Dare to Be a Daniel by Tony Benn

Author:Tony Benn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446439623
Publisher: Random House

Part Three

Now: Essays and Speeches

Introduction

The themes explored in Part Three reflect both the lasting influence of my parents, and their interests and concerns, and my own experiences during more than half a century of war, peace and political activity. The first four essays set out a reassessment of the role of a Member of Parliament, of the reality of ministerial office in government, and of the prospects of peace and of a new British foreign and defence policy in a challenging and dangerous world dominated by an American empire. These essays are followed by speeches, made in my last years as a Member of Parliament, which restate my enduring interest in and commitment to peace, justice, democracy and socialism.

I have described how my father and my grandfathers had all served as MPs and how I hoped that I too would follow in their footsteps. My growing up was therefore dominated by the idea of public service. I began my parliamentary life seeing the pursuit of social justice and peace as achievable through the Labour movement in Parliament. I then believed that the situation was getting better, although more slowly than I had hoped. Now it sometimes seems that the situation is getting worse, more rapidly than I feared.

If the skill and money now available were spent on resolving the world’s problems, instead of preparing for Armageddon against communists, terrorists or whoever else dares to challenge the hegemony of the wealthy, there is nothing we could not achieve if we turned our minds to it. The relationship between social justice, peace, democracy and internationalism now dominates my thinking.

I have lived to see the defeat of the Nazis, the ratification of the Charter of the United Nations, the establishment of the welfare state and the development of a National Health Service (all of which are now under threat), and a welcome end to the old European empires. There has been some progress in women’s rights, with equal pay legislation and more recently the ordination of women in the Church of England – a cause for which my mother campaigned for much of her life.

Like my father, I have found myself moving politically to the left as I have got older. The reason in both cases is similar: experience taught us that democracy does not just mean electing someone to government every five years, but achieving progress through collective effort and a clear understanding of where power truly rests.

In medieval times power was exercised by kings, conquerors and land owners, and in more recent times by multinational corporations, the military and the media. Effective democracy has to develop beyond the idea of an elected Parliament to the exercise of greater control over all these powers that determine our destiny.

Democracy is what we do for ourselves wherever we live and work. History is rich with examples of exactly that, whether we are talking about trade unionism, the campaign for votes for men and later for women, the end of apartheid, the colonial liberation movements or the actions of environmental campaigners.

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