Remembering Neil Harris

by New Worker correspondent

Neil Harris, a leading member of the New Communist Party, sadly passed away in March 2018 following a long battle against cancer. Neil always wanted his ashes scattered at the Kremlin where Lenin’s tomb and Stalin’s ashes, together with hundreds of other honoured citizens from Soviet times, remain. This was raised by Theo Russell, the NCP delegate to the international anti-fascist forum in Moscow, last week only to be told that the scattering of ashes anywhere near the Lenin Mausoleum is, in fact,  strictly forbidden by the Kremlin authorities. But he asked our comrades in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for advice and with their help Theo scattered Neil’s ashes into the Moskva river from a boat as it passed the Kremlin. Many comrades who have fond memories of Neil Harris  will be pleased to hear that his last wish has now been granted.

Remembering a comrade

Robyn Harris and Andy Brooks

By New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends gathered at the India Club in London’s West End last weekend for a memorial dinner for Neil Harris, a leading member of the New Communist Party who spent many happy times in its bar and restaurant.

NCP leader Andy Brooks and several members of the Central Committee, including Daphne Liddle, Peter Hendy and Theo Russell, joined the throng that also included members of Neil’s jazz club and friends from his days at college in London.

Neil passed away in March after a long battle against cancer and the dinner was held on the eve of what would have been his 60^th birthday on 4^th November.  

The India Club has been a frequent venue for comrades over the years as well as students from the nearby London School of Economics. Neil was one of them in the 1970s and many of his LSE friends turned up to recall fond memories of Neil’s student days with his widow, Robyn, and others during the evening.

The venue, based in a hotel in the Strand, was originally set up as a meeting place for the India League, a British organisation that campaigned for India’s independence. The club itself was started by Krishna Menon, the left-wing Congress leader who was India's first High Commissioner to Britain after independence in 1947. Though no longer a club, the restaurant and bar is still frequented by Indian diplomats, students and journalists.

A Tribute to Neil Harris

Robyn Harris

by New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends gathered at the Party Centre over the weekend to pay tribute to the life-long commitment of Neil Harris to the communist cause. Neil passed away in March after a long battle against cancer. He was 59.

Leading comrades had paid their last respects to Neil at his funeral in Richmond in March. But they, and many others who knew Neil well returned to the Party Centre last Saturday for a memorial social to remember his life and his immense contribution to the work of the New Communist Party.

After finishing school Neil went to study at the London School of Economics. After graduation he had a number of jobs including working for the Co-operative Wholesale Society and a record store before taking up law. He scored in the top ten in the entire country in the law exam when he finished and for over 20 years he worked as a criminal defence solicitor in West London. He was proud to serve as a duty (legal aid) solicitor. He wanted to help the people who couldn’t afford to pay legal fees and he often extended his services to them outside of the courtroom and police station. He would encourage his clients to better themselves by looking for opportunities for them to change their lives.

Neil supported the Labour Party in his youth, even standing unsuccessfully for Labour in a council election in Berkshire, before turning to revolutionary politics, which he readily embraced when he joined the New Communist Party in the early 1980s, His enthusiasm and effort led to his inevitable election to our Central Committee in the 1990s. He remained on that committee and the Political Bureau until illness curtailed his mobility.

Neil loathed fascism and racism. He was active in the Rock against Racism campaign and the other anti-fascist movements that sprang up to combat the National Front and the British National Party. He was active in the fight against apartheid. He supported the unions and joined the solidarity campaign for the miners during their epic strike in the 1980s.

But above all he was a dedicated communist. While always on hand to provide legal advice to the Central Committee Neil was also an activist, organiser and writer who dedicated his life to the communist cause. Neil played a leading role in struggle against revisionism within the Party and drafted the proposals that were incorporated in the new Party constitution that followed. Neil sat on many NCP Congress committees

Neil organised and took part in many NCP meetings and was always ready to give out leaflets or carry the banner on protests and demos. He also wrote a number of keynote articles for the {New Worker}, in his own name as well as a couple of pen-names, which can be read online or in pamphlet form.

His last major effort, when his battle against cancer began, was a one-man campaign to improve St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, which revolved around the Help me sort out St Peter's! blog that he established in 2012 and remains on the Web as a record of his thoughts over the past six years.

Comrades who knew Neil well, including NCP leader Andy Brooks and National Chair Alex Kempshall, shared fond memories during the evening while Daphne Liddle and Theo Russell recalled Neil’s dedication to the movement over the years. Some of these stories were new to Neil’s widow, Robyn, but all of them reflected an eternal truth about a comrade whose life was so sadly cut short by a terminal illness.

Neil Harris was a man who enjoyed life and lived to help others. He loved music of all kinds. One of his favourite songs, Enjoy Yourself It’s Later Than You Think, was played at his funeral. It was, appropriately, played for his friends who had come to pay one last tribute to Neil’s memory.

Farewell to Neil Harris

Chris Coleman and Andy Brooks

 By New Worker correspondent

 

FRIENDS and comrades joined relatives and friends at the Mortlake Crematorium to pay their last respects to Neil Harris last week.

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks, Daphne Liddle, Theo Russell and Dermot Hudson, along with Chris Coleman from the RCPB (ML), said farewell to Neil Harris at the funeral in Richmond that celebrated a life dedicated to the struggle for peace and socialism.

As the coffin draped in the red national banner of the NCP entered the memorial hall Neil’s friends from the communist movement, the legal profession and the jazz club he supported followed to join his grieving widow, Robyn, in saluting the memory of an outstanding man whose life was sadly cut short by cancer.

Andy Brooks said that Neil Harris was a good friend and a good comrade who joined the NCP in the early 1980s, and his largely successful efforts to build the Party in London led to his inevitable election to our Central Committee in the 1990s. He remained on that committee and the Political Bureau until illness curtailed his mobility.

Neil was a pillar of his local Party branch and an activist who could always be relied on to help run New Worker stalls or give out leaflets and carry the Central Committee banner at local and national demonstrations.

Neil had a trained legal mind that he applied working on the numerous sub-committees of our Congresses, and to advise us on matters of law as and when needed. He used his analytical skills in the research needed for the papers and pamphlets that he produced over the years, scouring the libraries and later the internet for documents to back up his theories.

Neil was also an activist who spoke on our platforms in London and elsewhere on a variety of topics ranging from labour movement history to the ‘secret state’, from revolutionary struggle to social campaigns. In fact his last major effort, when his battle against cancer began, was a one-man campaign to improve St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, which revolved around the Help me sort out St Peter's! blog that he established in 2012.

 Neil was also a thinker and a writer, and his contributions to our paper, the New Worker, span the decades. Some have been republished as pamphlets. Most are preserved, under his name or that of the pen-names that he chose when he was a practising solicitor, electronically on our websites.

“I last saw Neil at the NCP’s 40 anniversary celebration at the Marx Memorial Library in July last year. He clearly enjoyed the event despite being in considerable pain,” Andy said.

“Final farewells are always times of reflection for us as we remember Neil now frozen in the past of our memories. Neil was an active member of the Party until his final illness and even then, during those long years when he battled against cancer, he continued to write for our communist weekly.

“But Neil never wavered in his belief in the fundamental truths of Marxism-Leninism. Above all he lives on in the fighting spirit of the New Communist Party,” Andy said.