Inspiring ideas from Tony Benn

Mike Phipps reviews The Most Dangerous Man in Britain?: The Political Writings, by Tony Benn, published by Verso.

There’s good reason for a new collection of Tony Benn’s selected writings, set out by his daughter Melissa in the Foreword to this book:  “More than ten years after his death, his pithy soundbites and video extracts of his most passionate speeches regularly circulate on social media forums such as X and TikTok. None of his influential and accomplished peers, from Roy Jenkins to Tony Crosland, provoke anything like the same degree of contemporary popular interest.”

Elected to the House of Commons in 1950 at just 25 years of age, Benn did not immediately align himself with either left or right faction, but played a significant role in opposing the Suez adventure a few years later. It was his experience of government which radicalised him, and as Secretary of State for Industry in 1974 he developed plans for the expansion of public ownership. His radicalism made him the target of a viciously hostile press and it would be decades before he was regarded as a ‘national treasure’ – long after his challenge for Labour’s leadership in 1976 and deputy leadership in 1981 – when in later life he became a kind of “secular preacher” on global events.

The book contains sections on the British state, democracy, industry, global affairs and radical thinking. They underline Benn’s thirst for a real, participatory democracy, ending the crown prerogatives and privileges built into the British state, and expanding popular control of decision-making at all levels, including democratising the media and the running of industry and devolving power away from Whitehall.

There are some thought-provoking pieces included here, such as a speech where Benn details his views on Marxism and why it is such an abused and feared set of beliefs. The idea of the Labour Party without Marx, he argues, is “unthinkable”. But he also ponders Marxism’s limitations in terms of personal morality and democratic accountability.

Another neglected piece is Benn’s 1970 response in Melody Maker to an article by Mick Farren, the head of the Yippies (Youth International Party), which was active in the US anti-war movement. Filleting out issues of lifestyle, Benn finds a lot to agree with in Farren’s diagnosis of the ills of modern corporate and bureaucratic society.

What really brings this book to life, however, is Benn’s decades of militant internationalism: his call for sanctions against apartheid South Africa in 1964, his 1982 Commons speech denouncing the government’s hypocrisy and jingoism in the Falklands War, his brave call for the government to set a date for ending its jurisdiction over the North of Ireland in the aftermath of the IRA Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen in 1998 and his now famous 1998 speech against war on Iraq – “Every member of Parliament who votes for the government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocent people.”

It’s also worth quoting extensively from his short speech to the huge million-strong anti-Iraq War demonstration in February 2003, for the way he connected key ideas:

“We are here today to found a new political movement worldwide. The biggest demonstration ever in Britain. The first global demonstration. And its first cause is to prevent a war against Iraq. It must also be about other matters as well. It must be about the establishment of a Palestinian state…

“While we are here, 35 million people die every year of hunger. While 500 billionaires have the same income as half the population of the world put together. That the world in which we live is dominated by the military, the media and the multinationals. And what we are about is getting democracy all over the world. So we can build a world that is safe for our children and grandchildren. That is what it is about.

“If there are to be inspectors in Iraq, I would like there to be inspectors in Israel. inspectors in Britain. Inspectors in the United States. I want to see the United Nations take sanctions against the arms manufacturers who supply weapons all over the world. I want to see the money wasted on weapons of mass destruction diverted to give the world what it needs. Which is food, and clothing, and housing. And schools and hospitals. And to protect the old, the sick and the disabled. My friends, that is what we are here about today.”

With over 65 active years in public life, Benn’s output in speeches and articles was phenomenal. The contributions gathered here underline just how ahead of their time he and many of his fellow socialists were. Let’s hope they inspire a new, younger, audience.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.