Party News Briefs (1957)

Party News from the February 1957 issue of the Socialist Standard

Lewisham Branch has had to alter the date of their propaganda meeting from 10th January. It is now being held at the same place (Davenport Co-op Hall, Davenport Road. Rushey Green), on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7th, at 7.30 p.m. This alteration is due to the later date of the Parliamentary election which is taking place in Lewisham.

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Head Office Film Lectures. These are being well attended and audiences are taking part in interesting discussions after the film. A list of films for February are given in this issue.

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Glasgow (City) Branch is holding propaganda meetings every Sunday evening at 7.30 p.m. at the Central Halls, Bath Street. The meetings will be of topical interest and will be held weekly (with the exception of 21st April) until the end of April.

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Glasgow (Kelvingrove) Branch is holding a propaganda meeting at St. Andrews Halls (Berkley St. entrance) on Sunday, 17th February. Further details in this issue.

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Bristol Group are planning a debate with the local branch of the Communist Party. Members are also very active in getting letters in the local Press, thus bringing the Party to the notice of readers.

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Ealing Branch. The second series of Branch discussions will start on February 1st and continue fortnightly thereafter. All members are being individually notified and are asked to give their support. In addition there will be a visit to the Geological Museum one Sunday in February, full details of which will be sent to the members later. In line with the E.C.’s request, all the local branches of the Communist Party have been circulated with the Party’s open letter. At the same time, the first letters are bring sent out asking local Trade Union branches to receive one of our speakers.

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Comrade G. R. Jacobs, who died in October last, has been associated with the Party for many years. His work caused him to travel considerably but when he returned to London he was active at meetings, particularly at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Solicitors acting for his Niece have forwarded the sum of £200 which Comrade Jacobs willed to the Party “ for its General Purposes Fund.”

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News from America. Comrades Evans and Henderson, of Los Angeles Local, upon receiving a supply of S.P.G.B. Suez Crisis leaflets, held a good propaganda meeting in Pershing Square and distributed the leaflets to the audience. Leaflets have also been posted to sympathisers.

Phyllis Howard

Blogger's Note:

According to Party records that I have to hand, G, R. Jacobs joined the Ilford Branch of the SPGB in September 1934. He had a previous association with the IWW before party membership. He resigned from the SPGB in January 1943, as he was going abroad. He presumably was going to New Zealand, as he's next recorded as a member of the New Zealand companion party. He rejoined the SPGB in the 1940s after returning to the UK, and remained a member of the Party until his death.

SPGB Meetings (1984)

Party News from the December 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

The November 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard carried details of the audio recording of one of the meetings which was part of the advertised Working For Socialism educational weekend. [See above.]

As an aside, the listing above also gives details of the SPGB's Bristol Group's meeting in December 1984 on the subject of Anarchism, where the speaker listed was Guildford Branch's Brian Rubin. On the SPGB's website, there is an audio recording of another meeting from the same year which was organised by Islington Branch, where the speaker was again Brian Rubin, and the topic under discussion was Anarchism. This meeting dates from earlier in the year. There is a strong chance there is an overlap in content in both meetings. Anyway, it's a cheap excuse to provide a link to the audio recording of the Islington Branch meeting from June of that year.

SPGB Meetings (1958)

Party News from the June 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1944)

Party News from the November 1944 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1944)

Party News from the October 1944 issue of the Socialist Standard

Party News Briefs (1956)

Party News from the September 1956 issue of the Socialist Standard

Provincial Propaganda. Speakers have been visiting the provinces during July and August and it is hoped that good results will be reported from Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Nottingham. Bristol group has had success on Durdham Downs (a pre-war regular speaking spot). There has been difficulty over selling literature there but our comrades have taken the matter up in the local Press. Their letter has been published giving the full name of the Party. Meetings with audiences of 200-300 have been held.

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Literature Sales. Comrades are still energetic on the various canvasses being organised by Ealing and Camberwell Branches. This work is particularly good as owing to the bad weather, our outdoor propaganda must have suffered and in consequence the sale of literature at meetings has not been as well as expected.

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From Wellington, New Zealand, we have received news of the death of an old comrade, Con Killeen. The Overseas Secretary of the Wellington Branch writes: "He died in his sleep on the 9th April 1956, aged 78 years. He was a member of the old New Zealand Marxian Association. Con could always be depended upon to help in Party work, very seldom was he absent from EC meetings. He did not suffer a long illness. According to reports he was reading until 12 p.m. on the night he died."

