Paul Foot

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For the British stand-up comedian, see Paul Foot (comedian).

Paul Foot, campaigning journalist

Paul Mackintosh Foot (8 November 1937 – 18 July 2004) was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Paul Foot was the son of Hugh Foot who, as Lord Caradon, was governor of Cyprus and represented the United Kingdom at the United Nations from 1964 to 1970. He was also the nephew of Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour Party.

1 Our left foot
2 Newspapers and magazines
3 Politics
4 Awards and campaign journalism
5 Quote
6 Publications
- 6.1 Source
7 Death/Memorial
8 External links
9 Further reading
10 See also

[edit] Our left foot

Foot originally joined the International Socialists, organisational forerunner of the SWP, when he was a cub reporter in Glasgow in the early 1960s. He wrote for Socialist Worker throughout his career and was its editor from 1972 until 1978. He continued to write a regular column for the Socialist Worker until he died.

Apart from his greatly respected work as a campaigning journalist, he was also known as an extraordinarily entertaining and gripping orator. He spoke at thousands of meetings for hundreds of left-wing and socialist causes, frequently trying to persuade audiences of the relevance of revolutionary socialism.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Newspapers and magazines

In the mid-1960s, Foot was employed part-time by the Sunday Telegraph. He had previously contributed articles to Private Eye since 1964 but decided, in February 1967, to take a cut in salary and join the staff of Private Eye on a full-time basis, working with its editor, Richard Ingrams and its new, sole owner Peter Cook. When asked about the decision later Foot would say he could not resist the prospect of two whole pages with complete freedom to write whatever he liked. Foot got on very well with Cook, only realising after the latter's death in 1995 how much they had in common: "We both were born in the same week, into the same sort of family. His father, like mine, was a colonial servant rushing round the world hauling down the imperial flag. Both fathers shipped their eldest sons back to public school education in England. We both spent our school holidays with popular aunts and uncles in the West Country." Foot's first stint at Private Eye lasted 5 years until 1972, when he became editor of the Socialist Worker.

Six years later he returned to Private Eye but was poached in 1979 by the editor of the Daily Mirror, Mike Molloy, who offered him a weekly "investigative" page of his own with only one condition attached: that he was not to make propaganda for the SWP. Foot stayed at the Daily Mirror for 14 enjoyable years, but finally fell out with the new editor, David Banks, after the death of Robert Maxwell, and a boardroom coup that introduced a programme of "union-bashings and sackings". He left the Mirror in 1993 when the paper refused to print articles critical of their new management (in response to which, Foot distributed copies of the articles to passers-by outside the Mirror's headquarters). He then rejoined Private Eye for a third time, with its new editor, Ian Hislop. From 1993, he also contributed a regular column to The Guardian.

[edit] Politics

He fought the Birmingham Ladywood by-election in 1977 for the SWP and was a Socialist Alliance candidate for several offices from 2001 onwards. In the Hackney mayoral election in 2002 he came third, beating the Liberal Democrat candidate into fourth. He stood in the London region for the RESPECT coalition at the 2004 European elections.

[edit] Awards and campaign journalism

He was Journalist of the Year in the What The Papers Say Awards in 1972 and 1989, Campaigning Journalist of the Year in the 1980 British Press Awards, won the George Orwell Prize for Journalism in 1994 with Tim Laxton, won the Journalist of the Decade in the What The Papers Say Awards in 2000, and the James Cameron Special Posthumous Award in 2004.

His best known work was in the form of campaign journalism, including his exposure of corrupt architect John Poulson and, most notably, his prominent role in the campaigns to overturn the convictions of the Birmingham Six and the Bridgewater Four, which succeeded in 1991 and 1997 respectively. He took a particular interest in the conviction of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing, firmly believing Megrahi to have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice.[1]

He also worked tirelessly, though without success, to gain a posthumous pardon for James Hanratty, who was hanged in 1962 for the A6 murder.

[edit] Quote

“Only the working masses can change society; but they will not do that spontaneously, on their own. They can rock capitalism back onto its heels but they will only knock it out if they have the organisation, the socialist party, which can show the way to a new, socialist order of society. Such a party does not just emerge. It can only be built out of the day-to-day struggles of working people.” –Why you should be a socialist (1977).

[edit] Publications

Immigration and Race in British Politics, (1965), Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
The politics of Harold Wilson, (1968), Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
The rise of Enoch Powell: an examination of Enoch Powell’s attitude to immigration and race, (1969), London: Cornmarket Press, ISBN 0-7191-9017-7.
Who killed Hanratty?, (1971), London: Cape, ISBN 0-224-00546-4.
The postal workers and the Tory offensive, (1971?), London: International Socialists.
Workers against racism, (1973?), England: International Socialists.
Stop the cuts, (1976), London: Rank and File Organising Committee.
Why you should be a socialist: the case for the new Socialist Workers Party, (1977), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-01-4.
Red Shelley, (1980), London: Sidgwick and Jackson, ISBN 0-283-98679-4.
This bright day of summer: the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, (1981), London:Socialists Unlimited, ISBN 0-905998-22-7.
Three letters to a Bennite, (1982), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-29-4.
The Helen Smith story, (1983), Glasgow: Fontana, ISBN 0-00-636536-1, (with Ron Smith).
'An Agitator of the Worst Type': a portrait of miners' leader A.J. Cook, (1986), London: Socialist Workers Party, ISBN 0-905998-51-0.
Murder at the farm: who killed Carl Bridgewater? (1986), London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-99165-8.
Ireland: why Britain must get out, (1989), London: Chatto & Windus, ISBN 0-7011-3548-4.
Who framed Colin Wallace?, (1989), London:Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-47008-7.
The Case for Socialism: what the Socialist Workers Party stands for, (1990), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 0-905998-74-X.
Words as weapons: selected writing 1980-1990, (1990), London: Verso, ISBN 0-86091-310-4/0860915271.
Articles of resistance, (2000), London: Bookmarks, ISBN 1-898876-64-9.
The vote: how it was won and how it was undermined, (2005), London: Viking, ISBN 0-670-91536-X.

[edit] Source

The British Library Catalogue

[edit] Death/Memorial

Paul Foot died of a heart attack while waiting at Stansted Airport to begin a family holiday in Ireland. He was 66 years old.

A special tribute issue of the Socialist Review, on whose editorial board he remained for 19 years, collected together many of his articles. Private Eye issue 1116 included a tribute to Foot from the many people whom he worked with over the years.

On 10 October 2004 — three months after Foot's death — there was a full house at the Hackney Empire in London for an evening's celebration of the life of this much-admired and respected campaigning journalist. The Guardian and Private Eye jointly set up the Paul Foot Award, with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative/campaigning journalism.