Jeremy Corbyn on Stan Newens and the Fight for Socialism in Our Time
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn remembers the lifelong struggle for socialism of his late comrade Stan Newens. Newens was a pillar of the Left — and proof that spending years in Parliament doesn’t have to strip left politicians of their radicalism.
Stan Newens was a veteran parliamentarian, a campaigner for international justice, and a pillar of the Labour left.
The veteran socialist parliamentarian Stan Newens, who died on March 2, was a lifelong campaigner for socialism, internationalism, and justice.
As a young man in Shropshire, I first met Stan in 1970 during that year’s general election. But I got to know him very well in his role as a leading torchbearer of the London Co-operative Society, as chair of Liberation (formerly the Movement for Colonial Freedom), and then — much later — as the MEP for Central London, which included Islington North.
As a young boy in the East End of London, Stan saw the political tumult of the 1930s unfold on his doorstep, with fascists and anti-fascists clashing in his area of Bethnal Green. In the late 1940s, he refused to take part in national service on conscientious grounds and was instead sent to work in the North Staffordshire mines. Down the pit, he became an active member of the National Union of Mineworkers, a formative political experience for him.
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