Peter Mandelson and them bells

 

On 3 April 2008 Tony Blair gave a ‘faith’ lecture at Westminster Cathedral. Working with Stop the War and Brian Eno, I helped organise ‘rough-musiking’ to disrupt the event. People turned up with pots and pans, whistles and drums. I had this goat bell with me and when Peter Mandelson left the cathedral, I walked beside him along Victoria Street and rang it close to his ear, repeating the word 'Murderer!’ to him. The street was crowded and although Mandelson had two burly bodyguards accompanying him ,he was unable to set them on me.

"Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee." (John Donne).

Three centuries later, Antonio Gramsci said "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters."

Sadly that is still true, but we all need to be involved in mankind and never despair. Ring them bells.

"Oh, it's rush hour now

On the wheel and the plow

And the sun is going down

Upon the sacred cow

Ring them bells, for the time that flies

For the child that cries

When innocence dies" (Bob Dylan)

Ring Them Bells

Ashes to ashes, dust io dust

David Maxim Triesman, Baron Triesman (30 October 1943 – 30 January 2026)

I knew David Triesman when we were both students at Essex University. He was suspended in May 1968 after helping disrupt a meeting about chemical warfare, addressed by a speaker from the Ministry of Defence. His suspension was one of the reasons why the students and teaching staff declared the campus a ‘free’ university.

I introduced Triesman to my father who was Editor of The Lancet and he invited him to write about the May ‘68 events.

For a number of years, Triesman was a lecturer at South Bank Polytechnic, before becoming a full-time official at NATFHE, the lecturer’s union.

When I taught at Kilburn Polytechnic in north London in the 1980s, Triesman was national negotiating secretary at NATFHE. One of my fellow Kilburn lecturers, John Fernandes, taught at the police cadet school in Hendon and revealed racism there. He was threatened with dismissal and the national union management, including Triesman, refused to back him. Suported by rank and file action he kept his job. (thank you Merilyn Moos for reminding me of this).

Triesman moved on to become General Secretary of the Association of University Teachers while starting a new life in real estate, banking, publishing and fine art. He was an executive board member at the investment firm, Salamanca Group. He served on the boards of other companies, including chairing Victoria Management, UBS and Templewood Merchant Bank. Triesman was a director of Havin Bank (Havana International Bank) and One Ocean Enterprises. In 2011 he set upTriesman Associates, an investment company in private equity and finance. He was also Chairman of the Football Association.

Back in the political world he was appointed General Secretary of the Labour Party in 2001 and made a life peer in 2004. Triesman resigned from the party in 2019, stating that under Jeremy Corbyn it had become "no longer a safe political environment" for Jewish people. He spoke about the need to ‘defend’ Israel.

I have spent my life fighting for the ideals of May 1968, championing radical freedom, anti-authoritarianism, sexual liberation, rank-and-file trade unionism and the rejection of capitalist society.

I cannot understand how or why people such as David Triesman move so easily and swiftly from left to right, fom understanding how the system works to working for, and benefitting from, that system. I am not religious, but agree with the Christian Book of Common Prayer about those ashes and dust. It’s where quantum physics meets religious belief. Once we recognise that, we can become truly human in ourselves and with the rest of the world.

I conclude with two graffiti from May 68 Paris. ‘Sous Les pavé, la plage’, (Beneath the cobbles the beach). And most important for me and my life, 'La lutte continue' (the struggle continues) For Triesman it was just the loot.

www.davidwilson.org.uk