72-494: NCCL may refer to: National Council for Civil Liberties , a civil liberties organization in the United Kingdom Non-carious cervical lesions , a group of tooth lesions Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title NCCL . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
144-544: A New York lecture by Laski, as part of gathering material for her novel, following which she changed the physical appearance of the fictional Toohey to fit that of the actual Laski. George Orwell , in his 1946 essay " Politics and the English Language " cited, as his first example of poor writing, a 53-word sentence with five negatives from Laski's "Essay in Freedom of Expression": "I am not, indeed, sure whether it
216-452: A coercive state, Laski believed in the evolution of co-operative states that were internationally bound and stressed social welfare . He also believed that since the capitalist class would not acquiesce in its own liquidation, the co-operative commonwealth was not likely to be attained without violence. He also had a commitment to civil liberties , free speech and association , and representative democracy . Initially, he believed that
288-674: A disabled sister, Mabel, who was one year younger. His elder brother was Neville Laski (the father of Marghanita Laski ), and his cousin Neville Blond was the founder of the Royal Court Theatre and the father of the author and publisher Anthony Blond. Laski attended the Manchester Grammar School . In 1911, he studied eugenics under Karl Pearson for six months at University College London (UCL). The same year, he met and married Frida Kerry ,
360-732: A friend planted an explosive device in the men's lavatory at Oxted railway station , Surrey; it exploded but caused only slight damage. Laski failed his medical eligibility tests and so missed fighting in World War I . After graduation, he worked briefly at the Daily Herald under George Lansbury . His daughter Diana was born in 1916. In 1916, Laski was appointed as a lecturer of modern history at McGill University in Montreal and began to lecture at Harvard University . He also lectured at Yale in 1919 to 1920. For his outspoken support of
432-613: A glowing faith that youth was generous and alive, eager and enthusiastic and fresh. That by helping young people he was helping the future and bringing nearer that brave world in which he so passionately believed. Laski's early work promoted pluralism , especially in the essays collected in Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty (1917), Authority in the Modern State (1919), and The Foundations of Sovereignty (1921). He argued that
504-634: A great sorrow and a shock. Laski educated the outspoken Chinese intellectual and journalist Chu Anping at LSE. Anping was later prosecuted by the Chinese Communist regime of the 1960s. Juan Perón , Argentine lieutenant general as well as left-wing populist and nationalist who served as the 35th and 45th president of Argentina, was also inspired by Laski and based many of his economic policies on Laski's postulates, including his welfare state project. Perón stated that Laski provided “theoretical support” to his policies, and that his Labour Party
576-586: A lecturer of eugenics. His marriage to Frida, a Gentile and eight years his senior, antagonised his family. He also repudiated his faith in Judaism by claiming that reason prevented him from believing in God. After studying for a degree in history at New College, Oxford , he graduated in 1914. He was awarded the Beit memorial prize during his time at New College. In April 1913, in the cause of women's suffrage , he and
648-583: A member until 1949. In 1944, he chaired the Labour Party Conference and served as the party's chair in 1945 to 1946. During the war, he supported Prime Minister Winston Churchill 's coalition government and gave countless speeches to encourage the battle against Nazi Germany . He suffered a nervous breakdown brought about by overwork. During the war, he repeatedly feuded with other Labour figures and with Churchill on matters great and small. He steadily lost his influence. In 1942, he drafted
720-515: A nonviolent democratic transformation. Laski's position on democracy-threatening violence came under further attack from Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the 1945 UK general election , and the Labour Party had to disavow Laski, its own chairman. Laski was one of Britain's most influential intellectual spokesmen for Marxism in the interwar years . In particular, his teaching greatly inspired students, some of whom later became leaders of
792-424: A note; he often referred to current controversies, even when the subject was Hobbes's theory of sovereignty. Ralph Miliband , another of Laski's student, praised his teaching: His lectures taught more, much more than political science. They taught a faith that ideas mattered, that knowledge was important and its pursuit exciting.... His seminars taught tolerance, the willingness to listen although one disagreed,
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#1732783790585864-612: A peerage. Born to a Jewish family, Laski was also a supporter of Zionism and supported the creation of a Jewish state . Laski was born in Manchester on 30 June 1893 to Nathan and Sarah Laski. Nathan Laski was a Lithuanian Jewish cotton merchant from Brest-Litovsk in what is now Belarus , as well as a local leader of the Liberal Party , while his mother was born in Manchester to Polish Jewish parents. He had
