Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/703/13666
From The Socialist newspaper, 1 February 2012
Obituary: Gwenda Beishon
Over four decades, from the 1970s until her recent death, Gwenda Beishon was a continuous subscriber to the Militant newspaper and then the Socialist.
Throughout this time she was a left-wing member of Brighton Labour Party, regularly condemning the right-wing leadership of the party. Her father - from a Russian-Jewish family - had emerged from World War One's front trenches to enthusiastically welcome the 1917 Russian revolution and adopt communist ideas, later recruiting her Polish-Jewish born mother to them too.
Gwenda met her future husband John in the communist society at Birmingham University, but along with many others they came to reject Stalinist ideology and join the Labour Party, which then included many left-wing and Marxist activists.
Gwenda twice served as a Labour councillor in Brighton, but the political activity that she liked most was her unrelenting local activism - leafleting, discussing with people on doorsteps and helping to sort out their problems. She was also an active trade unionist in the NUT teachers' union.
Gwenda will be remembered as a very avid reader and a lover of classical music, but also as an ardent socialist whose convictions ran very deep.
Judy Beishon
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In The Socialist 1 February 2012:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Bankers bonus scandal - Fight this profit-mad system
Trade unionists and socialists prepare for May elections
What is the point of Labour MPs?
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Don't let the racist EDL divide us
Disabled protesters demand scrapping of 'welfare' bill
Haringey takes action against academies
Coventry: Re-elect Dave Nellist
Socialist Party youth and students
NUS: name the day for student walkout
Save Derbyshire youth services!
Only one in six 'vacancies' real
Tough conditions for agency workers
South East Wales youth plan new campaigns
International socialist news and analysis
EU summit - no capitalist solutions to the spiralling eurozone crisis
Interview: the Tunisian revolution one year on
Socialist Party workplace news
Pensions battle: Unions must campaign for coordinated strike action in March
London Docklands transport workers win Olympics deal
Remploy workers fight privatisation
Jet tanker drivers continue strike action
The Socialist - readers' comments
Debate: Should socialists support the HS2 rail line?
Are the Greens a real alternative?
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