Harry Leslie Smith - R.I.P (25/ 2/1923 - 28/11/2018)

Heartbroken to hear of Harry Leslie Smith's passing at the age of 95. He was a brilliant polemicist and author, an inspiring activist, for social justice and peace a loving father, and much much more. A shining light among the darkness of our times., one of the giants whose shoulders we all stand on. We should all carry his fighting spirit forwards. Rest in Power
The socialist campaigner rose to fame with a speech praising the NHS and had devoted his last years to visiting refugee hotspots. He was also a supporter of Palestinian rights, and of the right to non-violent resistance in the form of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
The Labour campaigner was taken ill in Canada following a fall earlier this month, and his son John had been keeping followers updated on his popular Twitter account.

"At 3:39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan," he wrote.

Mr Smith, who was in the RAF during WWII and lived through the Great Depression, had become a vocal advocate for socialist policies, arguing neo-liberal forces had degraded the welfare state built during his lifetime.
 Nicknamed the "world's oldest rebel", he rose to prominence after making an impassined speech in support of the NHS at Labour's 2014 conference, calling his childhood, before public healthcare, a "barbarous time" and criticising government austerity.
Mr Smith had devoted the latter years of his life to visiting refugee hotspots around the world, documenting the suffering caused by displacement in the hope that his age and following could create a "rallying cry" for action.
Born in 1923 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, he grew up in poverty after his coal miner father became unemployed, watching his sister die at the age of ten, and turned to writing in later life after working as a carpet trader in Toronto.
He described his book Harry's Last Stand as a "rallying call", telling the younger generation of the need for a "social safety network" giving all the right to good housing, further education, healthcare, a living wage and dignified old age.
"I am not a historian. But at 91 I am history, and I fear its repetition," he said.
Mr Smith's son tweeted that he would "follow in his footsteps" and "endeavour to finish his projects", including publishing some of his father's later writing.
#Istandharry

https://twitter.com/Harryslaststand

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/28/harry-leslie-smith-dies-aged-95

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2018/11/meet-harry-leslie-smith-worlds-oldest.html