Table Of ContentTHE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES
THE NATIONAL
COUNCIL FOR CIVIL
LIBERTIES
The First Fifty Years
Mark Lilly
M
MACMILLAN
© Mark Lilly 1984
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission
First published 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by
Wessex Typesetters Ltd
Frome, Somerset
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lilly, Mark
The National Council for Civil Liberties.
I. National Council for Civil Liberties-History
I. Title
323.4'06'041 JC599.G7
ISBN 978-0-333-36975-3 ISBN 978-1-349-17483-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17483-6
For Davey
Contents
Preface
IX
Acknowledgements
XI
1934-39
The Formation ofNCCL
Fascism 10
'Non-Flam' Films 20
The Harworth Colliery Affair 24
The 'Sedition' Bill 28
2 1939-45 34
Dissent 34
The Empire 42
Aliens 48
The Press and the BBC 56
3 1946-59 64
Courts Martial and the Armed Forces 64
Freedom of Expression 68
Mental Health 74
4 1960-74 82
Race Relations and Immigration 82
The Rights of Children 88
Travellers 91
Reluctant Servicemen 97
Northern Ireland 103
VII
Vlll Contents
5 1975-84 113
Prisons 113
Policing and the Administration ofJ ustice 122
Information 130
Gay Rights 136
Women's Rights 143
Appendix I: The Council for Academic Freedom and
Democracy Professor John Saville 152
Appendix II: The Cobden Trust Malcolm Hurwitt 155
Notes l59
Index 165
Preface
The National Council for Civil Liberties was founded 50 years
ago in 1934. The aim of this book is to describe some of the
issues, and the related campaigns, over that period, and to
show the diversity of the Council's work, and its changing role.
No attempt has been made to give a comprehensive account
of every campaign and every libertarian issue. Rather, I have
used a selective focus to highlight very specific areas of interest
in order to be able to go into them in greater depth. The book is
arranged on a chronological as well as a thematic basis, so
that the reader will have a sense of a developing story. Each
chapter is defined by a period of years, but I have not hesitated
to go outside these dates if it is necessary in the interests of
clarity.
Because of the nature of the book, it has inevitably been the
case that many distinguished and dedicated civil libertarians,
both within NCCL and outside it, have been mentioned only in
passing, or not at all. Although they are not the sort of people
who would seek public recognition for their work, I neverthe
less regret that it has not been possible to acknowledge all of
their contributions to the continuing fight for a freer society.
lX
Acknowledgements
In writing this book I have been exceptionally lucky in being
able to draw heavily on the expertise of colleagues associated
with the Council. Some of the material in the first two chapters
is based on the unpublished autobiography of Sylvia Scaffardi,
who has not only allowed me to make free use of that source but
has contributed valuable amendments to my original draft.
Melissa Benn,Jean Rogers and Cash Scorer did a great deal of
work for the final chapters. Linda Gage, Jean Rogers and,
above all, Roger Cornwell read the complete manuscript and
made innumerable useful suggestions for change. Malcolm
Hurwitt, the Secretary of the Cobden Trust and a long
standing member of the executive committee, and Professor
John Saville, of the Campaign for Academic Freedom and
Democracy, have both kindly contributed appendices on their
organisations. My warmest thanks to these kind helpers.
I am grateful to the publishing house of Edward Arnold for
permission to quote from E. M. Forster's Two Cheers for
Democracy.
xi
1 1934-39
THE FORMATION OF NCCL
On a cold evening on 1 November 1932, while the hunger
marchers were streaming towards Parliament Square for the
climax of their campaign in London, after three hard weeks on
the road, the evening papers placarded the news that Wal
Hannington, their leader, had been arrested and refused bail.
The charge against him was that of attempting to disaffect the
police by appealing to their sense of working class solidarity;
they too should join in resisting the economic measures that
affected them all.
Dense crowds were thronging Westminster and the traffic
was halted. The marchers had brought with them a million
signatures on a petition against the 10 per cent cuts in
unemployment benefit and the means test. They and their
followers had struggled and fought their way against police
cordons and baton charges, trying to carry the petition down
Whitehall to Parliament. They were unaware that when the
deputation of fifty had arrived at Charing Cross it had been
surrounded by police and the petition confiscated.
A one-time freelance journalist, who had been following the
demonstration all evening, found himself at about 9.30 at the
junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. It was during a
lull that his attention was attracted to two men in cloth caps,
heavy boots, and muffiers. They were actively inciting the
crowd to advance towards the police cordon which had closed
off Whitehall near the War Office. There was little response
from the crowd, but a certain amount of pushing and shoving.
