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Source: Je Suis Charlie Chaplin — Red Wedge
When millions of people held “Je Suis Charlie” signs in memory of the cartoonists killed in Paris this past January, a different Charlie came to mind. Charlie Chaplin who made his first screen appearance, 100 years ago, as the Tramp.
Why did I think of this other Charlie?
Chaplin knew a thing or two about satire. And when it came to racism and oppression he knew exactly which side he was on. Charlie mocked the mighty and was adored by millions. Governments despised his radical politics and banned his films.
From starting life destitute in a London workhouse, Charlie became the most famous film star in the world at a time when cinema was the most popular art form.
The Tramp, despite being broke and downtrodden, was spirited and resilient. Hilarious and heart breaking, Charlie’s films were about the lives of the oppressed and exploited, as seen by the titles The Vagabond, The Kid and The Immigrant. In The Immigrant, Charlie endures a challenging voyage and gets into trouble as soon as he arrives in the USA.
Modern Times (1936), was made at the height of industrial unrest in the USA and saw Charlie the Tramp become a factory worker. He is literally caught up in the grinding machinery of capitalism, experiences street fighting between the unemployed and the police and, holding a red flag, inadvertently leads a march of militant workers. Hitler and Mussolini banned Modern Times labeling him a “pseudo-Jew”.
The Great Dictator (1940) was a massively popular film that tore into Hitler and his persecution of the Jews. In 1938 when the western governments were appeasing Nazi Germany and Charlie was planning the production, the British Board of Film Censors tried to get Hollywood to prevent the film being made fearing it would upset Nazi Germany.
In the film Charlie becomes both the dictator Adenoid Hynkel and a Jewish barber living in the ghetto — both with their little toothbrush mustaches. Towards the end of the movie the Jewish barber is mistaken for the Dictator and called to make a speech. Coming out of character and speaking as Chaplin himself, he denounces not just fascism but all governments, “Don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty,” he declares, as Europe is about to be launched into carnage.
Chaplin was warned that including the speech would damage the film’s reception and reduce his profits by a million dollars. He responded, “I don’t care if it is five million dollars.” Far right groups attempted to disrupt the opening. The speech was reprinted as a pamphlet by the Communist Party and has been watched by over 10 million people on YouTube.
When the film was released the war had started but the USA was staying out of it. Charlie addressed an anti-Nazi rally with a forty minute speech addressing the crowd as “Comrades”.
Long disliked by the US establishment for his left wing sympathies, Charlie was chucked out of the country in 1952.
He lived out his life in Switzerland and continued to be a radical comic and satirist. As he said in his autobiography late in life, “My films have always been for the underdog.”
Je suis Charlie Chaplin.
Obituary written for the Guardian.
My father, Will Fancy, who has died aged 76, was a life-long socialist and trade unionist. He joked that the high point of his career came during the strike wave of the early 1970s, when he was on the national executive of the Nalgo local government officers’ union and the Daily Mail described him as “the most dangerous man in Britain” – “for that week”, he would add drily.
Will’s father was a lorry driver and his mother a factory machinist. He was the first of five brothers and sisters, and the only one to go to grammar school. His west London family benefited from the postwar Labour government: “After 15 years on the waiting list, we moved into a council house.” Will stood in school elections as an independent before deciding at 17 that “collective action was necessary”. He joined the Labour League of Youth, signed his family up to the Co-op and formed a trade union in his sixth form.
When he won a place at Exeter University to study economics, his mother regretted she could afford only a patched secondhand gown for him to wear. When he became president of the students’ union, he organised protests against the compulsory wearing of gowns. At student conferences, Will crossed paths with Roy Hattersley, and to Will’s amusement later appeared in Lord Hattersley’s memoirs described in less than flattering terms. More importantly, through student politics he met Julie Boston, who became his wife.
As an early CND supporter and anti-war activist, Will refused to do national service and was sent to prison for a week for sitting in front of a warplane with Bertrand Russell and the Committee of 100. Disillusionment with Labour led Will to join the Socialist Review Group – the forerunner of the Socialist Workers party (SWP).
During the 1960s and 70s Will was instrumental in turning Nalgo (later Unison) from a conservative staff association into a militant white-collar union. During this period of growing industrial militancy, he spoke at meetings and picket lines up and down the country, sharing platforms with the jailed striker (now actor) Ricky Tomlinson and the civil rights MP Bernadette Devlin. But after the defeats of trade unions in the early 1980s Will became a full-time union secretary and fell out with his comrades in the SWP.
Suffering from the hereditary illness Paget’s disease, Will retired at 60 and followed Julie to Bristol. He researched his family tree and local history, and travelled the world, visiting sites of ancient civilisations and his six Papua New Guinean grandchildren.
Despite ill health and the hearing difficulties that eventually prevented him from attending political meetings, he did not abandon his beliefs, and in his last years produced a monthly bulletin for the Socialist and Environment Resources Association. Even after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer he kept campaigning: as he lay in his hospital bed, too weak to read, he had two letters published in the Bristol Evening Post.
Will’s life was one of occasional victories and frequent frustrations, but he was always driven by the dream of a better world for all. He is survived by Julie, his brother and sisters, three children, 11 grandchildren and a great-grandson.
a second obituary written for Socialist Worker with added quotes from some of his friends and comrades…
Will Fancy, who died on 29 July aged 76, was a life-long socialist and trade unionist.
He joked that the high point of his career was during the strike wave of the early 1970s when the Daily Mail described him as “the most dangerous man in Britain” – “for that week”, he would add dryly.
Will’s father was a lorry driver and his mother a factory machinist. He was the first of five children.
Deciding at 17 that “collective action was necessary”, Will joined the Labour League of Youth, signed his family up to the Co-op and formed a trade union in his sixth form.
Disillusionment with Labour led Will to join the Socialist Review Group, the forerunner of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
John Palmer writes, “I have fond memories of our years together in the Socialist Review Group and the International Socialists.
“I always liked his dry wit and easy manner with those with whom he debated ideas.”
In the early 1960s he began working for Lewisham council. It is his work in the Nalgo union, now part of Unison, and the rank and file Nalgo Action Group (NAG) that Will is best remembered for by his comrades.
Geoff Woolfe recalls, “During the London Weighting dispute in 1973-4, Will was instrumental in getting the Nalgo branch to organise to make sure the workforce supported industrial action.
“It was touch and go. The branch’s old guard was hostile to real trade unionism and without his efforts we would have failed to get branch support for the action.”
Will was one of the first NAG supporters to be elected to the union’s ruling body in 1972.
In March 1974 he chaired the national rank and file conference in Birmingham, which drew together activists from across the trade unions.
Enid Khan, a NAG supporter in Leicester, recalls, “I always had such admiration for Will. His views were always rational and thought-provoking.”
With the unions’ defeats in the early 1980s Will became a full-time union secretary, fell out with his comrades in the SWP and left the party.
He retired at 60 and followed his partner Julie to Bristol.
The final words must go to NAG activist Paul Bream, “Will was authoritative without being domineering, knowledgeable without being arrogant. Everybody recognised Will’s commitment to fighting for a society that served the interests of working people.”
Will is survived by Julie, his three children, 11 grandkids and a great grandson.
60 years of socialist campaigning: A celebration of Will’s life will be held on Saturday 21 November in Bristol.
These feet
these feet have crossed continents
These hands
these hands are working hands and here to help
This heart
this heart is a human heart and beats with dark red blood
This mouth
this mouth needs to breath and needs to eat
These eyes
these eyes can see sense and see through fences
These people
can we see these people?
can we see we are these people?
mixing it up musically and politically…