAL RIFLE SHOOTING `SHOOTING AT JAMES GIBBONS RIFLE CLUB. WOLVERHAMPTON.

SOME OF MY COACHING TO TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS, BEARING IN MIND THAT IT IS THE COMPETITORS WHO DO THE WINNING, NOT ME.

BRITISH LADIES TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS, JAMES GIBBONS LADIES RIFLE SHOOTERS, WON THE Dr EDITH SUMMERSKILL MP (,NATIONAL TROPHY.)

NATIONAL JUNIOR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP AT BISLEY. WOLVERHAMPTON WON IT TWICE. (TEAMS OF FIVE)

NATIONAL MATCH CROSSBOW CHAMPION WOLVERHAMPTON.

BRITISH THREE POSITION (STANDING KNEELING AND PRONE) CHAMPION, MALCOLM THICKBROOM (NOW SOUTH AFRICAN CHAMPION).

NATIONAL JUNIOR AIR RIFLE CHAMPION, ANTONY SPITTLE

WORLD IAU CHAMPIONSHIPS HOLLAND, SILVER MEDAL

WORLD IAU CHAMPIONSHIPS BRITAIN, SILVER MEDAL, `OLYMPIAN’ SARAH COOPER.

EUROPEAN SILVER MEDAL OLYMPIAN IRENE DAW.

NATIONAL AIR RIFLE TEAM RECORD SCORE, DON GREEN MALCOLM THICKBROOM AND ANTONY SPITTLE… (MAYORS PARLOUR RECEPTION)

NATIONAL POLICE CHAMPIONS AT BISLEY

DETECTIVE ERIC WILLIAMS
DETECTIVE SGT M REGAN
POLICE SGT GEOFF PARTRIDGE.

JAMES GIBBONS NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

FIRST NATIONAL ‘THREE POSITION CHAMPIONS’.

NATIONAL 3 POSITION CHAMPION, MALCOLM THICKBROOM.

WOLVERHAMPTON ARMY CADET FORCE TEAM RUNNERS UP FOR `PUNCH TROPHY’ AGAINST NAVY AND AIR FORCE NATIONAL TEAMS FINAL HELD AT UXBRIDGE. PRESENTATION AWARD AT WOLSEY HOUSE TA BARRACKS. `SILVER TRAY’ BY OFFICERS OF STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT

FOUNDER OF THE AIR RIFLE SPORT OF `FIELD TARGET’, NOW A NATIONAL PASTIME. USING TELESCOPIC SIGHTS.

ORGANISER FOR WORLD AIR LINES SHOOTING CHAMPIONSHIP AT ALDERSLEY OUTDOOR RANGE. AIR FRANCE BRITISH AIRWAYS LUFTANZER ETC.

RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SET OF NATIONAL FLAG POLES AT THE STADIUM TRACK AND ATTACKED IN THE PRESS BY OPPOSITION COUNCILLORS FOR DOING SO.

AWARDED THE ONLY SPECIAL MEDAL BY THE ISRAELI SHOOTING ASSOCIATION, FOLLOWING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AT ALDERSLEY, WHICH DREW TWENTY TWO TEAMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, WITH CHINA ATTENDING FOR THE FIRST TINE

AMONGST THE 400 COMPETITORS AND OFFICIALS. CIVIC HALL WOLVERHAMPTON PRESENTATION.

CREATING A MUSEUM OF MARKSMANSHIP IN WOLVERHAMPTON WITH A COLLECTION OF ARTEFACTS, SILVER GLASS POTTERY EQUIPMENT ETC ETC, COVERING THE WORKING MANS ROLE IN RIFLE SHOOTING SPORT SINCE 1860. NOW IN STORE AWAITING HOME IN WOLVERHAMPTON AS A UNIQUE SPORT AND TOURIST ATTRACTION …. NOW IN STORE.

GUEST OF HONOUR AND SPEAKER AT ST JOHNS COLLEGE OXFORD. DINNER FOR OXFORD BLUES, WITH MY WIFE BRENDA..” MY GREATEST HONOUR.” OVERNIGHT STAY IN COLLEGE OF ACADEMICS BY SOMEONE WHO LEFT SCHOOL AT 14. UNBELIEVABLE, UNFORGETTABLE.

