Obituary: Redmond O'Neill: Trotskyist, administrator, agitator and anti imperialist.

Obituary: Redmond O'Neill

By Andrew Murray.

The death of Redmond O'Neill last week deprives the socialist movement in Britain and internationally - and above all in London - of one of its most staunch and principled activists.

Redmond was best known for his central role in Ken Livingstone's administration of the capital between 2000 and 2008. His title of deputy chief of staff understated his importance to Livingstone's mayoralty.

Redmond was in charge of the Greater London Authority's transport policy, which included the successful congestion charging scheme and the great extension of bus usage.

On issues perhaps dearer to his heart, he also took the lead in solidarity with the Muslim community, reflecting his lifelong opposition to racism, and in building links between London and President Chavez's Venezuela.

Indeed, it seems likely that what will be recalled as the most successful aspects of Ken Livingstone's mayoralty were those in which Redmond played the leading part alongside the mayor himself.

Many activists on the left will have first encountered Redmond through his leadership of Socialist Action, one of the groups which trace their lineage back to the International Marxist Group, the British affiliate of the Fourth International, which he joined in the 1970s.

Unlike most other groups from the Trotskyist tradition, Socialist Action maintained a clear focus on working within the labour movement and eschewed anything that could be regarded as ultra-leftism.

Under Redmond's leadership, it also had the wit to recognise that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the other socialist systems in Europe was a bad thing for the international working class.

His consistent anti-imperialism and anti-racism, grasping the central changes in world politics, also helped his organisation to play an important part in the campaign against the 1991 Gulf war and in the formation of the Anti-Racist Alliance a little later.

Of course there were controversies too, including Socialist Action's involvement in the disputes around the Morning Star in the 1990s culminating in the journalists' strike against the editor's dismissal in 1998, but they are dwarfed in significance by the major issues Redmond got right.

Sectarianism and posturing, so endemic on the far left, were anathema to Redmond, for whom political leadership was about struggling to make a positive difference to working people's lives, however difficult the conditions under which socialists had to operate.

Redmond died aged 55 while undergoing surgery for a recurrence of the cancer from which he had suffered for the last three years.

He is survived by his wife, CND chairwoman Kate Hudson, and by his sisters Ann, Fidelma and Tara. Another sister, Una, predeceased him.

Tributes have been paid from across the left, including by George Galloway - "when so many of his generation were happy to bend to Tony Blair's reheated liberal imperialism and its concomitant, virulent Islamophobia, Redmond was one of those who saw his duty to stand as a comrade with nations under great power bombardment and people under the lash of bigotry and racism" - and the Socialist Workers Party, as well as by Ken Livingstone and other colleagues from City Hall.

British Muslim Initiative president Mohammed Sawalha spoke for many Muslims in Britain, describing Redmond's death as "a loss not only to those who were close to him but to the entire Muslim community whom he served with care, diligence and dedication."

A particularly warm appreciation was paid by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, reflecting Redmond's consistent support for the republican cause in his native Ireland.

"Redmond was a kind, generous, and courageous comrade. These qualities are reflected in how well liked and loved he was by those who he met in both his political and personal life. He will be remembered by all those who had the privilege to work alongside him," Adams wrote.

And last weekend's anti-war demonstration in Trafalgar Square stood silent in his memory. Few activists on the left can have earned such respect, stretching far beyond the membership of his own particular organisation.

My last encounter with Redmond was a meal with him, Kate and other comrades in one of his favourite restaurants in Camden Town, just 10 days before his death.

He was ebullient - humorous, lively, particularly when the conversation turned to political controversy, challenging, engaged. Optimistic. Everything a socialist should be, in fact.

He will be long remembered by thousands of comrades but, as with all those who set their shoulder to the wheel of human liberation, his memorial will be found in the future he helped to shape. 

First published in the Morning Star.