Harriet Harman, the NCCL & Liberty, the times..

Published on the Labour Left website 25th February 2014 http://www.labourleft.co.uk/ Some thoughts..

In the 70s the NCCL was a libertarian organisation, in the best sense. It became a vehicle for free speech for everyone - and those who had been silenced by ‘The Establishment’ especially during and after the heady 60s welcomed this stance and the opportunies presented.

I remember some of the issues being tackled even though I was in my mid-late teens.  You might not be surprised to learn that I was interested in the changing times!  The BBC had treated us tothe daring spectacle of That Was the Day That Was - the first televised satirical challenge to 'The Establishment'.   We discovered we had an organisation, albeit appearing to be somewhat casual, that would formally attempt to challenge long held views and encourage free speech. I say casual as we must bear in mind that this was a whole new era.  There was no example to follow.  This was ground breaking stuff.

They were experimental times. Some were often shocked by what was happening around them -  I know my parents certainly were in the early days even the music and performance of the Rolling Stones in the late 60s early 70s was considered daring!  So when views were expressed that they did not agree with, but sometimes did, they felt confused.  Some issues appeared fair, some not so good and some they could not sign up to at all!

The NCCL evolved into Liberty, Shami Chakraborti being it’s present CEO.  We should be proud of the stance that this organisation has taken on many issues.  NCCL asked questions that previously hadn't seen the light of day.  I believe that without this organisation we would be a less tolerant society and although we would have probably have arrived at similar conclusions that we have, they would certainly have taken longer.   The gay community would have struggled far longer without it's assistance and courage.  I say courage because during those days courage was required to dare to be even a little bit different to the majority.   Many reading this will have little such understanding - merely accepting and enjoying the rights and freedoms they enjoy today.  Somewhat like the trade unions, those rights had to be fought for. NCCL was at the forefront of all that. It took risks, it was bold.   

Some examples of those times - in the US the rights of black people to travel on the same buses as white people were being challenged.  Civil rights = civil liberties.  We had our own problems in the UK - Enoch Powell had given his famous ‘rivers of blood’ speech. It disturbed many of us whilst similtaneously pleasing others. It had consequences - some immigrants feared for their lives.  Now we see vans telling immigrants to go home! Those were the early days of tackling inequaity as well as racism.  Bras were being burned and girls were reading Simone de Beauvoir - one of the first women authors to write about feminism.   Inequality between men and women still requires challenging.  I guess some issues are tough nuts to crack.. .. Old intolerances live on.

The contraceptive pill had become available and parents were no longer nervous of unwanted pregnancies but of  the sexual behaviour of their offspring, especially daughters.   CND - Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament marches had taken place on city streets across the UK.  Some agreed with them, some did not.  Abortion rights was another fight.  Increasingly our society was crying out for change at different levels within our lives.

Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey and Patricia Hewitt were young and intelligent.  Perhaps, like myself,  the first people within their families to go to University.   More new ground!  It must have been an exciting time to work at the NCCL. Questioning everything.  Don’t they all look young?

And a young newly qualified lawyer would certainly not have the voice nor the power to expel any organisation that had legally sought affiliation. Like many of us, questioning or not, she had a job to do and she had to get on with it !  Harriet Harman has made it quite clear that PIE had been pushed to the margins before she even went to the NCCL.  The campaign referred to took place in 1976.  Harriet Harman didn’t join NCCL until two years later.

In her interview Harriet Harman said that allegations by the Daily Mail are a smear. "They have accused me of being an apologist for child sex abuse, of supporting a vile paedophile organisation, of having a relaxed attitude to paedophilia and of watering down child pornography laws," she said. "These are horrific allegations and I strongly deny them all of them".  It is documented in several articles that Jack Dromey took on PIE in the late 70s when he was Chair of NCCL.  But it took five years for that organisation to finally expel them.  Were other forces at work ?  Did PIE have friends in high places - we are now aware of the Savile influence. Were they part of the same network ?   I doubt neither Harriet Harman nor Jack Dromey would have a clue. Like me they probably had no idea that such networks existed.  They were probably as naieve as the rest of us at that age and in those times.  We need some context here.

The Daily Mail says it is defiant.  It was defiant over Ed Miliband's father too !

Why bring this into the public domain now..   ?  I’ve seen this stuff before but it has never made the headlines.