Pat Wall

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For other persons named Patrick Wall, see Patrick Wall (disambiguation).
Pat Wall
Pat Wall

Charles Patrick Wall (6 May 1933 – 6 August 1990) was an English Trotskyist political figure and Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford North from 1987 to 1990. Wall was a longstanding Marxist and a supporter of the Militant tendency.

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[edit] Background

Born into a Liverpool working class family on 6 May 1933, he began political activity when he was picked up on a canvass by a local activist in 1950. Wall adopted Marxism and Trotskyism and joined the Deane-Grant group, the remnant of the Revolutionary Socialist League which later became the Militant tendency - he became Garston Constituency Labour Party Secretary in 1952 at the age of 16. [3]

As a young activist, Wall played a role in moving the Liverpool Labour Party to the left in the late 1950s as a member of the then joint Liverpool Trades Council and Labour Party executive member, he had also been one of the youngest Liverpool councillor in the 1950s. [4]

[edit] Involvement with Marxist Journals

Pat Wall was associated with a series of journals aimed at leading and widening the influence of Trotskyist Marxism, and popularising without compromising or diluting it. Latterly, this was manifest in the roles he played in launching and establishing the Militant newspaper and before that on the editorial board of Socialist Fight of 1958-63.[1]

His role in the production of the Marxist youth journal Rally, organ of the Walton Labour Youth League in the 1950s deserves particular mention. This journal, behind which he was one of the leading figures joining the editorial board after he'd returned from a period in the army [5], gained a national and even international circulation despite its humble origins and duplicated production. Terry Harrison, now a leading figure in the Liverpool labour movement, has described how it was Pat and Rally which

"invited me to make a real commitment to the ideas of Marxism, and made me realise what this meant"

when he joined the LPYS in 1958. According to Ian Hunter, Wall was also a reader of the Revolutionary History journal.[2]

[edit] Internationalism

Pat's job as a mail order company buyer eventually took him away from Liverpool to Market Harborough, and then to Bingley in Bradford. It also took him abroad, and he established political contacts on his foreign travels: in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, South Korea and even the United States. The strong links he established with the Asian community in his Bradford constituency had led him to promise to speak in Pakistani Kashmir and Lahore on the fiftieth anniversary of Trotsky's death, had his own health allowed. His assistance to Trotskyists in Sri Lanka in 1979 was still remembered in tributes sent in memoriam.[3]

[edit] Bradford North

Selected as Labour candidate for Bradford North in 1983, he faced press criticism for his Trotskyist views, particularly in a Sunday Times article which portrayed Wall as wanting "civil war" and "bloodshed",[4] whereas a Militant editorial statement said:

"Pat explained that the Militant was in favour of a peaceful transformation of society. No supporter of Militant would ever advocate or encourage 'bloodshed' or 'civil war'... Pat was explaining that if there was any threat to a peaceful transformation of society, that threat would come from the capitalist class itself".[5]

He was even disowned by the then Labour Party leader Michael Foot.[6]

When he stood again in 1987 in the same ward, he was featured in the Conservatives election broadcast of the 27th May 1987, attacking his candidature because he was a Marxist. He was quoted as saying: "A Marxist Labour government would mean the abolition of the monarchy, the house of lords, the sacking of the generals, the admirals, the air marshals, the senior civil servants, the police chiefs and in particular the judges".[6] The Sun also featured a photograph demanding Wall be defeated on the day of the election.[7] Wall's campaign cut across this by holding mass public meetings and also 17 workplace meetings.[8] Wall won the seat, recording a 9.9% swing from the Social Democratic Party.[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] Rob Sewell's post-script to History of British Trotskyism
  2. ^ Revolutionary History, Vol. 3 Iss. 3
  3. ^ Revolutionary History, Vol. 3 Iss. 3
  4. ^ Sunday Times 7/3/82
  5. ^ Militant 592, 12/3/82
  6. ^ [2]Conservative Party Election Broadcasts from 1987
  7. ^ Militant, 26/6/87
  8. ^ Militant, 26/6/87
  9. ^ Militant, 26/6/87

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Geoffrey Lawler		 Member of Parliament for Bradford North
1987–1990		 Succeeded by
Terry Rooney