936-570: A police officer, even though someone else confessed to the crime and the prosecution evidence was flawed. NCCL found a witness who confirmed the men's alibi and they were released from prison and granted a royal pardon . Reform of the Mental Health System During the 1950s NCCL campaigned for reform of the mental health system, under which people known to be sane but deemed 'morally defective' – unmarried mothers, for example – could be locked up in an asylum. By 1957,
1008-557: A positive influence over both political thought and action. Laski had a major long-term impact on support for socialism in India and other countries in Asia and Africa. He taught generations of future leaders at the LSE, including India's Jawaharlal Nehru . According to John Kenneth Galbraith , "the centre of Nehru's thinking was Laski" and "India the country most influenced by Laski's ideas". It
1080-456: A role in bringing Franz Neumann to join the Institute. After fleeing Germany almost immediately after Adolf Hitler's rise to power , Neumann did graduate work in political science under Laski and Karl Mannheim at the LSE and wrote his dissertation on the rise and fall of the rule of law . It was on Laski's recommendation that Neumann was then invited to join the Institute in 1936. Laski
1152-475: Is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage". The NCCL also sought to place the "onus of proof on the prosecution to show that the child was actually harmed" rather than having a blanket ban on child pornography and advocated the decriminalisation of incest . Organisations such as Paedophile Information Exchange (P.I.E.), a pro-paedophile activist group, and Paedophile Action for Liberation became affiliated to
1224-624: Is mainly due to his influence that the LSE has a semi-mythological status in India. He was steady in his unremitting advocacy of the independence of India . He was a revered figure to Indian students at the LSE. One Prime Minister of India said "in every meeting of the Indian Cabinet there is a chair reserved for the ghost of Professor Harold Laski". His recommendation of K. R. Narayanan (later president of India) to Nehru (then Prime Minister of India), resulted in Nehru appointing Narayanan to
1296-659: Is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become, out of an experience ever more bitter in each year, more alien (sic) to the founder of that Jesuit sect which nothing could induce him to tolerate." Orwell parodied it with "A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field." 67 of the Labour MPs elected in 1945 had been taught by Laski as university students, at Workers' Educational Association classes or on courses for wartime officers. When Laski died,
1368-517: The Evening Standard . The files were destroyed and the major privacy protection 'Right to Know' campaign to give individuals greater control over their personal information was launched in 1977. Near the end of 1974, Patricia Hewitt , later a Labour cabinet minister, was appointed as general secretary. A number of other future high-profile Labour politicians worked at the organisation at this time, such as Harriet Harman , who worked as
1440-692: The Boston Police Strike of 1919, Laski received severe criticism. He was briefly involved with the founding of The New School for Social Research in 1919, where he also lectured. Laski cultivated a large network of American friends centred at Harvard, whose law review he had edited. He was often invited to lecture in America and wrote for The New Republic . He became friends with Felix Frankfurter , Herbert Croly , Walter Lippmann , Edmund Wilson , and Charles A. Beard . His long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
1512-797: The Communist Party . Soldiers' civil liberties In the years following the Second World War , the NCCL campaigned for better civil liberties protections for members of the Armed Forces, including for better education and vocational training, a fairer military justice system and freedom of voluntary association. Miscarriages of justice At this time NCCL was also involved in several miscarriage of justice cases, including that of Emery, Powers and Thompson, who were sentenced to between four and ten years' imprisonment for assaulting
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#17327837905851584-641: The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to form a Popular Front to bring down the Conservative government of Neville Chamberlain . In 1934 to 1945, he served as an alderman in the Fulham Borough Council and also the chairman of the libraries committee. Also in 1937, the Socialist League was rejected by the Labour Party and folded. He was elected as a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and he remained
1656-643: The Indian Foreign Service . In his memory, the Indian government established The Harold Laski Institute of Political Science in 1954 at Ahmedabad . Speaking at a meeting organised in Laski's memory by the Indian League at London on 3 May 1950, Nehru praised him as follows: It is difficult to realise that Professor Harold Laski is no more. Lovers of freedom all over the world pay tribute to