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From High Wycombe we also learn that Comrade Gibson died recently. Comrade Gibson had been a member since 1920, a speaker in his younger days, and although moving around, always joined his nearest branch. He will be particularly remembered by members of the old North London Branch.

Phyllis Howard

Party News Briefs (1958)

Party News from the July 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

Summer Provincial Propaganda. It is pleasing to note that extensive arrangements have been made by the Propaganda Committee, Central Organiser and the Provincial Branches and Groups for speakers from London to visit the Provinces this Summer. Comrade James went to Nottingham in June for two weeks and held eight meetings each week in Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford. From July 14th to 19th, Comrade Baldwin is going to Swansea to hold meetings there and in Newport. Comrade Harris of Newport will be available to help and throughout the Summer he will be helping the Comrades who are visiting the area for week-end meetings. Comrades D'Arcy, Grant and May will be doing these meetings, including visits to Bristol, where Comrade Flowers and the Group there are having good meetings on Durdham Downs. The period they hope to cover is from June 8th to July 13th. During August Comrade Young is touring in his vintage caravan and visiting Nottingham, Birmingham. Edinburgh and Dundee, to name some of the towns in his itinerary. An ambitious programme, all round, and no doubt it will prove as successful as the earlier Provincial tours.

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Bloomsbury Branch will hold discussions on the first Thursday in each month, commencing September 4th. when Comrade Hardy opens the series with a discussion on Crises. Fuller details will be given in the August Standard. As in the past, no Branch meetings will be held during August by Bloomsbury Branch as Conway Hall closes for that month.

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Outdoor Propaganda in London. A list of outdoor meetings is given on another page of this issue and Comrades are urged to note the time and places of meetings and give their support wherever possible.

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Comrade Friend of Winnipeg is returning home after a holiday in Britain, and a Social evening was arranged for Comrades to meet him once again at Head Office on Friday, June 13th. Members at home wish him a good journey back to Winnipeg and express their pleasure that he was able to have such a holiday and to re-new contact with Party members in Britain.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Outdoor Meetings (1944)

Party News from the April 1944 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings and Lectures (1984)

Party News from the March 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1984)

Party News from the September 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard

From the Branches (1960)

Party News from the May 1960 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialist Standard

It is good news indeed that the March issue of the Standard was sold out. The Comrades responsible for distribution and sales were able to plan ahead, noting various meetings and demonstrations being held and with good support from Comrades, successfully disposed of the whole issue. This is good news indeed and augers well for the summer outdoor propaganda season. The aim should be buy more from the printer and sell more to the people who need to learn about Socialism.

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Outdoor Propaganda commenced in April and should be in full swing by May and the remainder of the summer. Details of meeting spots are given on the meetings page and Comrades are urged to note the times and places and support all the meetings at all times.

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Islington

Islington Branch is holding a lecture—The Socialist Party—on Thursday, May 12th, at 7.45 p.m. Comrade C. Michael is the speaker and the meeting place, Co-op. Hall, 129, Seven Sisters Road, N.7 (near Finsbury Park Tube Station).

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North West Kent

Will any readers in the Bexleyheath, Crayford, Dartford, Erith, Gravesend and Welling areas of North West Kent interested in the formation of a discussion group, communicate with H, J. Wilson, 7 Cyril Road, Bexleyheath, Kent (phone Bexleyheath 19S0).

Bristol

The Party platform will be on Durdham Downs every Sunday during the summer. First meeting, Sunday, May 1st. Comrades and sympathisers in the district are asked to support these meetings. The Downs are ideal for outdoor meetings and as proved in the past—very successful meetings have been held.

Phyllis Howard

Party News (1966)

Party News from the June 1966 issue of the Socialist Standard

Southend

Members of Southend Group have been very active both in the local area and in Party work generally, wherever it has been physically possible to assist. Quite a lot of literature has found a ready sale as the result of our efforts, we are pleased to report. Locally the results selling Standards has been outstandingly good with a consequent increase and constant revision of literature required. Increased activities are contemplated.

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May Day Meetings

We had excellent audiences at all our Meetings on May Day and readers will be interested in the following:—

Bristol: London members assisted local members at an outdoor meeting on Durdham Downs, which ran continuously from 3 to 8.30 pm. The audience were very lively and we hope that those who were interested will contact our people in Bristol (Directory elsewhere in this issue).