KEITH WYMER AND BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
Keith continues to dominate the educational and administrative
landscape in death, as in life, as he died peacefully in his holdiay home
on May.12 .from a massive heart attack. for Keith was the greatest
educational innovator of his generation in the West Midlands and his great monument will always be Bilston Community College (BCC) which he created and which was closed by racists and bigots in 1999 to prevent other colleges following the example of Keith.
Yesterday was his funeral, which I could not attend, and I was most
interested to hear from Peta, his partner and his children and grand
children how the occasion went. Peta told me that his funeral in Shefffield was, inso far as one can use such an expression for a melancholy event, highly successful, hiis family all participating in paying tributes to Keith, his eldest son Phil apparently a star turn speaking for over thirty minutes of his father’s achievements.
Bilston Community College was the first multicultural college in
Britain with about 30% of students and staff from ethnic minorities,
percentages never reached either before or since by any College and was falsely accused of financial irregularities of which under the Freedom of Information Act it was subsequently absolved but the evidence withheld allegedly because of the cost of releasing it.
And yesterday the staff and students gathered to pay their tributes to the master. I first called Liz Millman. She was the most important member of the staff of the College for although her academic qualifications were slight she taught basic literacy. And this was the basic problem of English education - that pupils left school unable to read or write. And Liz’s department performed the task that no one else would do.
But this was not the only thing that marked her out. Wymer had insisted that while teaching others she also taught herself and I have a picture of her in cap and robe as she proudly clutched her degree certificate.
BCC became the largest College in the country with 50,000 students and several of them such as Simeon Green were at the funeral who had contracts with the college that they should go among the temples, mosques, churches and community centres offering them anti-racist syllabuses of teaching while
the Further Education authorities were offering racist education and this
was the secret of BCC success - community education in thecommunity. This now is commonplace but it originated with Keith Wymer. When the College was closed in 1999 there had to be a fiction that it was not closed, but ‘merged’ so there was the elaborate pretence that BCC had merged with Wulfrun College. Wulfrun was the college on the posh side off the town and was tiny compared with BCC so the flea of Wulfrun was said to have merged with the elephant of BCC and others were brought into the deception such as
the Vice-Chancellor of Wolverhampton University and became dupes in the closure as anyone can read for themselves in the two booklets entitled Who Closed Bilston College and the Criminality of Closing BCC.
After this came the Great Purge. All the staff were required to
re-apply for their own jobs before the new principal of the newly named
Wolverhampton City College, Jane Williams. Those who had not identified with Wymer’s reforms were reappointed and given good jobs. Those who supported Community education were either sacked or resigned and it was hoped that every trace of Keith Wymer and his ideas would be obliterated. But they weren’t.
To bring the story up to date Jane Williams soon after resigned
from being principal and it was found that a number of charges of
anti-racist behaviour had been made and not heard, and she was given a job in the national Ministry of Education where she continues to work, the charges still unheard.
To bring the story even more up-to-date there was a head of Northicote Comprehensive School in Wolverhampton which was the first
school ever to be ‘put in measures’ soon after he was appointed and Geoff Hampton became one of the ’superheads’ who allegedly ‘turned the school around’. Although other heads in the city were not impressed, saying that Northicote was never as bad as it was said to be when Hampton started and was not as good as he claimed when he ended and shortly after retired. And that in any case if they (the other heads) had been given as much money as Hampton received they could have done just as well themselves.
However, Tony Blair, prime minister at the time and very keen on superheads insisted on giving Hampton an OBE and he became Sir Geoffrey Hampton. Hampton later reappeared as Dean of Education at the Faculty of Education of Wolve hampton University when he insisted that Jane Williams should be brought from the Ministry in London to receive an honorary degree from the Wolverhampton
University. This she had the impudence to come and collect. But it entailed seeking permission of the University committee. So the new Vice-Chancellorof the University became a party to the closure of BCC, although she had no need to as she was appointed after the BCC closure occurred; although AW Lee
the clerk of governors at the W’ton University is still in post as an
accessory to the closure of BCC.
But I digress. The next BCC man I telephoned who had attended the funeral was Paul Goddard- Patel who had been chief finance officer at BCC. Paul had been criticised as having no financial qualifications to which the short reply is that he knew enough to be efficient at his job, but that he also was deeply committed to community education and was also a horticulturalist of note, whose garden was open to the public for periods.
Paul not only exhibited another of the Wymer characteristics of attracting people to the College who were virtual polymaths in their achievements; but Paul was also involved in the Times Educational Supplement affair where Ngaio Crequer a journalist on the paper who had passionately supported Bilston Community College, but has, as unfortunately as Keith Wymer, died and is not able to give her testimony to the role of BCC in British education.
But another Friend who had survived the purges at Wulfrun and is now a Head of Department at Wolverhampton City College put the international significance of Keith Wymer in perspective when he said that Keith’s educational work was not only recognised in Britain but were replicated in such countries as South Africa, Russia, the Caribbean and the US and he was well respected by education professionals in those countries.
Meanwhile, however time is running out; and we shall see what comes out tomorrow from those who attended the funeral and I can only sign off by saying:

HONOUR TO KEITH WYMER
Bthelair.

