Kenneth Sidney Coates (16 September 1930 – 27 June 2010) was a British politician and writer. He chaired the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and edited ''The Spokesman'', the BRPF magazine launched in March 1970. He was a Labour Party

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 1989 to 1998 until his expulsion, and then an independent member of GUE/NGL from 1998 to 1999.

Early years

Coates was born in

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of '' Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus '' Al ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

and was brought up in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

.Palmer, J. 'Ken Coates obituary' ''The Guardian Online'' 29 June 2010 - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jun/29/ken-coates-obituary When called up for national service in 1948, Coates chose to become a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

rather than be conscripted into the

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

to fight in the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces ...

. He later won a scholarship in 1956 to the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

and achieved a first in Sociology.Kenneth Coates ''The Telegraph Online'' 22 August 2010 - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7958792/Kenneth-Coates.html After the war, he joined the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

but left following the breach between

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

and

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death ...

, whom he defended. After the 1956

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

, Coates and Pat Jordan became the focal point of a group of

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

s with a developing interest in

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

. After attending the fifth world congress of the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...

in 1958, of which they were very critical, Coates played a central role in founding the

International Group :''See also the International Marxist Group (Germany). The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and support ...

, forerunner of the

International Marxist Group :''See also the International Marxist Group (Germany). The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and suppor ...

. Coates also played leading roles in the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (BRPF), the

Institute for Workers' Control The Institute for Workers' Control was founded in 1968 by Tony Topham and Ken Coates, the latter then a leader of the International Marxist Group and subsequently professor at the University of Nottingham and a member of the European Parliament fro ...

, and European Nuclear Disarmament. He contested Nottingham South in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, but lost by several thousand votes.

European Parliament

From 1989 to 1998 he was a Labour Party member of the European Parliament, and spent five years as President of its Human Rights Subcommittee. In 1998 Coates was expelled from the Labour Party because he left the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. ...

to join the

European United Left/Nordic Green Left European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

in the European Parliament, after criticising

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

's move to the right.Izzo, Federica 'From the Italian Communist Party to Tsipras: The path of Europe’s radical left' 25 April 2014 - https://cise.luiss.it/cise/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DCISE6EN_73-78.pdf It was while a member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

that Coates was in contact with

Vadim Zagladin Vadim Valentinovich Zagladin (; June 23, 1927 – November 17, 2006) was a Soviet and Russian politician and ideologist and one of the leading theoreticians of perestroika. He was a collaborator and adviser to Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev a ...

, one of

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

's advisors, about the idea of a joint meeting between the European Parliament and the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet (russian: Верховный Совет, Verkhovny Sovet, Supreme Council) was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USS ...

. Coates persuaded the European Parliament to explore the possibility of such a joint meeting, as a practical way of exploring Gorbachev's call for a ‘common European home’ and supporting his democratic reforms.

Eduard Shevardnadze Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze ( ka, ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე}, romanized: ; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia fo ...

, the Soviet foreign minister, visited the European Parliament, and said he would be willing to be present at a joint meeting. Coates visited Zagladin in Moscow, who offered a four-point programme of stages for realisation of the Joint Special Session, as it came to be known. Coates pioneered a number of initiatives to help focus the institutions of European

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Pensioners’ Parliament, and also including a special Parliament of Disabled People, and two Europe-wide conferences of unemployed people. He strongly supported the Delors programme for

full employment Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely structural and frictional, may remain. F ...

in Europe, and became rapporteur of the Parliament's Temporary Committee on Employment, which carried two major reports with almost unanimous support of the European Parliament. Coates was the co-author, with Tony Topham, of the official history of the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate ...

, among numerous other books on

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

, democratic and humanistic socialism, social and economic issues,

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such a ...

as well as on

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...

and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

. His book ''The Case of

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...

'' (Nottingham: Spokesman, 1978) is regarded by some to have served as the international basis for the rehabilitation of that

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

leader. He also continued to support the democratic left in Eastern Europe, and was a member of the advisory board of the ''

Novi Plamen ''Novi Plamen'' ( en, New Flame) was a left-wing journal for political, social and cultural issues primarily aimed at intellectual audiences in the former Yugoslavia and the related diaspora. It was a leading publication of its kind in the region, ...

'' magazine. Coates was special professor in the Department of Adult Education at the

(1990–2004).