Belfast: A London member flew over to assist members of the World Socialist Party of Ireland and held a meeting in the International Hotel. An audience of over 30 were present for three hours and a number of young people showed sympathetic interest and discussion continued after the meeting.

Glasgow: Assisted by a London member meetings were held in the Royal Exchange Square, the Queens Park Recreation Grounds and literature was sold during the Trade Union and Labour Party march. In the evening an indoor meeting attended by 80 people was held in the McLennan Galleries.

Luton: An experimental meeting was held by the Mid-Herts Branch, which held an audience of over 70 from 3 to 5.30 pm. A very encouraging start.

London, Hyde Park: This meeting ran from 3 until 7.30 pm with an audience at times reaching over 300. Three speakers held an interested and sympathetic audience. At this meeting 500 “Socialist Standards" and other literature was sold.

Birmingham: The first of the season outdoor meetings was held in the evening at the Bull Ring. About 50 listened from between 7.30 and 10 pm. These meetings take time to work up and all Birmingham readers are invited to attend and to come to the Branch—for particulars, please see the Branch Directory and propaganda notices elsewhere in this issue.

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An appeal

We find ourselves without the means to fulfil commitments we have undertaken which includes the production of pamphlets. We require £500 immediately. All sympathisers and members are asked to send donations at once to: E. Lake, Treasurer, 52 Clapham High Street.

Party News Briefs (1959)

Party News from the February 1959 issue of the Socialist Standard

Activity and enthusiasm appear to be the key words for the start of 1959. At Head Office on Tuesdays nowadays there are many members, all working in different aspects of improving and spreading Party Propaganda. It will be obvious when the list of Branch meetings are noted in the current issue of the Standard.

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Hackney Branch, which is concentrating especially on the forthcoming election campaign, report good progress. Here is an extract from a letter received from the Branch:—

   “The following is an announcement by the diarist 'Beta’ in the  'Hackney Gazette,’ December 2nd, 1958:
   'The Socialist Party of Great Britain inform me that they will be contesting the next General Election in Bethnal Green. The candidate is Jack Leslie Read, who was one of the candidates for the division in the last L.C.C. elections.
   " 'The candidate and his organisation stand in complete opposition to both the Labour and Tory parties, and also the Liberal and Communist parties if they choose to contest the seat.
    “ ‘Our purpose in putting forward a candidate is,’ says Mr. J. Harris, the party’s Press Officer, 'to give working people an opportunity of casting a vote against capitalism, the system which we claim gives rise to all the social problems and misery of our day, and casting it in favour of Socialism, by which we mean a system of society based on the common ownership and democratic control of all the means of living and where production takes place for use instead of for profit’.”
   " 'Beta’ then added, “Local Socialists, who put their faith in Hugh Gaitskell can make of this statement what they will.”
    "Hackney Branch hopes to give local 'Socialists' during the months ahead plenty of opportunities to make what they can of the Party’s Socialist message, and look forward to the maximum help from comrades in other Branches.”

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Ealing Branch starts the New Year optimistically. The merger of the literature and propaganda activities of the Branch into one "general purposes” Committee should help to streamline Branch organisation and lead to useful economies in members’ time. This Committee is already examining the possibilities of running film shows as an alternative to lectures and discussions. A Press Officer has been appointed to deal with correspondence in the national and local Press, and a monthly Branch Newsletter has been started. This will be distributed to all Branch members and to regular Socialist Standard readers made from our canvasses. The Annual Christmas Social was a great success: over 80 tickets were sold, and Branch funds benefited by about £10.

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Bristol Group has arranged a debate, and much work has gone into preparations to make it a success. It is hoped to enlarge propaganda there during the forthcoming months.

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Edinburgh, Mitcham and Swansea Groups are holding meetings after intensive work by members of the Groups.

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Paddington Branch, in planning well ahead, are confident that the meeting to be held at Denison House. Vauxhall Bridge Road, on Sunday, March 15th, will be the first of many such propaganda meetings held. London members are urged to make a special note of the date.

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Fulham, Islington and Lewisham branches are among the London branches who have planned well ahead for meetings. Notices of these appear in this issue.