1728-586: The Institute for Social Research , now more commonly known as the Frankfurt School . In 1933, with almost all the Institute's members in exile, Laski was among a number of British socialists, including Sidney Webb and R. H. Tawney , who arranged for the establishment of a London office for the Institute's use. After the Institute moved to Columbia University in 1934, Laski was one of its sponsored guest lecturers invited to New York. Laski also played
1800-601: The League of Nations would bring about an "international democratic system". From the late 1920s, his political beliefs became radicalised, and he believed that it was necessary to go beyond capitalism to "transcend the existing system of sovereign states ". Laski was dismayed by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 and wrote a preface to the Left Book Club collection criticising it, titled Betrayal of
1872-595: The Mental Health Act 1959 . Since 2016, Liberty's work has been dominated by a High Court challenge to the Investigatory Powers Act , as well as campaigning against the so-called ' hostile environment ' policies which allow indefinite immigration detention in the UK. In autumn 2019, the organisation set up Liberty Investigates , an editorially independent journalism unit. Its initial focus
1944-761: The National Council for Civil Liberties ( NCCL ), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom , which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights . It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith (later Scaffardi), motivated by their humanist convictions. During
2016-562: The Potsdam Conference until after Attlee's position was clarified. He tried to bypass Attlee by directly dealing with Churchill. Laski tried to pre-empt foreign policy decisions by laying down guidelines for the new Labour government. Attlee rebuked him: You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin . His task is quite sufficiently difficult without
2088-473: The Prime Minister . Women's rights Campaigning for women's rights was also a major part of NCCL's work in this period, including successfully calling for reform of jury service laws that effectively prevented women and the poor from serving on juries by means of a property qualification. Right to public protest NCCL intervened on behalf of groups refused permission to protest and monitoring
2160-478: The 1950s, the NCCL campaigned for reform of the mental health system, under which people known to be sane but deemed 'morally defective' – unmarried mothers, for example – could be locked up in an asylum. By 1957, the campaign had seen the release of around 2,000 inmates, the abolition of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 , and the establishment of new Mental Health Review Tribunals which culminated in
2232-480: The 1990s Liberty focused again on miscarriage of justice cases and campaigned for reform of the criminal justice system. High-profile cases included that of the Birmingham Six , who were released after 16 years in prison for IRA bombings they did not commit. Human Rights Act Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist . He
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2304-523: The 70s." Gay rights and censorship NCCL acted for the owners of Gay's the Word bookshop , whose stock was confiscated by Customs officers in 1984. All charges were dropped in 1986. Miners' strike During the miners' strike , NCCL campaigned on behalf of miners stopped from picketing outside their home regions. MI5 surveillance The European Court of Human Rights ruled that MI5 surveillance of Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt during
2376-632: The Conservatives. The defence showed that over the years Laski had often bandied about loose threats of "revolution". The jury found for the newspaper within forty minutes of deliberations. Attlee gave Laski no role in the new Labour government. Even before the libel trial, Laski's relationship with Attlee had been strained. Laski had once called Attlee "uninteresting and uninspired" in the American press and even tried to remove him by asking for Attlee's resignation in an open letter. He tried to delay
2448-456: The HRA. In January 2016 it emerged that Chakrabarti was standing down as Liberty's director. Martha Spurrier took up the post at the end of May. Since 2016, Liberty's work has been dominated by taking a High Court challenge to the Investigatory Powers Act , and campaigning against the so-called ' hostile environment ' policies and for an end to the use of indefinite immigration detention in
2520-489: The Labour Party pamphlet The Old World and the New Society calling for the transformation of Britain into a socialist state by allowing its government to retain wartime economic planning and price controls into the postwar era . In the 1945 UK general election campaign, Churchill warned that Laski, as the Labour Party chairman, would be the power behind the throne in an Attlee government . While speaking for
2592-588: The Labour candidate in Nottinghamshire on 16 June 1945, Laski said, "If Labour did not obtain what it needed by general consent, we shall have to use violence even if it means revolution." The next day, accounts of Laski's speech appeared, and the Conservatives attacked the Labour Party for its chairman's advocacy of violence. Laski filed a libel suit against the Daily Express newspaper, which backed
