SPEAKING FOR SOCIALISM: A mini-biography of Tony Turner Introduction The compilers of what follows had a problem with calling

it a biography. Most biographies describe in some detail the whole of the subject's life from birth to death (or up to the time the biography is written). The group of us discussed what to include and exclude. In the end, like Tony himself, we gave priority to socialism. So Part II is relatively full, while the other two parts are sketchy. This is partly because the four survivors of Tony's five children are generally reluctant to go into detail about his 'private' life. Whatever his other qualities and achievements, 'devoted family man' is not among the first hundred descriptions appropriate to their father. This mini-biography was first thought of by Stan Parker and Edna Mathieson. Stan shared with Tony five years of turbulent membership in the Socialist Party. Edna, a researcher, is interested in Tony as a remarkable but flawed human being rather than as just a socialist. Edna and Stan approached Ruth, Tony's daughter, and David Stern, son-in-law, for more information. A first draft of Part II brought responses from John Rowan and Bernie Flitter and Ken Smith's obituary of Tony was used. They are all younger contemporaries of Tony and sometime members of the Party. Thanks are due to the Socialist Party for enabling publication of this mini-biography on its SPOPEN web-site. Many older members, ex-members and sympathisers will well remember Tony and perhaps find something here about him that they didn't know before. Part I Tony Before the Party 1908-31 Tony Turner was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1908, son of an Irish cockney mother, Bessie de Marney, and an Maori father (named probably William Turner) who he never saw. His mother returned to England, after living and working in New Zealand, when he was three years old. Shortly after, she married a drayman working for a local brewery. The family lived at the Elephant and Castle, in one of those blocks of flats built for the 'deserving poor' by philanthropists such as Guinness and Peabody. His mother had no more children, and his birth was registered in this country as an illegitimate one. His mother was very strict and beat him as regularly as she attended Spurgeon's Tabernacle - if not more frequently! The beating was partly, if not entirely, because he was a bedwetter. Bright at school, Tony won a Junior Leaving Scholarship (later called the 11+). His mother applied to the Blue Coat School in Westminster to accept him as a pupil, but with 'illegitimate' on his birth certificate he failed to be accepted. His mother, however, was determined that Tony would have a good education, like many other working-class parents, then as now. She arranged for him to join the navy, and he became a crew member of HMS Ganges, seeing service in the Far East. The strict punishment he received at home at the hands of his mother, mainly for bedwetting, was matched only by that he was to receive as a boy sailor, and for the same reason. He was also teased which led to his taking up boxing. And when he was discharged from the Navy - for the same problem - he had become Combined Services champion in one of the light divisions. The slump of the Thirties welcomed Tony back to Civvy Street. In 1930, aged 22, he married the

young woman, Doris, he had been seeing so much of that she had become pregnant. By 1938 they had five children. During those years, like many unemployed men before him, he had developed several survival techniques. And like a few others - rarer birds - he wondered about the reasons for the devastating hardship in which he found himself. Why the poverty, why the sheer misery of it all? Some found answers as a result of simply trying to keep warm, in winter. by sitting in the newspaper reading rooms of public libraries (some homeless, or lonely, people continue to do so today). Perhaps Tony did, too. But we do know that, in the dole queue, he met another who was also later to become one of the more eloquent SPGB speakers, Ted Willmott. During this time Tony, and others like him on the dole, took classes to improve themselves and while away the hours, in learning to dance, fence, play bridge and chess, taking elocution lessons - anything that was free to unemployed people. (Women married to unemployed men, particularly with children, were probably not quite as fortunate in having such spare time to develop skills - but that's another story.) Tony, though, did