Gloucestershire Socialist Party
Many will not have known Sharan Hendry, who died in January, but in Gloucestershire she is a legend. As a working-class disabled woman, suffering from a debilitating neurological condition along with other health problems, Sharan had a deep and hard-won understanding of what it means to suffer under capitalism. In 2012, when she met with Gloucester’s Tory MP Richard Graham to tell him her fears about the Bedroom Tax, Sharan witnessed the cold indifference of the ruling class: it meant nothing to him to meet a victim of the cuts, the discrimination, the poverty and cruelty for which his party’s austerity agenda was responsible. Capitalism demanded cuts, and he was there to defend the interests of his class.
Sharan decided to stand up for her own class and join the Socialist Party. Attending a public meeting organised by the Labour Party, Sharan related her experiences – but if the Labour hacks had expected an anti-Tory victim statement, they were disappointed. “We are not to blame”, she said. “It’s the capitalist system and we need to fight it. That’s why I joined the Socialist Party.”
On another occasion, Sharan braved the cold weather, propped up by other protesters, to confront Ed Miliband at a packed street meeting: “Will Labour finally end privatisation? What will you do for people like me?” She had no kind words for New Labour Mark II either. Last June, when the Labour parliamentary candidate knocked on her door, she told him that she wouldn’t be voting Labour as she was a socialist. He replied that he was a socialist too! “No you aren’t”, she said. “If you were a socialist, Starmer would have kicked you out!”
The aforementioned Tory MP soon learned not to knock on Sharan’s door. He once tried sneaking a Tory leaflet through her letter box but she shouted after him as he scurried away: “Come back here!” and made him take his leaflet away with him. And when an Asian council candidate canvassed her for the Tories, he was rebuked: “How can you be in a party like that?” Sharan agreed to take his leaflet only on condition that he took a copy of the Socialist paper. He did, and weeks later returned, telling her the local community was talking about the socialists. Despite being confined to home, Sharan still made waves!
Active whenever her health allowed, Sharan fought her pain as well as the ruling class when she stood up from her wheelchair in order to sell the paper at demonstrations and picket lines. She was determined to get to Socialism at least once in her life, and, though she was in bed for a week afterwards, in 2018 she finally made it. Despite everything life had thrown at her – and everything the capitalist class had thrown at her, all the insidious and sadistic ways in which they’d tried to crush her spirit – there she was, her fist raised in the air, singing the Internationale.
Behind her physical frailty and lack of confidence there was a tough, compassionate woman who came through a difficult childhood, poor education, domestic violence and disability as a single parent who lived a full life and also found her place in our party. However hard things got, she always found the words to comfort and encourage others. For those of us fortunate enough to have called Sharan a friend, our lives were permanently changed by her kindness, but Sharan’s personal qualities cannot be separated from her contribution to the party: she was the heart of our branch, and an example to us all of what it means to be a fighter.
A business woman complaining about ‘jobless parasites’ was told by Sharan: “One day people like me are going to rise up and take what’s ours, and there’s nothing you can do about it”. We are determined to fight, as Sharan fought, to ensure that her promise is fulfilled.
Even in her final weeks, Sharan championed her class, always interested in the hours and conditions of her carers, and eager to tell them about the Socialist Party. Her funeral took place on 10 February and Sharan’s wish was that everyone was to wear red at the service and to salute her with the raised fist of working-class solidarity, of which she was an impeccable ambassador. Our condolences go to daughter Gemma, grandson Jensen, Lee, her sisters, niece, the many friends and neighbours to whom she meant so much.