2664-711: The Left . Between the beginning of World War II in 1939 and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which drew the United States into the war, Laski was a prominent voice advocating American support for the Allies , became a prolific author of articles in the American press , frequently undertook lecture tours in the United States and influenced prominent American friends including Felix Frankfurter , Edward R. Murrow , Max Lerner , and Eric Sevareid . In his last years, he
2736-595: The Lords. He felt betrayed by MacDonald in the crisis of 1931 and decided that a peaceful, democratic transition to socialism would be blocked by the violence of the opposition. In 1932, Laski joined the Socialist League , a left-wing faction of the Labour Party. In 1937, he was involved in the failed attempt by the Socialist League in co-operation with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and
2808-521: The UK. In autumn 2019, the organisation set up Liberty Investigates , an editorially independent journalism unit that sits within Liberty. The unit formally launched in April 2020 with an initial focus on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Human Rights in the UK. BBC ban During the 1940s, the NCCL led protests against a BBC ban on artists who attended a 'People's Convention' organised by
2880-459: The campaign had seen the release of around 2,000 former inmates, the abolition of the Mental Health Act 1913 and the establishment of new Mental Health Review Tribunals and the Mental Health Act 1959 . In the 1960s the organisation broadened its scope, particularly from 1966 under new general secretary Tony Smythe . It campaigned on racial issues, on behalf of gypsies, children, prisoners and servicemen who had changed their decision about joining
2952-513: The emerging Cold War , and he was profoundly disillusioned with the anti-Soviet direction of American foreign policy . Laski contracted influenza and died in London on 24 March 1950, aged 56. Laski's biographer Michael Newman wrote: Convinced that the problems of his time were too urgent for leisurely academic reflection, Laski wrote too much, overestimated his influence, and sometimes failed to distinguish between analysis and polemic. But he
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3024-621: The forces. This broader range of campaigning resulted in a large rise in membership and a higher profile in the media. It campaigned for the retaining of the public right to petition the ECHR, its General Secretary Martin Loney writing to the Prime Minister, Edward Heath . However, Loney was controversially sacked by the executive of the NCCL led by its chair, Henry Hodge . Opposition to racial discrimination After 1960, NCCL responded to
3096-513: The irresponsible statements of the kind you are making ... I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome. Although he continued to work for the Labour Party until he died, Laski never regained political influence. His pessimism deepened as he disagreed with the anti-Soviet policies of the Attlee government in
3168-493: The last years (1946–1950) near-incoherence and multiple contradictions. Laski's long-term impact on Britain is hard to quantify. Newman observes: "It has been widely held that his early books were the most profound and that he subsequently wrote far too much, with polemics displacing serious analysis." In an essay published a few years after Laski's death, Professor Alfred Cobban of University College London commented: Among recent political thinkers, it seems to me that one of
3240-604: The legal officer from 1978 to 1982, Jack Dromey , later her husband, was a member (1970–79) and chairman of the executive committee, and Diane Abbott was employed as Race Relations Officer (1978–80). Paedophilia In 1976, the NCCL in a submission to the Criminal Law Revision Committee of the British Parliament argued that "Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage… The real need
3312-418: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NCCL&oldid=1226845845 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Liberty (advocacy group) Liberty , formerly, and still formally, called
3384-413: The magnificent work that he did. We in India are particularly grateful for his staunch advocacy of India's freedom, and the great part he played in bringing it about. At no time did he falter or compromise on the principles he held dear, and a large number of persons drew splendid inspiration from him. Those who knew him personally counted that association as a rare privilege, and his passing away has come as
3456-608: The media. She was described in The Times newspaper as "the most effective public affairs lobbyist of the past 20 years". Since the 2015 UK general election , Liberty has spearheaded the campaign to save the Human Rights Act. In August 2015, Chakrabarti said Liberty intended to become "more vigilant and active" in Scotland. She later shared a platform with Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to jointly defend
3528-462: The newly independent nations in Asia and Africa. He was perhaps the most prominent intellectual in the Labour Party, especially for those on the far left who shared his trust and hope in Joseph Stalin 's Soviet Union ; however, he was distrusted by the moderate Labour politicians who were in charge, such as Prime Minister Clement Attlee , and he was never given a major government position or
