Eric Heffer

Eric Samuel Heffer (born January 12, 1922 in Hertford , † May 27, 1991 in Liverpool ) was a British politician .

biography

After finishing school, he began training as a carpenter and carpenter in 1936. As such, he was employed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) without completing military service during the Second World War and continued to practice this profession after the war. First he was a member of the British Communist Party (CPGB) , which he left in the late 1940s . He then became a member of the Labor Party and was its chairman in Liverpool from 1959 to 1960.

His actual political career began in 1960 when he was elected a member of the City Councilor of Liverpool, of which he was a member until 1966.

In 1964, as a candidate for the Labor Party, he became a member of the House of Commons for the first time , where he represented the constituency of Liverpool-Walton until his death . As a member of parliament, Heffer was a traditional socialist in the left wing of the Labor Party, who favored collective property and, as a strict unilateralist, distrusted any tendency towards the political center . Therefore, together with his fellow party member Reg Freeson, he was one of the sharpest critics of the controversial Industrial Relations Act 1971 of the Conservative government of Prime Minister Edward Heath .

During the second term of Prime Minister Harold Wilson , he was Secretary of State to Industry Secretary Tony Benn from March 1974 to 1975 .

In 1983 he applied for the office of leader of the Labor Party. However, after the elected chairman Neil Kinnock and the other candidate Roy Hattersley only the third most votes.

Most recently, he ran in 1988 for the role of Vice Chairman of the Labor Party, but was again subject to Roy Hattersley and runner-up John Prescott .

Shortly after his death in 1991 his autobiography appeared posthumously under the title "Never A Yes-Man".

Publications

• Trade unions in Britain , 1972
• The class struggle in parliament , 1973
• Towards democratic socialism , 1981
• Eric Heffer speaking to, & answering questions at a members meeting in Sheffield during the election for the Labor leadership , 1983
• Labor's future , 1986
• Why I Am a Christian , 1991

literature

• Paul Farrelly, John Goulding: Hammering the Left: Defeating Tony Benn, Eric Hepper and militant in the battle . ISBN 1-84275-079-8 .
• Eric Heffer , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 29/1991 of July 8, 1991, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Chambers Biographical Dictionary . Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2 , p. 701.

Web links

• Bibliography (openlibrary.org)