from time to time have casual jobs. He delivered laundry, sold door-door insurance, sewing machines, for example. Those days were also the days of hand-me-downs - little girls wearing adult women's clothes and called 'Polly Longfrock'; boys wearing adult men's long- 'uns with the bottoms cut off. Tony, according to contemporaries, sported patent leather dancing pumps and a Magyar blouse. Tony from an early age wanted to move away from the poverty of his environment. He increasingly spent time 'up west' where he met people who could help him to develop social skills in his manner, his dress and particularly his speaking ability. Tony was always quick to learn. He became friendly with a well-known orator, Donald (later Lord) Soper who guided Tony and introduced him to an elocution teacher. Part II Tony in the Party 1931-55 Tony joined the Southwark Branch of the SPGB in 1931 at the age of 23. Not much is known about the circumstances in which he joined. The SPGB members at that time are all either dead or, if surviving, untraceable. Tony's main contribution to socialism was undoubtedly in the form of public speaking, both outdoor and indoor. He also discussed informally with Party members, putting forward some views which would eventually cause him to leave the Party in 1955. His writing and other activities during this period are considered in later sections below, to which the opinions of others and brief notes on Tony's family life are added. Speaking Tony first took to the outdoor platform in the early 1930s, against a background of accomplished orators and large crowds. Barltrop, in The Monument, describes Tony as having a style which 'without doubt would have been thought brash and vulgar in 1904.' Tony lived and thrived on questions and arguments, knocking down opponents like ninepins. He was part of the reckless hurly-burly of outdoor politics at that time. There was never any lack of impudent fun at Tony's meetings, as Barltrop recounts. When blackcoated audiences at City lunch-hour meetings chided Tony for not being in work himself, he appeared in a bowler and striped trousers and began 'We City workers...' Perhaps Tony's greatest and most memorable performance was in Hyde Park on 3 September 1939,

the day of the outbreak of World War II. Throughout the morning and afternoon big crowds stood listening, moving on and swelling round fewer platforms as one speaker after another closed down. Barltrop quotes a graphic account of Tony's performance published in the Clubman in 1955: 'A plague on both your houses' growled Turner in his husky bass. He mocked his silent audience. 'Men and women, what business is it of yours if the German bosses oust Nuffield and Imperial Chemicals? What does it matter to you what landlord charges you rent?' He was taking it easy, welcoming interruptions to rest his voice ... The Labour Party platform yielded and closed late in the afternoon, by which time the audience was near four thousand; the vast crowd moved on to the two remaining platforms. And then a strange feeling came over that audience. The two remaining platforms were vying with each other for the last word; the Communist Party speaker was willy-nilly the last remaining advocate of the war against Germany... By nightfall the Communist speaker's voice was a whisper, a shadow; it cracked and fell silent. The whole of the audience surged across to the opposite platform, the platform of the SPGB. An audience of ten thousand stretching as far as the eye could see, silent and solemn, the soldiers and sailors and airmen of tomorrow, the wives and mothers of departed men, listening with the deepest attention, the most complete respect, and on the day of the declaration of war, to a pacifist speaker. Like a sprinter who has been saving just that extra burst of speed for the last lap, Turner thundered out his denunciations in a climaxing bout of oratory during which he called them every kind of imbecile and willing dupe. Then the meeting was closed. A burst of applause greeted his closing remarks, and in silence the great army streamed out of the Park homewards. Tony went on speaking for the Party and socialism for another 16 years. Tirelessly he put the case against capitalism and, as time went on, he increasingly sought to paint a picture of what a future socialist world would be like. He also made a point of answering the 'human nature' objections to socialism - the greedy man, the selfish man, the lazy man (popular language was sexist in those days).