Books written or co-written

*''St Ann's: Poverty, deprivation and morale in a Nottingham Community'', with Richard Silburn, University of Nottingham, 1967 & Spokesman 2007 *''Industrial Democracy in Great Britain'', with Tony Topham, MacGibbon & Kee, 1967 *''The Dirty War in Mr. Wilson'', Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, 1967 *''Workers' Control: A Book of Readings and Witnesses for Workers' Control'', , McGibbon and Kee 1968 *''A Future for British Socialism?'', Editor, Centre for Socialist Education, 1968 *''Can the workers run industry?'', Editor, Sphere, 1968 *''Czechoslovakia and Socialism'', Editor, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, 1969 *''How and Why Industry Must Be Democratised'', with Wyn Williams, Institute for Workers' Control, 1969 *''The Debate on Workers' Control'', Editor and Contributor, Institute for Workers' Control, 1970 *''Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen'', , Penguin Books 1970 & Spokesman Books 2007 *''The Crisis of British Socialism'', Spokesman Books 197

*''Prevent the Crime of Silence'', Editor, Allen Lane, 1971 *''Essays on Industrial Democracy'', Spokesman Books, 1971 *''Essays on Socialist Humanism'', Editor, Spokesman, 1971 *''The New Unionism: the case for worker's control'', with Tony Topham, Penguin Books, 1974. *''Socialism and the Environment'', Editor, Spokesman, 1972 *''Detente and Socialist Democracy'', Editor, Spokesman, 1975 *''Beyond Wage Slavery'', Spokesman, 1977 *''Democracy in the Labour Party'', Spokesman, 1977 *''The Shop Stewards' Guide to the Bullock Report'', with Tony Topham, Spokesman, 1977 *''The Just Society'', Edited with Fred Singleton, Spokesman, 1977 *''The Right to Useful Work'', Editor, with Mike Cooley (engineer), Mike Cooley Spokesman, 1977 *''The Case of Nikoli Bukharin'', Spokesman, 1978 *''What Went Wrong'', Editor, Spokesman, 1979 *''Trade Unions in Britain'', with Tony Topham, , Spokesman, 1980 & Fontana Press, 1988 *''Beyond the Bulldozer'', with Richard Silburn, University of Nottingham, 1980 & , Spokesman 1987 *''How to Win'', Editor, Spokesman, 1981 *''Work-ins, Sit-ins and Industrial Democracy'', Spokesman, 1981 *''Eleventh Hour for Europe'', Editor, Spokesman, 1981 *''Heresies'', Spokesman, 1982 *''The Social Democrats: Those who went and those who stayed'', Spokesman 1983 *''The Most Dangerous Decade'', Spokesman 1984 *''Trade unions and politics'', with Tony Topham, , Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986 *''China and the Bomb'', Spokesman 1986 *''Joint Action for Jobs, A New Internationalism'', Editor, Spokesman 1986 *''Perestroika: Global Challenge'', Editor, Spokesman 1988 *''Think Globally, Act Locally'', Spokesman 1988 *''The History of the Transport and General Workers' Union'', with Tony Topham, , Basil Blackwell 1991 & Spokesman 1994 *''Human Rights in the World'', Spokesman 1992 *''A European Recovery Programme: Restoring Full Employment'', Edited with Michael Barratt Brown, Spokesman 1993 *''Common Ownership: Clause Four and the Labour Party'', Spokesman 1995 *''The Right to Work: The Loss of Our First Freedom'', Editor, Spokesman 1995 *''Full Employment for Europe'', with Stuart Holland, Spokesman 1995 *''Dear Commissioner'', Spokesman 1996 *''The Blair Revelation: Deliverance for whom?'', with Michael Barratt Brown, Spokesman 1996 *''Community Under Attack'', with Michael Barratt Brown, Spokesman 1997 *''Full Employment: A European Appeal'', Spokesman 1998 *''Workers' Control: Another World Is Possible'', , Spokesman Books 2003 *''Empire no more'', , Spokesman Books 2004

References

External links

A Political Life (Coates interview)

Lifelong Comrade (reflections by John Daniels)

Tributes to Coates published in The Spokesman

Obituary in the Guardian

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Ken 1930 births 2010 deaths Academics of the University of Nottingham British anti-war activists British anti–nuclear weapons activists 20th-century British writers 21st-century British writers Scottish Socialist Party MEPs British humanists British Marxists British Trotskyists International Marxist Group members Communist Party of Great Britain members Labour Party (UK) MEPs People from Leek, Staffordshire MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates People from Worthing Politicians from Staffordshire British political party founders