Arthur Stanley Newens (4 February 1930 – 2 March 2021) was a British

Labour Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated Labour Co-op; cy, Llafur a'r Blaid Gydweithredol) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidat ...

politician. He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1983, and a

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 ...

(MEP) from 1984 to 1999. Born in

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

, Newens was educated at

Buckhurst Hill County High School Buckhurst Hill County High School, BHCHS, (1938–1989) was a secondary school in Chigwell, Essex. History It opened on 15 September 1938. It was near to RAF Chigwell and the River Roding. In 1953 there were 549 boys and the staff consisted o ...

. He died in March 2021 at the age of 91.The Guardian: Stan Newens obituary
/ref>

Career

Newens was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

during

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

and worked as a coalminer in

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 Cou ...

. He graduated in History from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, and became a schoolteacher. In 1949 he joined the Labour Party, and was still a member. At UCL, he met

Anil Moonesinghe Anil Moonesinghe (15 February 1927 – 8 December 2002) was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist revolutionary politician and trade unionist. He became a member of parliament, a Cabinet Minister of Transport in 1964, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament from 199 ...

, a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Trotskyist 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 rev ...

, who was later to become a Cabinet Minister in

, and joined the Socialist Review Group led by

Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (born Yigael Glückstein, he, יגאל גליקשטיין; 20 May 1917 – 9 April 2000) was a Trotskyist activist. Born to a Jewish family in Palestine, he moved to Britain in 1947 and by the end of the 1950s had assumed the pen na ...

, a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), which later became the Socialist Workers Party (SWP); he left this group in 1959. He held several posts in the

National Union of Teachers The National Union of Teachers (NUT; ) was a trade union for school teachers in Education in England, England, Education in Wales, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It was a member of the Trades Union Congress. In March 2017, NU ...

and was chairman of the

Movement for Colonial Freedom Liberation (founded as the Movement for Colonial Freedom) is a political civil rights advocacy group founded in the United Kingdom in 1954. It had the support of many MPs, including Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle and Tony Benn, and celebrities such ...

and president of the

London Co-operative Society The London Co-operative Society (LCS) was a consumer co-operative society in the United Kingdom. History The Society was formed in September 1920 by the amalgamation of the Stratford Co-operative Society and the Edmonton Co-operative Society, ...

. Newens subsequently represented two

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

constituencies as a Labour MP. He was elected for

Epping Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...

in 1964, and lost the seat in 1970. In 1974, he became the first MP for

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

, but lost the seat in the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

landslide of 1983. Following this, he became an MEP for the

London Central London Central is a bus company operating in South London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London. History London Central commenced operating on 1 April 1989 when London Buse ...

constituency in 1984, which he served until 1999. He stood for Harlow again in 1987, but was not successful in being re-elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. He held several senior positions, including Vice Chair of the PLP Foreign Affairs Group and Chair and Deputy Leader of the Labour Group of MEPs. He was generally seen as a prominent left-winger, campaigning against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and for other international causes.

Other work

Newens was an active trade unionist, and wrote numerous pamphlets and books, including ''The Case Against Nato'' (1972), ''Third World: Change or Chaos'' (1977), ''A History of Struggle: 50th Anniversary of Liberation, formerly the Movement for Colonial Freedom'' (2004) and ''Nicolae Ceausescu: The Man, His Ideas and His Socialist Achievements'' (1972). He was also a local historian of Essex and East London; his book "A History of North Weald Bassett and Its People" was published in 1985, and his study of writer

Arthur Morrison Arthur George Morrison (1 November 1863 – 4 December 1945) was an English writer and journalist known for realistic novels, for stories about working-class life in the East End of London, and for detective stories featuring a specific detect ...

was published in

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

in 2008. His autobiography, ''In Quest of a Fairer Society: My Life and Politics'', was published in November 2013 by The Memoir Club.

Publications

* ''Talking with Nicolae Ceaușescu : an interview with Stan Newens'' (1982). London : London Co-operative Society Political Committee. * ''Nicolae Ceaușescu: the man, his ideas and his socialist achievements'' (1972). Presented by Stan Newens. Nottingham : Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. * ''The case against N.A.T.O.: the danger of the nuclear alliances'' (1972). London. * ''A history of North Weald Bassett and its people'' (1985). Stan Newens. North Weald : Nuclear Printing Co. * ''Nicolae Ceaușescu: The Man, his ideas, and his Socialist Achievements'' (1972). Stan Newens. Spokesman Books. * ''The memoirs of an old East-Ender'' Arthur Ernest Newens (1899-1977); edited with an introduction by Stan Newens. (2006). Harlow : A.S. Newens. * ''Working together : a short history of the London Co-op Society Political Committee'' (1988). Stan Newens. London : CRS London Political Committee. * ''Arthur Morrison : the novelist of realism in East London and Essex'' (2008). Stan Newens. Loughton : Alderton. * ''The Kurds - a people's struggle for peace and justice'' (1994). Liberation. * ''Leah Manning'' (1991). Ron Bill and Stan Newens. Harlow : Leah Manning Trust in association with Square One Books.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Newens, Stan 1930 births 2021 deaths Anti–Vietnam War activists British conscientious objectors British socialists Alumni of University College London Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies National Union of Teachers-sponsored MPs People educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School People from Bethnal Green Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944) members Socialist Workers Party (UK) members UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Labour Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1984–1989 MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 Schoolteachers from London British coal miners