OUR EUROPEAN UNION CANDIDATE FOR THE FORTHCOMING ELECTION - MICHAEL CASHMAN.
Like most people I didn’t have the faintest idea who my EU member of parliament was until I received his election address a couple of days ago and found his name was Michael Cashman. Apart from the pun on his name whichseems very appropriate these days I was informed that he and Neena Gill were our two MEPs, that they think they have done a great job for our region and the main points of their campaign were that +Labour is right to take real action on the economy now.. +They support a tough Australian-style points system so that only those with skills that Britain needs can work here. + They want you to vote otherwise you will let the BNP in. + They want fairrules for all. + They are tackling Climate Change. + And they are On our Side.
But turn this glossy, colourful six page brochure which ever way you
will and you will find there is not one word on foreign policy and not one
word on Iraq. But the one thing I want to ask Mr.Cashman is whether he
opposes the war in Iraq and if he supports the war he will not get my vote.
But there is not a local address I can write to, nor a telephone I ca ing,
nor an email address I can contact and even Google cannot find me an email address, so I have asked my friend Bob Hazlehurst whether he can find me hisemail.
But the visit to Google was not in vain for they have an astonishing
amount of material on him of which I can quote only a fraction here and ifyou want the low down on Michael Cashman you must consult Google yourselves.
He was born in 1950 in London. He is a former British Actor, now a
Labour politician and he has been an MEP since 1999. He was a child actor taking the role of Oliver Twist in the original run of Lionel Bart’s Oliver and is perhaps best known for his role as Colin Russell in the BBc TV East Enders famous for being the first gay man to kiss another man in a soap in the UK.
Cashman is open about his sexuality. He registered a civil partnership
with Paul Cottingham his partner for over 20 years in 2006. Caahman is
Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a patron of ‘The Food Chain’ a London based HIV charity.
In the European Parliament he is Labour spokesman on Human Rights. A member of the Civil Liberties Committee he has been a rapporteur on several key issues including an important question on funerals of those who die in third countries - an issue he was motivated to take up when his own father died abroad.
He is a trenchant critic of racism within to EU and has led a cross
party coalition to tackle the rise of homophobia throughout the EU. He has supported the Gay Pride march in Warsaw and is president of the EU group in the EU Parliament Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian issues. In line with EU guidelines he pays his partner, Paul Cottingham ?30,000 a year to act as
his Accounts Manager, Personal Manager and Payroll Administrator.
Cashman was awarded an honorary doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2007 and the same year was voted by his peers as MEP for the year Justice and Fundamental Rights.
My personal reaction is of a thoroughly decent, hardworking man who
surely cannot support the war in Iraq. But he must be asked the question as it seems he must obey his masters the murderers and torturers who control his campaign.

FRANK HENDERSON A SOCIALIST COUNCILLOR IN WOLVERHAMPTON.
The other day Bob Hazlehurst told me that Johnny Lippett had brought
him a book written by Frank Henderson. Frank and his brother were Labour
councillors in the 1950s when Socialist councillors were thin on the ground
but included the Hendersons, George Costley, Vi Fletcher and Arthur Storey.
Johnny Lippett, a Socialist, has spent much of his life delivering
progressive books and papers to a large circle of customers in
Wolverhampton. John lived with his mother who looked after him but when she
died he continued to live in the family house and some of us fear that he
will no longer be capable of looking after himself. But come rain, shine or
snow Johnny turns up at the Hazlehursts for a meal which Jean cooks and he
stays until late.
The night in question Johnny brought this book called Life on the
Track: Memoirs of a Socialist Worker published by Bookmarks London price
?7-99. Bob did not think much of the book which was ghosted by an expert
writer mad was more interested in the ghost than in Frank. And this
information Bob emailed to me and I must buy the book, good, bad or
indifferent for the GB Working Class Library.
So it was with some surprise that I received today the Newsletter of
the London Socialist Historians’ Group and there was a rave review of the
Henderson book. Military service took him to Italy, Greece and Palestine.
While in Gaza a boatload of holocaust survivors approached the coast and
the soldiers were instructed to shoot any one who tried to swim ashore. The
soldiers said ‘bugger off’ and they were withdrawn from the area. In the
195os Frank spent nine years as a Labour councillor and considers this
largely as wasted time noting how those with working class roots were
gradually displaced by a generation of Labour Party careerists.
In 1970 he joined the International Socialists, forerunners of the
Socialist Workers’ Party and he was in Birmingham at Saltley Gates where
20,000 engineers helped the striking miners to close the coke depot. In
Birmingham. In 1974 he also had to face the aftermath of the IRA bombings
in Birmingham calling for the withdrawal of British troops and calming the
worst anti-Irish racism.
My own relations with Frank were always friendly and I will look
forward to reading the book.
Incidentally the LSHG Newsletter is a splendid publication. It is
edited by Keith Flett who sometimes complains that it is too much of a one
man band. He argues that the archive of the Tolpuddle Martyrs should be put
on line particularly the London Central Dorchester Committee minutes which
are in the British Library.
Keith also joins the current controversy on Understanding the History
of the Miners’ Strike in which a book by Francis Beckett and David Henke has
questioned the nature of the strike and its outcome.
Flett also joins the present controversy on British Jobs for British
Workers and compares the support that H.M.Hyndman of the Social Democratic
Federation and Robert Blatchford gave to the First World War after many
years of popularising Socialism and how this compared badly with the record
of Robert Tressell who wrote the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.
Presumably it was also Keith Flett who rescued from the archives an
article on Robespierre whose 250th anniversary of his birth occurred last
year. ‘To waken Robesierre is to awaken democracy’ as the Peoples’ Tribune
defends the Rights of Man.
The London Socialist Historians’ Group deserves to flourish and can be
contacted at 38 Mitchley Rd. London N17 9GH

FOR PEACE AND SOCIALISM.