Martin Luther King, minutes before his assasination and after his assasination, second picture taken by Joe Louw a South African and a good friend of my grandparents, Tony and Eve Hall, speaking about his experience here.
But the thing that struck me most and has prompted me to gain a different idea and perspective on history and politics in general was the Civil Rights movement. Perhaps it was the language of the author, but the casual and assumed way in which rights for black people was talked of as an ‘agenda of the left’, ‘prominent in leftwing movements’, playing ‘on the conscience of liberal-minded people’, seemed to me to raise a huge and obvious point: isn’t the left right?
Nowadays not a single respected politician, statesman, writer, historian, academic or anyone of any intellectual credibility would attempt to discredit or speak of the civil rights movement as a bad turning point in history. There would be uproar, they would immediately suffer an array of bad press and would probably have to become a hermit forever. A little exaggerated maybe but you see my point. Similarly celebrated is the anti-apartheid movement and the fall of the apartheid government. For years strugglers against the government suffered at international hands, they were tortured, jailed, alienated, isolated. They risked their lives and their souls and it was decades before this was internationally recognised and pressure was put on the South African government. They had to go through hell before it was acted on by the mainstream and powerful politicians. The United Kingdom, under perhaps it’s most rightwing government in history, refused to enforce sanctions when it was becoming the norm to do so. Che Guevara was one of the first to speak out against Apartheid at a U.N conference in 1964.
Internally, both the Civil Rights and the anti-apartheid movements were aligned closely with leftwing groups and parties – the Communist Party being a main player in the struggle against the South African government. In the USA, had politics as a whole been more open to leftwing ideas and not so preoccupied with the Cold War, headway would surely have been made much sooner. But, as it is, all the headway that was made was done so by Franklin D Roosevelt, JFK, Lyndon Johnson – Democrats.
Tony Benn articulated my thoughts to some extent when, speaking recently of the process of struggle and demanding what is right, said there are 5 stages: First, they ignore you. Then they say you’re mad. Then they say you’re dangerous and they lock you up. Then there’s a pause. And then you can’t find anyone at the top who didn’t agree with you in the first place.
These are only two obvious examples, but the idea can be applied to almost any struggle for human rights in history; the suffragette movement and women’s rights, gay rights, workers rights, immigrant rights. Yes, this in some ways is a narrow and obvious point, but if we are searching for morality in politics, for the right philosophy to act on and the appreciation and concern for human beings, shouldn’t we always look left of centre? My Grandfather, an anti-apartheid activist and journalist who dedicated his life to the struggle used to say to us – ‘always remember, left is right’. I have to say, I tend to agree with him, the evidence is really stacked in his favour.
By Lucy Hall
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