3600-610: The organisation was headed by Andrew Puddephatt and John Wadham. On 10 September 2001, Shami Chakrabarti joined Liberty. After working as in-house counsel, she was appointed director of Liberty in 2003. As director, she began campaigning against what the pressure group saw as the "excessive" anti-terrorist measures that followed the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, such as the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA). Liberty became increasingly high-profile, with Chakrabarti making regular appearances in
3672-606: The outbreak of the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine , arguing that they had not prevailed "upon an indefensible group among them to desist from using indefensible means for an end to which they were never proportionate." Laski's main political role came as a writer and lecturer on every topic of concern to the left at that time, including socialism , capitalism, working conditions , eugenics , women's suffrage , imperialism , decolonisation , disarmament , human rights , worker education, and Zionism . He
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#17327837905853744-586: The pair's tenure at Liberty breached the European Convention on Human Rights . Detention without charge During the Gulf War , Liberty successfully campaigned for the release of over 100 Iraqi nationals – some of whom were openly opposed to Saddam Hussein – detained without charge in Britain on the grounds that they posed a risk to national security . Miscarriage of justice Throughout
3816-714: The policing of demonstrations such as those against the Vietnam War . Support for reluctant servicemen NCCL also campaigned to raise awareness of the difficulty faced by 'reluctant servicemen' – men in the armed forces who had often signed up as teenagers then realised they'd made a mistake but were prevented from discharging themselves for anything up to 16 years. Northern Ireland In 1972 NCCL campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland . Data protection In 1975 NCCL bought 3 million credit rating files from Konfax Ltd after they were offered for sale in
3888-470: The pressure group. Prominent pro-paedophile activist Tom O'Carroll also sat on the NCCL's sub-committee for gay rights. Shami Chakrabarti , the former director of Liberty, issued an apology about the links between the NCCL and the PIE. In December 2013, she said: "It is a source of continuing disgust and horror that even the NCCL had to expel paedophiles from its ranks in 1983 after infiltration at some point in
3960-576: The proposed Incitement to Disaffection Bill, commonly known as the 'Sedition Bill', it would have been a criminal offence to possess pacifist literature, for example anti-war pamphlets. Although the Bill became law as the Incitement to Disaffection Act 1934 , NCCL succeeded in watering it down. Other prominent early themes included campaigning against fascists, against film censorship and support for striking miners in Nottinghamshire . When Oswald Mosley
4032-400: The state should not be considered supreme since people could and should have loyalties to local organisations, clubs, labour unions, and societies. The state should respect those allegiances and promote pluralism and decentralisation. Laski became a proponent of Marxism and believed in a planned economy based on the public ownership of the means of production . Instead of, as he saw it,
4104-477: The tightening of immigration laws and a rise in race-hate incidents by lobbying for the Race Relations Act , which came into force in 1965. NCCL also published pamphlets exposing the effective 'colour bar', whereby black and Asian people were refused service in certain pubs and hotels. Following Conservative MP Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech in 1968 the NCCL set about organising an emergency "Speak out on Race" meeting and also presented an NCCL petition to
4176-478: The values of ideas being confronted. And it was all immense fun, an exciting game that had meaning, and it was also a sieve of ideas, a gymnastics of the mind carried on with vigour and directed unobtrusively with superb craftsmanship. I think I know now why he gave himself so freely. Partly it was because he was human and warm and that he was so interested in people. But mainly it was because he loved students, and he loved students because they were young. Because he had
4248-451: The very few, perhaps the only one, who followed the traditional pattern, accepted the problems presented by his age, and devoted himself to the attempt to find an answer to them was Harold Laski. Though I am bound to say that I do not agree with his analysis or his conclusions, I think that he was trying to do the right kind of thing. And this, I suspect, is the reason why, practically alone among political thinkers in Great Britain, he exercised
4320-417: Was a serious thinker and a charismatic personality whose views have been distorted because he refused to accept Cold War orthodoxies. Columbia University professor Herbert A. Deane identified five distinct phases of Laski's thought that he never integrated. The first three were pluralist (1914–1924), Fabian (1925–1931), and Marxian (1932–1939). There followed a popular front approach (1940–1945), and in
4392-447: Was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of Economics from 1926 to 1950. He first promoted pluralism by emphasising the importance of local voluntary communities such as trade unions. After 1930, he began to emphasize the need for a workers' revolution , which he hinted might be violent. Laski's position angered Labour leaders who promised
