In memory of Arthur Deane

I learned of the death of Arthur Deane last Saturday, as I was on my way to the National Conference of Socialist Appeal. It was a sad moment for me and brought back many memories of my early days in the Trotskyist Movement.

Arthur Deane, Jimmy Deane and Ted GrantArthur Deane came from a long line of working class militants in the Labour movement on Merseyside. He was one of at least three brothers who played an outstanding role in the Trotskyist movement in Britain in its formative years.

His mother, the redoubtable Gertie Deane was a well-known figure in the Merseyside labour Movement, and was to be seen on picket lines well into her seventies. It was Jim and his brothers Arthur and Brian who recruited Gertie to the Trotskyist movement, although she was already from a sound socialist tradition. Her father, who had been a member of the old Social Democratic Federation, was one of the first Labour councillors in Liverpool.

But by all accounts, her dedication to political activism was not accompanied by a great interest in the mundane tasks of housework. The boys apparently would come home from work and find the house in a somewhat anarchic state, with unwashed dishes piled in the sink and their mother reading Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution.

In fact, it was Arthur’s elder brother Jimmy who had to play the leading role in the Deane household. Someone once told me that he used to maintain firm order in the house and administered chastisement to his younger brothers, occasionally of the physical kind!

The youngest of the Deane brothers, Brian, was also active in the movement. But it was always Jimmy who played a leading role in the Trotskyist movement. Therefore, I have always had the impression that Arthur always felt a bit in his brother’s shadow. But if he resented it, he never allowed it to show. We would always speak of Jimmy and Arthur in the same breath.

All three brothers were active in the Revolutionary Communist Party in the 1940s, which is very well dealt with in Ted Grant’s History of British Trotskyism. After the dissolution of the RCP in 1949, they also played a key role in regrouping the small forces that remained loyal to the genuine ideas of Trotskyism.

The Marxist tendency to which Arthur belonged in the early 1950s was often known as "the Deane group", although it would be more correct to refer to it as the Ted Grant group, for it was Ted who provided the ideas and he was unquestionably its leading figure. However, there is no denying the important role played by the Deane brothers in these difficult years.

Later, in the 1960s, Arthur was active in the Militant Tendency when I joined the movement. I well remember Arthur’s speeches in the 1960s in what was then known as the National Committee of Militant, which used to meet in the upstairs rooms of a pub in King’s Cross. As a young student in Sussex University they made a great impression on me.

He became a trade union official of what was then the Chemical Workers’ Union, which later fused with the T&GWU. As a conscientious trade unionist this took up a lot of his time. But he still wrote for the Militant, our newspaper. Thumbing through old issues of the paper I re-read articles such as 'Labour Must keep prices down' in Militant, issue 4, March 1965, and another in issue 6, May 1965, 'TGWU gives the lead on incomes policy', both signed by Arthur Deane.

Arthur Deane was an intelligent and capable comrade with a good feel for the working class and strong roots in the Labour movement. As a man he was friendly, down to earth and obviously good-natured with a healthy proletarian sense of humour and a contagious laugh. Once in the ‘60s at a social in London I remember him and Gertie singing (if that is the right word) the English version of the Polish Red Flag: “Forward ye workers, freedom awaits you!” What they lacked in musical talent they more than made up by their revolutionary enthusiasm!

I last met Arthur (and his brother Brian) at the funeral of Ted Grant in 2006. It was a sad occasion, but it was good to see these fine old comrades once more. Alas, it was to be the last time.

After the deaths of Ted Grant and Jimmy Deane, Arthur was one of the very few of the pioneers of Trotskyism in Britain still left. It is therefore with great sadness and a sense of irreparable loss that I take my leave from an unforgettable old friend and comrade.

On behalf of all the comrades of Socialist Appeal and In Defence of Marxism, I send heartfelt condolences to all his family and friends.

London 17^th April 2012

Note: Arthur Deane’s funeral is being held in Shrewsbury on April 25^th.