Neil Harris
Neil Harris
Radical life
After finishing school Neil went to study at the London School of Economics. After graduation he had a number of jobs including working for the Co-operative Wholesale Society and a record store before taking up law. He scored in the top ten in the entire country in the law exam when he finished and for over 20 years he worked as a criminal defence solicitor in West London. He was proud to serve as a duty (legal aid) solicitor. He wanted to help the people who couldn’t afford to pay legal fees and he often extended his services to them outside of the courtroom and police station. He would encourage his clients to better themselves by looking for opportunities for them to change their lives. Neil supported the Labour Party in his youth, even standing unsuccessfully for Labour in a council election in Berkshire, before turning to revolutionary politics, which he readily embraced when he joined the New Communist Party of Britain in the early 1980s, His enthusiasm and effort led to his inevitable election to our Central Committee in the 1990s. He remained on that committee and the Political Bureau until illness curtailed his mobility.
Neil loathed fascism and racism. He was active in the Rock against Racism campaign and the other anti-fascist movements that sprang up to combat the National Front and the British National Party. He was active in the fight against apartheid. He supported the unions and joined the solidarity campaign for the miners during their epic strike in the 1980s.
But above all he was a dedicated communist. While always on hand to provide legal advice to the Central Committee Neil was also an activist, organiser and writer who dedicated his life to the communist cause. Neil played a leading role in struggle against revisionism within the Party and drafted the proposals that were incorporated in the new Party constitution that followed. Neil sat on many NCP Congress committee. s Neil organised and took part in many NCP meetings and was always ready to give out leaflets or carry the banner on protests and demos. He also wrote a number of keynote articles for the {New Worker}, in his own name as well as a couple of pen-names, which can be read online or in pamphlet form.
His last major effort, when his battle against cancer began, was a one-man campaign to improve St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, which revolved around the Help me sort out St Peter's! blog that he established in 2012 and remains on the Web as a record of his thoughts over the past six years.[1]
Remembering Neil Harris
Comrades and friends gathered at the India Club in London’s West End November 2018 for a memorial dinner for Neil Harris, a leading member of the New Communist Party of Britain who spent many happy times in its bar and restaurant.
NCP leader Andy Brooks and several members of the Central Committee, including Daphne Liddle, Peter Hendy and Theo Russell, joined the throng that also included members of Neil’s jazz club and friends from his days at college in London.
Neil passed away in March after a long battle against cancer and the dinner was held on the eve of what would have been his 60th birthday on 4th November.
The India Club has been a frequent venue for comrades over the years as well as students from the nearby London School of Economics. Neil was one of them in the 1970s and many of his LSE friends turned up to recall fond memories of Neil’s student days with his widow, Robyn Harris, and others during the evening.[2]
Paris Commune discussion
Comrades and friends recalled the heady days the Paris Commune at the Fitzrovia community centre in central London March 2011. The Communards established the first workers’ government in 1871 following France’s defeat in the war with Prussia. Though it was brutally suppressed by the French bourgeoisie the Commune’s acts and decrees during its two months of freedom were, as Marx said, the prototype for a revolutionary government of the future. The meeting, organised by the London District New Communist Party of Britain, began with tributes from Neil Harris of the NCP, Thierry Schaffauser from Left Front Art and Mushtaq Lasharie from Third World Solidarity followed by a round-table discussion on the meaning and lessons of the Commune for workers today.[3]
South Asia meeting
Comrades and friends gathered in the Marchmont Community Centre in north London September to discuss the complex struggles taking place now in South Asia at a New Worker meeting, organised by the New Communist Party of Britain London District and chaired by Neil Harris.
Speakers included Pakistani trade union and civil rights activist and campaigner against bonded labour Mukhtar Rana, north London Labour Councillor and Third World Solidarity representative Mushtaq Lasharie, Kumar Sarkar from the British South Asia Solidarity Forum, Theo Russell from the New Communist Party of Britain and Suresh from the Nepali Samaj Society.[4]