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Glasgow (City and Kelvingrove). The branches in Glasgow have conducted propaganda this winter jointly and since November have held monthly meeting in the St. Andrews Halls. A feature of these meetings has been the number of new speakers who have volunteered to take the indoor platform. This is a very encouraging prospect for the outdoor season when it is hoped new stances may be tried.

A series of classes dealing with the socialist theory have been held on the Sunday evenings when there was no propaganda meeting and these have been exceptionally well attended by party members and sympathisers. The discussion has at the classes been most stimulating and is bound to encourage study of Marxism in all its aspects.

The general feeling among Glasgow members is that so far this winter we have managed to encourage young speakers to a greater degree than hitherto and we look forward to the coming outdoor season with a great deal more enthusiasm than last year.

Details of the propaganda meeting and the classes for this month are contained elsewhere in this issue and all members, sympathisers and of course opponents are invited along.

Phyllis Howard

SPGB Meetings (1981)

Party News from the September 1981 issue of the Socialist Standard

Branch News (1961)

Party News from the July 1961 issue of the Socialist Standard

Ealing

The branch is carrying on with its programme of fortnightly discussions during the summer months, alternatively with the usual business meetings. Comrade Jack Law gave a very interesting lecture on the Jehovah's Witnesses last month and will be giving another on the “Opening up of the American West” on July 7th. Members are asked to make this meeting as successful as the last. The weekly outdoor propaganda meetings have started at Earls Court and all members are asked to make a special effort to support them. They are held every Thursday, at. 8 p.m. A group of members went down to Southsea for an outdoor meeting on Sunday, June 25th. It is hoped to give a report on this next month.

Glasgow (Kelvingrove)

During May the branch held six meetings. Literature sales were SS. £1 9s. 0d., Pamphlets £1 0s. 8d., Collections £2 15s. 10d. Average audience 32. Members and a sympathiser attended four CND Rallies and sold £1 3s. 0d. S.S. and 13s. 10d. pamphlets. They had discussions with CND members and found some “ very sympathetic to our case,” who had “ met Party members in London.”

Nottingham

Comrade Powe gave a lecture to Leicester Secular Society on “Religion, Secularism, Socialism.” Fifty people were present and 8s. literature was sold. One open-air meeting was held in Leicester and two were held in Nottingham. It is hoped to follow up the Leicester meetings later. Literature sold 18s. Audiences at meetings: 40-50, 30-70, and 100 respectively. This is really good news as the Party has held meetings in Leicester in the past and it is most gratifying that we are renewing our contacts there.

London

A reminder of the meeting being held at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, on Wednesday , July 19th, at 7.30 p.m. Comrades will recall the very successful meeting held at St. Pancras Town Hall in April. This was well organised and most stimulating for all who participated. Lessons were learned from this meeting and as a result the Conway Hall meeting should be exceptionally well supported and organised. Members and sympathisers—rally to the meeting and keep up the good work.

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London.July 19th, 7.30 PM

Please note your diaries and bring as many friends along as possible. There is a good gallery and plenty of standing room, in addition to the spacious hall on the ground floor.

Bristol

Durdham Downs is the regular outdoor meeting place for the Bristol Group members who have been holding meetings this season. During the month of May four meetings were held, audience averaging 50 and literature sales 9s. 6d. The comrades are hoping that with constant support they will be able to continue throughout the summer with increasing interest from the workers of Bristol.

Canada

The candidate of the Socialist Party of Canada polled 149 votes in the British Columbia election. This result is surprisingly good in view of the fact that the Branch of the Party was only formed there comparatively recently and the constituency is mainly agricultural. Their candidate had two half-hours on T.V. and a brief appearance after the vote was counted. He also had twenty minutes on the local radio, and four days before the election another ten minutes, which was re-broadcast the same day. He also had a brief recording on the Canadian Broadcasting system, as well as two or three long-distance calls from prominent writers. each of which occupied about ten minutes, enquiring about the Object and Principles of the Party. One thing the Victorian members are sure of is that thousands of people have heard their message for the first time, and a lot of confusion about the relation of Socialism to Soviet Communism was cleared up. We congratulate our overseas comrades on the effort they have put in and the results they have obtained.

