Stan newens autobiography for kids

There is an odd symmetry between the serried lines of books on shelves in room after room, the organised rows of vegetables set out around the edges of his well-managed garden and the family photos he has five children arranged on the piano.

All are close to the heart of Stan Newens, the year-old ex-MP and MEP and Labour stalwart of 65 years.

We meet in his home in Old Harlow. The occasion is the recent publication of his autobiography, In Quest of a Fairer Society. So what got Stan into politics all those years ago? A Bethnal Green boy from modest family origins, he was aware that life was much better for his generation than that of his grandparents who had seen two of their children die in infancy.

He was attracted to the Liberal Party in and at school stood as Liberal candidate in mock elections.

Arthur Stanley (Stan) Newens, who has died at the age of 91, was a committed co-operator and life-long advocate of social justice who took the co-operative cause to both the .

He read widely, particularly GDH Cole, and began to realise liberalism was not enough and became a socialist. Although he could see the Labour Party was dampening things down when he went to University College London in , he joined the Labour Society and the Labour Party in While at university he discovered a range of groups including the Revolutionary Socialist society.

He met Ralph Shaperman who explained about Trotsky and the way Stalin had betrayed the objectives of the October revolution. In with a degree and Certificate of Education he became liable for military service. Opposed to the Korean War, he realised he had two options: the Merchant Navy or the mines. With encouragement from SR comrades he became a miner in North Staffordshire until late The Socialist Review was a small group.

This led many to leave the Communist Party.