OBITUARY: Brian Haw
The anti-war movement in Britain lost one of its most
dedicated, tenacious and courageous activists on 18 June 2011, when Brian
William Haw lost his battle with lung cancer and passed away peacefully in his
sleep at the age of 62, in Germany, where he was receiving medical treatment.
For nearly 10 years,
since he had journeyed from his Worcestershire home to Parliament Square in
Westminster on 2 June 2001, Brian had defied all attempts, from assaults by right
wing thugs, who broke his nose on two occasions, to the full force of the state
which introduced legislation specifically designed to evict him from the
square, to stop his protest in solidarity with the people of Iraq and other
victims of British imperialism, and his pointing an accusing finger at the
criminals in the palace of Westminster who blessed and presided over the
slaughter of millions in the Middle East.
Initially moved by the
suffering imposed on the people of Iraq by the vicious sanctions regime, he
began his protest with a banner reading “Stop Killing My Kids”. And, as
the Guardian put it: “Soon, he was no longer protesting about
sanctions, but against the build-up to the war in Iraq, then the war itself,
and the occupation that followed. When he finally left the pavement in March
2011, he was still warning onlookers and passers-by of the effects of the
conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.” (‘Brian Haw obituary – Peace campaigner
of Parliament Square spurred to action over sanctions on Iraq’, 20 June 2011)
Announcing his death,
members of his peace campaign wrote: “Brian showed great determination and
courage during the many long hard years he led his peace campaign in Parliament Square, during which it is well documented that he was relentlessly persecuted by
the authorities, which eventually took its toll on his health.
“Brian showed the
same courage and determination in his battle with cancer. He was keenly aware
of and deeply concerned that so many civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine did not have access to the same treatments that were made available to
him. Parliament, the police, and courts should forever be ashamed of their
disgraceful behaviour towards Brian.” (Quoted in ‘Brian Haw, veteran peace
campaigner’, dies aged 62, Guardian, 19 June 2011)
Brian’s acute sense of justice was perhaps
first ignited by the fact that his father had been one of the first British
soldiers to enter the Bergen-Belsen death camp when it was liberated from the
Nazis. According to Brian, it was the lasting impact of the scenes he
encountered that led his father to commit suicide when Brian was age 13.
An early working life in the Merchant Navy
helped forge Brian’s own empathy with the oppressed. Interviewed from his
protest site in 2002, he recalled seeing Suez and Mumbai, noting, “and if
those people were here now, they’d say: ‘Is all this pavement yours? You’re
living like a king’.” (Quoted in ‘Brian Haw obituary’, op cit)
Haw’s tenacious protest
was a thorn in the side of MPs and of the British state generally and they did
their utmost to remove him. In 2002 Westminster City Council unsuccessfully
took legal action aimed at removing him, but his greatest legal challenge came
when, in November 2004, the Labour government announced provisions in the Serious
Organised Crime and Police bill (sic), specifically designed to force his
removal from the square. The legislation, which came into force in April 2005,
curtailed the right to protest within one kilometre of parliament. This
repressive legislation needs to be recalled when considering the British
state’s alleged concern for the democratic rights of people in the Middle East,
its hypocritical denunciations of alleged human rights abuses in socialist and
anti-imperialist countries, and above all its genocidal wars against Iraq,
Afghanistan and Libya, its support for the Israeli Zionists’ genocidal
persecution of the Palestinian people, and its sabre-rattling against Syria and
Iran.
However, it took more
than an act of parliament to shift Brian Haw. In a stunning humiliation for the
state, the high court ruled that his protest was not covered by the act,
because it had begun before the legislation was passed and hence the question
of applying for permission could not have arisen.
Brian Haw was a devout,
lifelong Christian and it was his interpretation of his faith that led him to
take the stand he did. His were essentially the actions of an individual.
Unlike communists, he did not appreciate that it was the conscious and
organised strength of the working class, along with its allies among the
oppressed, that alone can affect real and lasting change, including ending the
scourge of imperialist wars forever. But in his unyielding courage and
unwavering dedication, Brian certainly put to shame the pusillanimous leaders
of the Stop the War Coalition and the Troto-revisionist fraternity ‘enemy
within’ the working class movement, whose undying loyalty to the imperialist
Labour Party trumps their specious ‘anti-imperialism’ every time. Brian did not
believe that you stopped imperialist war by re-electing the warmongers. He did
not believe that you stopped imperialist war by safe, sterile, ineffective and
occasional protest. He did not believe that you stopped imperialist war by
criticising the oppressed, maligning their leaders and opposing their
resistance.
The conscious and
progressive working class movement will remember Brian Haw as a courageous and
principled fighter against aggressive war, who dedicated every fibre of his
being to his beliefs and who gave his life for them. The greatest tribute that
can be paid to him is to intensify the struggle against imperialism and for the
victory of all those fighting against it on the frontlines of Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere.
Lalkar extends
its sincere condolences to Brian’s family, loved ones and friends.