Ireland

We learn from the W.S.P. of Ireland that owing to the death of a recently elected candidate in one of the wards, they are again entering the election contest. They tell us that, in their opinion, the greatest single factor in obtaining their surprisingly high vote was because they emphasised the international nature of their message, and the fact that they are part of a greater movement. They also make this further statement :

  We are inclined to accept the view that the terrible apathy existing here, as elsewhere. is not as unhealthy as it would appear. The workers may not yet have awakened to the need for Socialism, but they are beginning to demonstrate that they at least realise that so far whatever party they have voted for no change ensues for them—hence the abstentionists are the real majority—they continue to accept capitalism, but they are not voting for it. We believe that, especially among such people, real effort on our part can carry the day and convince them that there is something worth voting for. The fact that we are small numerically does not mean that the influence of our propaganda is not being felt; many people are quite prepared to vote and think with us to the exclusion of all others, even if they are not prepared at this stage to join us. In this we see much hope.

Phyllis Howard

Party News Briefs (1948)

Party News from the June 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

May Day in London was a battle of endurance in which members won a victory over atrocious weather. We had members along the route of the procession selling literature, and they all got a drenching. In Hyde Park we had a decorated cart for our meeting and our banner with the party’s name on it could not be missed. Prior to May Day we had been disputing with the Ministry of Works their refusal to permit us to use amplifying apparatus in the park, and the permission given by them to the London Trades Council. We told them that while we did not advocate the use of this apparatus in Hyde Park, we had no other means of defence when others used it. It would seem reasonable that its use should be permitted to all responsible organisations or none. In the event, the amplifiers used at the Trades Council meeting were pitched quietly, possibly as a result of the stand we had taken, and while they interfered with our meeting to some extent, we nevertheless kept the attention of a very large audience. On Sunday we had another large meeting in the Park, followed by our mass rally in the Conway Hall. This we very nearly filled and our speakers, Cash, Young, Groves and Turner were listened to attentively and applauded with enthusiasm by the audience who donated about £40 to our funds. Party members in good numbers played an active part in making the May Day celebrations in London a success in spite of the conditions; Glasgow also report a good day up there on the Sunday. They sold 20 doz. Socialist Standards along the procession, and widely advertised the evening meeting in the Cosmo Cinema by street-chalking, billposting, etc. We were not permitted to hold outdoor meetings in Queens Park as this was reserved entirely for Labour Party meetings. F. Duncan and C. May spoke in the Cosmo Cinema to an audience of about 300 and the branch were well satisfied with the meeting. The collection was approximately £7 10s. C. Lestor went to Bristol for a May Day meeting on Durdham Downs. We have a few members down there who keep pegging away in conditions that are not too easy. Lestor spoke for three hours to about 200 people and the effort stimulated the local comrades. So far we have not received Manchester’s May Day report, but will give it in this column when received. From the U.S.A. also comes news of a successful May Day week-end in Boston by the W.S.P. of U.S.A. A feature of these meetings (on Boston Common and at their headquarters) was the exceptionally heavy literature sales.

The Head Office Librarians require copies of early party pamphlets, as they wish to prepare bound sets for the library. Have a look at your library and send along what you can spare. Also old pamphlets of the S.D.F., I.L.P.. etc., and copies of Justice.

Kingston Branch’s outdoor meetings at Castle Street are as successful as was anticipated. Cold and damp weather has not stopped us getting a good audience every Saturday evening. On one Saturday evening A. Turner held an audience of over 300 for two hours. The branch is confident of producing two speakers from its strength in the very near future

Leyton Branch have how opened a new outdoor station at the “Elms,” Leytonstone, on Wednesday evenings and the first meetings have been very encouraging to members.

A General Election Fight in North Paddington has been decided upon by the Executive Committee as a minimum General Election programme. The Executive Committee have not excluded the possibility of fighting other constituencies as well. This decision must be backed up by members and sympathisers immediately. Money will be the main limiting factor in our forthcoming election campaigns. We have members able and anxious to do the work, and an organisation fitted to deal with the tasks involved. The membership is in support of the fight on the electoral field in the immediate future, but we must build up the funds. Do whatever you can as quickly as you can!

The Overseas Secretary reports that the W.S.P. of of U.S.A. is holding its Annual Conference at Boston at the end of May. Representatives of the Canadian party will attend. They are trying to make a big effort of it with a series of outdoor meetings and possibly a debate. The Dublin socialist group is planning to extend its activities with regular propaganda meetings both outdoors and indoors, and also is trying to form an educational class. The group now has its own headquarters at the Boilermakers’ Hall, 33, Lower Gardiner Street. It meets there on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, having lectures on Sundays, a business meeting on Tuesdays, and plans in progress for an economics class on Thursdays. The hall was packed for the first lecture on May 2nd.