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#17327837905854464-467: Was always a Zionist at heart and always felt himself a part of the Jewish nation but viewed traditional Jewish religion as restrictive. In 1946, Laski said in a radio address that the Catholic Church opposed democracy, and said that "it is impossible to make peace with the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the permanent enemies of all that is decent in the human spirit." In his final years, he became critical of what he saw as extremism in Israel at
4536-746: Was based on Laski's party model. Perón consistently cited Laski as one of his main political inspirations, along with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Christian socialism . Perón's ideological legacy is highly contested - denounced as a form of fascism by some, Peronism is variously defined as "Christian socialism, national socialism, demagogic dictatorship, plebiscitary presidential system, state socialism, non-Marxist collectivism, worker democracy or national capitalism". Contemporary scholars of Peronism such as Federico Finchelstein see it as "the synthesis of nationalism and non-Marxist Christian socialism". Judith Adler Hellman wrote on Perón and Peronism: "Rather than Mussolini's Italy, Perón's most frequently quoted model
4608-419: Was cemented by weekly letters, which were later published. He knew many powerful figures and claimed to know many more. Critics have often commented on Laski's repeated exaggerations and self-promotion, which Holmes tolerated. His wife commented that he was "half-man, half-child, all his life". Laski returned to England in 1920 and began teaching government at the London School of Economics (LSE). In 1926, he
4680-415: Was disillusioned by the Cold War and the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état . George Orwell described him as a "socialist by allegiance, and a liberal by temperament". Laski tried to mobilise Britain's academics, teachers, and intellectuals behind the socialist cause, the Socialist League being one effort. He had some success but that element typically found itself marginalised in the Labour Party. Laski
4752-452: Was founded in 1934. The inaugural meeting took place in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London on 22 February. A letter published in The Times and The Guardian newspapers announced the formations of the group, citing "the general and alarming tendency to encroachment on the liberty of the citizen " as the reason for its establishment. The first campaign was against the criminalisation of pacifist or anti-war literature. Under
4824-407: Was made professor of political science at the LSE. Laski was an executive member of the socialist Fabian Society from 1922 to 1936. In 1936, he co-founded the Left Book Club along with Victor Gollancz and John Strachey . He was a prolific writer and produced a number of books and essays throughout the 1920s and the 1930s. At the LSE in the 1930s, Laski developed a connection with scholars from
4896-399: Was none other than Britain's new Labour Government, which was no more comfortable with Harold Laski than was the Peronist Movement with its left wing." Laski was an inspiration for Ellsworth Toohey , the antagonist in Ayn Rand 's novel The Fountainhead (1943). The posthumously published Journals of Ayn Rand , edited by David Harriman, include a detailed description of Rand attending
4968-580: Was on how the coronavirus pandemic affects Human Rights in the UK. The immediate spur to the organisation's formation was the National Hunger March 1932 . The first Secretary was Ronald Kidd , and first President was the novelist E. M. Forster ; vice-presidents were the politician and author A. P. Herbert and the journalist Kingsley Martin of the New Statesman . H. G. Wells , Lewis Clive , Vera Brittain , Clement Attlee , Rebecca West , Edith Summerskill and Harold Laski were also founder members. The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL)
5040-471: Was regarded as a gifted lecturer but he would alienate his audience by humiliating those who asked questions. Despite this, he was liked by his students, and was especially influential among the Asian and African students who attended the LSE. Describing Laski's approach, Kingsley Martin wrote in 1968: He was still in his late twenties and looked like a schoolboy. His lectures on the history of political ideas were brilliant, eloquent, and delivered without
5112-422: Was released from prison in 1943 (he had been imprisoned without trial under Defence Regulation 18B ), the National Council for Civil Liberties demanded his continued imprisonment. A.W. Brian Simpson notes that the NCCL "had become an enthusiastic supporter of detention without trial". Harold Nicolson and 38 others resigned from the NCCL over the issue. In 1989, NCCL rebranded as "Liberty". During this period,
5184-402: Was tireless in his speeches and pamphleteering and was always on call to help a Labour candidate. In between, he served on scores of committees and carried a full load as a professor and advisor to students. Laski plunged into Labour Party politics on his return to London in 1920. In 1923, he turned down the offer of a Parliament seat and cabinet position by Ramsay MacDonald and also a seat in
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