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The remarkable heritage of a leftie lord
MAT COWARD recalls the communist and pacifist aristocrat whose commitment made a difference in the Spanish civil war, the Blitz and WWII Europe
HIGHLY PRINCIPLED: (Left) Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon, November 1934; (right) Buscot Park, Oxfordshire where Communist Party branch meeting were held and Basque Civi War refugees found accomodation
[(L to R) Elliott & Fry Studio/CC - Daderot/CC]
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
WOULD you be awfully embarrassed to find yourself a member of the same secret communist cell as your own butler? I suppose it’s a situation very few of us will ever need to worry about, but allegedly this was an etiquette poser which Alexander Gavin Henderson, second Baron Faringdon, had to negotiate on a regular basis.
The story goes that Henderson’s butler was the local CP convener, while the baron himself was branch secretary. Meetings were held at Buscot Park, the ancestral pile; after serving dinner, the gentleman’s gentleman would take the liberty of discreetly reminding His Lordship that his presence was required in the library this evening.
Once the meeting began, Comrade Butler, in the chair, would instruct Comrade Henderson to read the minutes.
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