We have been asked by the Overseas Secretary to make a special request for members to assist him. He wants his correspondence with contacts in various parts of the world taken over by a member or members. Workers in other countries are now frequently asking for information from us. and trying to maintain correspondence with someone in Great Britain. The correspondence can be, if necessary, in English, but anyone who can correspond in a foreign language can be put in direct touch with a contact abroad.

Lewisham Branch are following in the footsteps of some other branches in running a Socialist Standard canvass every Sunday, and have already doubled their usual sales.

Bristol Group aims to run fortnightly outdoor propaganda meetings on Durdham Downs this summer and have already booked a series of speakers up to the end of August.

Islington Branch have at last nailed down the Communist Party to a debate. The arrangements are that Geo. Jones (late parliamentary candidate for Hornsey) for the Communist Party will be faced by A. Turner for the S.P.G.B. at Hornsey Town Hall on Tuesday, June 1st. A report of the debate will appear in our next issue.

The New Pamphlet “Russia since 1917,” due soon, will be sold at 1s. per copy. It is another lengthy pamphlet and there’s plenty for the money.

The New E.C. Member is G. Kerr (West Ham branch) and the new Central Organiser, J. D’Arcy Bloomsbury branch), both election results having been recently declared.

C. C. Groves,

General Secretary.

Obituary: Jim Flowers (1984)

Obituary from the May 1984 issue of the Socialist Standard

It is with great sorrow that we report the death on 10 March of Bristol comrade Jim Flowers following a stroke.

Jim was politically active right up until his death, attending meetings and following up his well known correspondence with the local press. He joined The Socialist Party in 1936 and for several decades was a well known figure on Durdham Downs, where he struggled to keep alive the ideas of socialism.

Jim had a secular upbringing from which he never strayed. His father, who refused a CBE, was a co-founder of the TGWU along with Ernest Bevin. He was a trade unionist the whole of his working life and, when a local newspaper report referred to Jim as the draughtsmen’s leader in a DATA strike at the British Aircraft Corporation, he promptly wrote in to point out that he was merely their representative. Of his early experience in the Labour Party Jim said he always thought there was something wrong because there were so many parsons in it.

A final misrepresentation appeared in an obituary in the Bristol Evening Post, under the heading “Jim Flowers the idealist is dead”. At this, one of our comrades promptly wrote in to correct the “idealist” label—we have to carry on where Jim left off.

BRISTOL GROUP

Obituary: Vic Heaven (1980)

Obituary from the August 1980 issue of the Socialist Standard

For over forty years the socialist cause has been kept alive in Bristol by a trio of members with a happy collection of names—Force, Flowers and Heaven. Our small era came to an end when Vic Heaven died on 22 April, aged 81.

Vic joined the army as a boy trumpeter in 1914; political maturity came a decade later. In 1925 he became a socialist and gave his war medals to his children, saying "Here, you can have these begging irons as toys, they're only fit for standing on the pavement with and selling matches". A nice sense of proportion made him keep and cherish the eleven medals he won as an amateur footballer.

Soon after joining the Party he teamed up with a Comrade Howell. Heaven and Howell used to delight in walking around Bristol and calling out to the navvies digging trenches "when are you blokes going to realise that you're being exploited?" The night before Howell died of cancer he threw a party and Vic was pleased to play the piano as Howell sang the Red Flag for the last time.

I first met Vic in 1935, when I was studying for holy orders and was walking through Bristol with my vicar. Heaven was there, selling the Socialist Standard, and he put the case to us. After hearing it, the vicar intoned pompously, "young man, you are 200 years before your time". With his lightning tongue Vic flashed "old man, you are 2,000 years behind the times!" My religious belief evaporated.

Later Vic became a civil servant with the Ministry of Labour, and this cramped his public propaganda work. Nevertheless, he was pleased to have advised every conscript who passed through his department during the second world war of the alternative to fighting for capitalism.

On retirement Vic kept a beautiful cottage garden and, amid the pear trees, he would talk socialism with all his visitors. "The world's first socialist candidate, Clifford Groves" holidayed there; and "Fellow Worker White", so-called because anywhere, and without warning, he would shout "fellow workers!" and gather an audience to hear the socialist case.

Our sympathy and gratitude go to Vic's four daughters, who looked after him in his latter years.

J. Force