One of Tony's favourite accounts was of the Woolwich free ferry. Apparently, in its first few days of operation some people travelled many times to and fro because it was free. But they soon stopped that and travelled from a to b only when they needed to. Free access on the basis of need. That was how all things would be in socialism. Tony was unique among Party speakers in using the work of social anthropologists to promote socialism. In particular he quoted from Robert Briffault's The Mothers: the Matriarchal Theory of Social Origins (reprinted in 2004). Tony argued that women and men had equal parts to play in the coming of socialism and that both had to be treated as equals. Writing Tony wrote for the Party and for socialism in several different ways. His name appeared in the Socialist Standard frequently, but nearly always it was to advertise an outdoor or indoor public meeting or debate. From time to time he wrote to Party branches or the Executive Committee, usually on controversial subjects. In preparation for his meetings and debates Tony was known to write extensive notes, though these were never evident at the meetings themselves. But the main source of Tony's writing was in various issues of FORUM, the Party's internal journal, between 1953 and 1955. The content of Tony's articles in those pages relates closely to discussions he had with other members, especially at the Saturday evening Head Office 'forums' held during that period. These were well-attended, lively and occasionally noisy affairs. Barltrop offers his view of those 'forums': One recalls sitting up till three in the morning discussing social motivation with Turner; Saturday night debates between Willmott and Turner in the Party office, members crowding the room and sitting on the staircase. The subjects on which Tony wrote in FORUM included mass production, the causes of societal development, selectivity in Party propaganda, a socialist election address, a working class party, socialism or clause 6 (of the Party 's Declaration of Principles) and a re-examination of the socialist movement. As part of his interest in what socialism will be like, Tony discussed whether there will be mass production (January 1953). He made it clear that he did not think that in socialism all machinery will be abolished. But he did argue that 'mass production methods preclude the operatives from control of their work, compelling them to (1) standardise the machine processes, (2) operate a single process, (3) standardise the products.' More questionably, he believed that mass production demanded 'that people must submit absolutely to a central directing authority.' Several members opposed Tony's views on mass production in oral criticism and debate. His old sparring partner, Ted Willmott, mockingly accused him of envisaging hand-knitted French letters in socialism! Only one member - Stan Parker - carried on a written debate on the subject in FORUM. Barltrop gave it a brief mention in The Monument: 'Turner continued to insist that. a sane society would start with the abolition of mass production.' Certainly Tony deplored mass production, but he never gave it the central place in his description of socialism that Barltrop's remark implies. In the early 1950s, towards the end of the era of outdoor public meetings, there was much discussion about whether there was a need for the Party to be selective when addressing socialist propaganda to

members of the working class.. In his March 1953 article 'Which workers shall the Party support?' Tony made no bones about his opposition to selectivity: 'It is my contention that all this talk of selectivity, including the selection of the "working-class alone" as the saviours of humanity, springs from the fact that the nature of socialism has been forgotten, disregarded, or not known. Socialism is a way of living; living harmoniously with all people. It is untrue that there are people who have little or nothing to gain by the establishment of socialism.' In keeping with his views on selectivity, Tony found much to disagree with in the Party's North Paddington election address (January 1954): 1. 'There is no solution to be found by tinkering with the effects, this form of society must be dug up by the roots.' '[This] does not mean anything. It is just wind.' 2 'Only a complete change in the basis of society can produce a lasting improvement in the lot of the working class.' 'This is incorrect - a complete change. from a property basis to everything being held in common will produce the end of the working class, not "a lasting improvement in the lot of the working class".' 3 'It is about time we stood on our feet and made some drastic changes in a world that could satisfy our needs with plenty but provides us with plenty of needs.' 'This can only mean, to a reader who has no knowledge of a socialist alternative to wage-labour, that he or she should become rich.' 4 'The fear of unemployment will be with us as long as we remain wage-workers.' 'Again, the reader, not being supplied with the socialist alternative, will agree that the wage-worker is in constant fear of unemployment but the capitalist is not; therefore the reader. should strive to become an employer and by doing so escape the fear of unemployment.' 5. 'This ownership must be ended, these things must be converted to the common property to the common property of everyone and democratically controlled in the interests of all.' 'This is merely a restatement of the object, it is not an explanation.' 6 'When a socialist working class decides to reconstruct society in keeping with its own interests by dispossessing the capitalist class, it must first take into its hands the machinery of government.' 'This would seem to be advocating the dictatorship of the proletariat. Seeing that already the election address has told the reader "My Party does not aim to govern you, " it would seem reasonable to infer that the working class will be the government.' In February 1954 Tony attempted to answer the question 'A working class party or a party working for socialism?' His answer took the form of 25 points, from which the following five are a selection: 1. ' Socialism is in the interest of every human being throughout the entire world.' 2. 'Socialism means the social equality of humanity, that is, no one seeking power or privilege over others or supporting institutions based on power or privilege.'

