Social activists

Every man needs a hero to inspire him to do wonderful things and try to be a better person. Here are some of mine:

a. Woody Guthrie.

This was a man who was prepared to stand up for what he believed in – justice, equality and freedom. He was prepared to be there on the picket lines and take the blows. He wanted a strong union to fight for fairness of pay and conditions. He believed you fought fascism by educating people.

b. Charles Darwin

As a Biologist he looked around the world at the variety of life and realised that the religious explanation did not hold true. He used his intellect to work out what was really happening and painstakingly set out researching to test his theory. When he was sure he published despite the furore it caused for him. He set us on the road to freedom from religious oppression.

c. Martin Luther King

He believed all races were equal and died for his beliefs. He marched in the face of violence and death threats. He stood up to the racists and used his words as bullets. They took his life but he proved he was the better man.

d. Jane Goodall

Jane has spent her life working with Chimps and championing their rights. She has been tireless and faced hardships and threats. Thank heavens someone is prepared to speak out and stand up for them. They are being butchered!

e. Jack Kerouac

Jack was, like most of us, an extremely complicated and muddled man who fought his demons of alcohol and catholic indoctrination. On the Road is a book that changed the world. There had never been anything like it before. In writing it he questioned the whole premise of the establishment whose mantra was – work hard, buy and own. He suggested that experience, quest, kicks and sex might be more rewarding. I forgive his misogyny. Nobody’s perfect.

f. Emily Pankhurst

How could you not admire a woman who was prepared to go to prison and be force-fed, who stood up and spoke the truth, who fought for equality and democracy? She organised and fought for women’s rights! She took on the whole establishment and won!

g. Bob Dylan

Without Dylan I do not believe we would have the liberal society we now enjoy. In the early sixties he stood up and sang his songs about civil rights, freedom, anti-war and justice and raised the sensibilities of a whole generation.

h. Mahatma Ghandi

Ghandi was the soul of India. He showed that if you had a just cause you could stand up against authority and use Non-violent Direct Action to defeat them. Nothing has ever been the same. I think partition broke his heart.

I. Ann Frank

Via those diaries Ann showed the resolution and defiance that destroyed Nazi philosophy.

j. Roy Harper

When I first heard Roy sing and speak I felt it was like looking in a mirror. He was putting in words the feelings and thoughts that what buzzing round my head and letting me examine them more closely.

k. Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ken was a writer, poet and environmentalist who stood up against the Nigerian government and exposed their corruption. They were despoiling the environment, selling land to the oil companies without restriction. He campaigned and was threatened. He carried on. They hung him with piano wire.

l. Rachel Carson

She wrote Silent Spring and started the whole environmental movement.

m. David McTaggart

One of the founders of Greenpeace. He used Non-violent Direct Action to fight for the environment. He sailed his little boat around a nuclear bomb holding up a French atmospheric test the like of which was causing huge pollution. He put his life at risk. They rammed him, beat him up and he went back and did it again.

My heroes are men and women who fought for peace, justice, the environment, freedom and equality. They inspire me to do the same in my own little way.

I’d have another list tomorrow!