OBITUARIES : Lord Brockway; British Socialist, Champion of African Nationalism

Lord Brockway, the veteran Socialist, pacifist, political writer and prison inmate who spent his life trying to release prisoners and redress injustices, has died, his family said Friday.

The campaigner for India’s independence from Britain and champion of African nationalism was 99 and died Thursday night at Watford General Hospital in Hertfordshire outside London.

“He was someone who over the years had a great influence on many Socialists and was also a great fighter for freedom in colonial countries,” said Bob Hughes, a Labor member of Parliament and anti-apartheid activist.

Son of Clergyman

Archibald Fenner Brockway was born in Calcutta, India, the son of a clergyman, and was educated in Britain at the School for the Sons of Missionaries.

During World War I, Brockway became secretary of the No Conscription Fellowship. He was later joint secretary of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress, editor of the publication India, joint secretary of the Prison System Inquiry Committee, and chairman of the No More War Movement and War Resister’s International.

In 1927 he was a fraternal delegate to the Indian Trade Union Congress and Indian National Congress, and in 1929 he was elected to the British House of Commons as a Labor Party legislator.

In the early 1930s, he transferred his allegiance to the Independent Labor Party, becoming its chairman in 1931. But he rejoined the main Labor Party in 1946.

Throughout his Commons career Brockway campaigned for abolition of the House of Lords, the unelected upper house of the British Parliament, on grounds it was a bastion of privilege.

But in 1964 he accepted a life peerage from Queen Elizabeth II, which automatically gave him a seat in the Lords. He said at the time that he accepted the peerage reluctantly, but he attended debates in the Lords regularly.

Wrote About 30 Books

Brockway wrote about 30 books, mostly on politics and social issues.

In his autobiography, he recalled encounters with his close friend, the Irish-born playwright and Socialist George Bernard Shaw; with George Orwell, the left-wing British author of “1984,” “Animal Farm” and other books, and with Mahatma Gandhi, whose campaign for Indian freedom from British rule culminated in independence in 1947.

Brockway served five prison terms during his turbulent life.

Two of them, one with hard labor, resulted from his militant pacifism during World War I. The other three stemmed from demonstrations against the hydrogen bomb, capitalism and racialism.

He was a champion of African nationalism and during his years in the Commons was sometimes referred to by parliamentary colleagues as “The Honorable Member for Africa.”

In the 1960s he led public campaigns to end the civil war in Nigeria, the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race.

‘Inspiration to All’

Neil Kinnock, leader of the Socialist opposition Labor Party, said: “Throughout the whole of this century, in Britain and in so many other countries, he was an inspiration to all who love liberty and work for socialism.”

Former Labor Party leader Michael Foot said: “He was one of the very greatest libertarian socialists of this century, and all democratic socialists all over the world honor him.”

Once describing himself as a humanist but not an atheist, Brockway declared: “I don’t know if there is a God or an afterlife, and I don’t particularly worry about it. But if there is, the best way to prepare is to work for justice here now.”