3. 'In all forms of property society the economic classes and social groupings into which people are divided are mutually antagonistic, e.g. worker v. capitalist, nation v. nation, male v. female.' 10. 'Since all class or group interests are mutually antagonistic, all class or group interests must be opposed to human interests, i.e. to socialism.' 11. 'A socialist party comprises people possessing socialist ideas and seeks to achieve socialism. It is not an economic unit.' Towards the end of 1954 the controversial views that Tony had been expressing, both in the pages of FORUM and in meetings of members, provoked the Executive Committee to move and carry the following resolution: 'That the EC call upon Comrade Turner to put in writing his objections to the Declaration of Principles, and the EC consider whether it comes within Rule 33.' Tony responded to the EC's action in an article 'Socialism - or clause 6?' (November 1954). Extracts from that article follow: '... my criticisms are not from the standpoint of an anti-socialist, nor are they criticisms of a nonsocialist, nor am I saying that the Party is non-socialist, but I am saying that, in my opinion, the Socialist Party could be more socialist in its message to people than it has been during the past fifty years.' 'My major criticism of [clause 6] is in two parts. The first deals with the words "the working class must organise"... If the objective is to establish socialism then only socialists can organise for its establishment... The second part of my criticism... is where it states that "conquest of powers of government, national and local, in order that this machinery, including the armed forces of the nation, may be converted from an instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation."... If we mean by socialism the emancipation of all mankind, then such an emancipation cannot be achieved by coercion. It can only be brought about by mankind as a whole understanding and wanting this emancipation.' 'Socialists seek to end class society and the struggle between these classes and for us to argue that we represent one class against the other in order to end classes altogether seems to me as nonsensical as the claim that in order to bring about peace we should support war.' The final article contributed by Tony to FORUM was 'The socialist movement - a re-examination' (April 1955). It was signed by F. Evans, J. C. Rowan, S. R. Parker and A. W. L. Turner. The four authors made it clear that they 'are not necessarily committed to every detail...' In fact the four-page article contains more of Evans' thinking and use of language than of the other three authors. After stressing that the changes they advocated (particularly to the Party's D of P) were 'not put forward as an ultimatum or as a programme to be now adopted', they outlined their proposed alternative basis of Party membership: UNDERSTANDING that social change is continuous, and that changes in men's attitudes and their social institutions is one process;

RECOGNISING that the developments of present (capitalist) society include the changing of the institutions of property and authority (the institutions of class and power and privilege) in the direction of socialism; RECOGNISING AND DESIRING socialism as a way of life characterised by production solely for use as an integral part of a freer, more equalitarian and more harmonious society; and UNDERSTANDING that the purpose of the Socialist Party is to urge on the emergence of socialist society by encouraging the growth of socialist tendencies in attitudes and institutions. It is difficult to measure - or even to estimate - Tony's contribution to this complex statement. It was written after years of discussion, not only among the four signatories but also between them and others in and around the Party. Tony's input to that article can perhaps be assessed by three sentences taken from it which are consistent with what he had previously written elsewhere: 'In a world in which everything else is changing, it would be foolish to expect our more particular concepts of socialism to remain static. That is why we must keep discussing the details of socialism and advocating what we think is desirable. It is a most necessary part of the socialism-developing process.' However, in February 1955 the Executive Committee laid a charge against Tony of action detrimental to the interests of the Party and suspended him as a member pending the hearing of the charge. At the subsequent Conference held in Conway Hall which was attended by most London Party members, the threat of expelling Tony from the Party was rejected overwhelmingly. Following resolutions carried in some Branches, the Executive Committee managed to get a majority of members to vote in favour of expelling members who did not accept the