THE TENTH anniversary of the Bermondsey by-election passed by last month, all but completely unnoticed. shock result saw a rock solid Labour seat fall massively to the Liberal Party, in whose hands it remains to this day.
But Bermondsey was a lot more than a routine by-election In retrospect, it can clearly be seen as the turningof the Bennite tide. The very symbolism is striking. Thenal head bnes moring national headlines for months after sitting MP Bob - a chief whip under Harold Wilson and knighted by the Pope, no less - - was deselected in favour of Peter Tatchell.
young Australian, Tatchell was not only a leftwinger but a long-standing gay rights activist. Today is best known for his advocacy 'queer politics' as part of OutRage!
Scargill
This was in 1981, the year that Tony Benn only just failed to win Labour's deputy leadership, Arthur Scargill launched his successful campaign become tional Union of Mineworkers, the Greater London Council under Ked Ken was implementing radical March 13, 1993 spiring developments, a kid called Dave Osler joined the Labour Party just over the river to be my first time on the bour Party's democratic dedsion to remove him, Mellish met party leader Michael Foot unreatened to force a byCrosby, Foot feared cerup in the House of Commons ana announca that latchel: was "Not an endorsed candidate of the Labour Party and as far as I'm concerned never will outourst, root used an aracie penned by Tatchell for what bour Briefing, which had called ity against the Tories. The piece was scarcely a call to insurrec light: The Sun leader the following day stormed: "Red Pete -otherwise known as extreme boling in the habour Party. a Marxist, who has been in the Labour Party only a few years, he has contempt for democelection unless the left was "Tatchell was openly referred to as a 'Marxist revolutionary'. Even a BBC Party, a rightwing split news bulletin referred to him as 'the Labour, clearly on a Militant Tendency candidate Tor Bermondsey'." the National Executive Committee, although the body later changed its mind, allowing month also launched the investigation into Militant that was to result in the expulsion of the paper's editorial board the foltertwined in the press's collective mind. Tatchell was openly referred to as a Marxist revolutionary. Even a BBC news bulletin referred to him as 'the Militant Tendency candidate All this was nonsense. the carty ersanes, latchens politics were no more than runbacking he received from Mill tant was motivated by purely larchen emersed as the best to run one of its own sympathparty m sugast 1906. Rater han run as an independent, he that the campaign chair of the London Docklands overnment-imposed quangc usually in the hands of local sule stat both Melish and owned the Daily Star, Daily Express and Sunand. These newspapers joined the rest of the taket press in one of the most sustained campaigns of abuse ever faced by an individual. Tatchell's homosexuality, to confirm or deny. While this most certainly a mistake. Given his history of gay rights activism, it was inevitable that the gutter press would extract maximum mileage by innuenchell's ambivalence reinforced Tatchell himself has since arand the fuck off back to Australia, you communist poofter graffiti campaign was well adCanvassing the council estates with Clive Wood (now a Socialist Workers Party member), I found the cumulative effect of the barrage to be devastating. I imagine that working in Tory strongholds is a doddle by comparison.
per cent). Tatchell got just O'Grady mercifully lost his deThe Monster Raving Loonies stuffed both the Communists and the Revolutionary Communists. The result represented a 21,075 vote turnmajority to a 9,319 vote defeat.
Among the ironies that later Husnes - wno avoided deciatpreparation of his own party's general Hughes holding the seat as Lashowing nationally since 1918, polling just 28 per cent.
Pictures
ing it's OK, he's not bent' in il for Labour's Bermondsey 1983 General Election featured his wife carrying the couple's elected Chris Smith, who later came out and is still Britain's only out MP. He has since won front bench preferment. But then, nobody ever called him
Some 2,000 council workers in Walsall, West Midlands, held a half-day strike on March 1, protesting against their Tory employers' plans for mass sackings and service cuts. Up to 400 jobs are on the line following a decision to slash the budget by £8m. Many of those affected work as school dinner staff. The strikers - members of the NALGO white collar local government union, organised a mass meeting, followed by a mass lobby of Walsall Town Hall. Home News MALGO -MIKE BIRT