Declaration of Principles in its entirety. It was obvious to Tony that his continued membership would cause a rift in the Party between the old guard who believed in the immutability of the Declaration of Principles and those who wanted to see development of ideas and discussion. Tony resigned from the Party in April 1955 and in his letter of resignation he made it clear that he was doing so in the interests of maintaining stability in the Party, but he was sure that the authoritarian power of the Executive Committee would not prevent future discussion and development of the socialist case. Tony's letter of resignation came before the Paddington Branch, who agreed 8-1 that the following note be attached to the Form F (termination of membership notice): 'We regret the circumstances that have compelled Comrade Turner to resign from the Party. We must place on record this comrade's loyal and continuously wholehearted service over 25 years; as a propagandist he has excelled and has had few equals. The Party can ill afford to lose members of his calibre. One day we hope the Party will have sufficiently broadened its character so that it may contain all socialists.' Other activities Tony's outstanding ability as a public speaker and his competence as a writer owe something to his self-education. Barltrop hints at this when he refers to Tony's 'ample respect for learning'. Ken Smith spells it out in describing the educational and cultural activities of Tony and his mates in their

unemployed early 20s: 'Many became bookish and took elocution lessons. They went and sat in the gods at the Old Vic when they could raise fourpence or knew the doorman, and used their leisure like gentlemen, learning dancing, fencing, chess, bridge - anything that was free to the unemployed, and taught each other poker and other disreputable activities.' During World War II Tony represented Party members at conscientious objectors' tribunals. Barltrop gives some details: 'As persuasive in this kind of advocacy as he was when addressing hundreds from the platform, Turner won conditional exemptions for innumerable members. The technique usually... was for a member to establish his adhesion to the SPGB's case, which was then argued by Turner; and the tribunal would in turn try continually to try to find some flaw in the applicant's fidelity to Turner's argument.' Ken Smith paints a similar picture, with a different choice of words: 'He appeared at the Fulham Conscientious Objectors Tribunal...to plead the case of many members before Justice Hargreaves. The judge very early on became satisfied simply with an assurance from Tony that the person was a bona fide member for their exemption to be granted. The Services didn't really want socialists upsetting the rest of the lads.' During the war years Tony acted as full-time Central Organiser. He was paid around #5 per week, which enabled him to work for the Party without the need to find another job. In his capacity of Central Organiser and speaker he travelled the whole of the country, paying periodic visits to Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, etc. Some members resented Tony being paid by the Party.. At the 1945 Annual Conference a resolution was passed that this arrangement should cease. Suddenly Tony had no income. Fortunately he was able to obtain employment as a wine and spirit salesman, and became financially secure. Opinions of others What you thought - and may still think - of Tony depends on whether you focus on his ability as a speaker (how he presented his views), what those views were, and on Tony himself as a flawed human being. Barltrop refers to Tony on 40 pages of The Monument. Many of those references are favourable because they describe Tony's prowess as a public speaker, his early tough life and his self-education. But Barltrop himself is a complex character. Nowhere in his book does he reveal the open secret (at least among Party members) that he is also Coster, for a time a prominent and orthodox Party rottweiler. Barltrop writes, arguably with tongue in cheek, of Tony's 'reverence for the Party's Principles'. But in FORUM Coster really puts the boot in. In 'The sentimental anarchists' (March 1954) he refers to 'Turner's polemics' and writes sarcastically of his 25 propositions: 'Can we get there by candle-light? Yes - and back again.' Probably the most vitriolic opponent of Tony and his views was Harry Young (Horatio). A formidable speaker and accomplished writer, Horatio may be judged to have exposed the weakness of Tony's claim that 'our opponents no longer have theories' (April 1953). But in a later article he used language

that was full of hatred for Tony. He wrote of 'Turner's attempts to undermine the Party's existence', describing him as a self-confessed illiterate. In the June 2004 Socialist Standard one of the editors, DAP (Dave Perrin) wrote an article 'Getting splinters' which described six instances of groups of members who had 'challenged the Party's basic core positions'. One of these was the 'Turner controversy'. According to DAP, 'Three interlocking propositions underpinned the 'Turnerite' viewpoint: (i) that the society of mass consumerism and automated labour which capitalism had become had to be swept away in its entirety if alienation was to be abolished and a truly human community created. This meant a return to pre-industrial methods of production, on lines inspired by Tolstoy and William Morris's News from Nowhere. (ii) that the creation of the new socialist society was not simply in the interests of the working class but was in the interests of the whole of humanity, irrespective of class, a proposition they thought it essential for the Party to recognise in its everyday propaganda, and (iii) the means of creating the new peaceful and co-operative society had to be entirely peaceful, indeed pacifist (and in the view of some, possibly even gradual)' Had Tony survived until 2004 he would no doubt have had something to say about the accuracy of those 'interlocking propositions' made up by DAP and not extracted from any written source. For one thing, Tony made it clear that, although he opposed mass production, he was not against the use of machines. He would probably also have queried 'possibly even gradual', which implies a support for reformism that neither Tony nor any of those with the 'Turnerite viewpoint' ever advanced. Family life With the outbreak of war in 1939 Tony's wife Doris and children were evacuated to Yeovil in Somerset. He stayed in London. Tony and Doris never lived together again. The children can only remember his occasional visits. Tony and Doris divorced and he married his second wife, Gustl. But after a short while they, too, divorced. Part III Tony after the Party 1955-92 Ken Smith summarises some of the main events in Tony's life after he left the Party: 'He joined the Hampstead Labour Party after leaving the SPGB but left after three weeks. He emigrated to Kenya where he built up a substantial book business but continued to visit Britain frequently. In recent years he renewed acquaintance with the Party, visiting branches and taking part in discussions. He clearly enjoyed the greater spirit of tolerance that he found.' (Soc.Stand. Apr '92) Relatives and associates of Tony add a few details about his private life. He and his third wife, Ann, spent a short time in South Africa and in the late 1950s settled in Kenya where he remained until just before his death in 1992. In Kenya Tony associated himself with the progressive elements in the country, including Tom Mboya, but he was unable to become a visible activist. However, he is known to have held soirees where there were lively discussions. Tony also became the chess champion of

East Africa. Early in 1992 Tony had an aneurism diagnosed and he died on the operating table in a Johannesburg hospital. Two obituaries of Tony were published. By far the more sympathetic of the two was in the Socialist Standard, written by his old comrade Ken Smith, references to which have already been made. To quote one further paragraph: 'During his time in the Party Turner was a remarkably active and successful advocate of the SPGB point of view, so much so that the Party was sometimes referred to as Tony Turner's Party, to the irritation of older, less ebullient members. For people who heard him on the platform in Hyde Park or debating public figures in the years during and after the war, his performances were hypnotising in the first arena and devastating in the second - as many politicians found to their cost and chagrin.' The other obituary was by Ian Aitken in the Guardian, 26 Feb. 1992. It contained errors, exaggerations and half-truths. It was condescending and supercilious, telling us more about Ian Aitken than Tony Turner. Here are three of the six paragraphs: 'In the forties and fifties, Turner was the star of a cuddly little organisation grandly named the Socialist Party of Great Britain. Its approach was Marxist, but it believed there could be no real change until enough people had seen the light. It was Tony's job to show them the light, and he blinded them daily with the brilliance of his wit... I don't know how many converts he made - my guess is quite a lot. But he provided better entertainment than most professional comics. In fact, Tony Turner was a wine merchant, and looked the part. No hairy tweeds for him; he never mounted his rickety platform in anything but a suit and tie. With such a star in its firmament, it is odd that his little party didn' t prosper. But it survives to this day, and for Tony's sake I retain a warm affection for it.' Stan Parker