Cox David's Story

Tales of Life and Love Returning
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-83615-376-4
Verlag: Grosvenor House Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 213 Seiten

David's Story is a personal reflection on the fascinating life of the author as seen through his eyes in his seventy seventh year. Most importantly, it is a story focusing on love gained, lost and then of love returning in more ways than one. From his working class beginnings in Bolton, the author's rebellious streak led to some interesting experiences. In this memoir, David reflects on his upbringing and family relationships during which time he lived in many different places, his life as a student at the London School of Economics LSE) and his political awakening, his friendships, an intense and long-lasting love affair, love later returning, his career as a social worker, his running marathons, his support for Nottingham Forest Football Club, his experiencing cancer, and his later life. During David's childhood the family lived in eighteen homes in England and as a result he attended half a dozen different schools. Despite all these changes he was still successful academically at school. When he was eighteen in 1967 he became a student at LSE, at a time when there was a major student revolt arising in considerable part as a response to the Vietnam War. He discusses also his early friendships and the beginning of his social work career in east London at a time when he was very inexperienced and unqualified. For him it was very much a question of 'sinking or swimming'. An intense love affair began during this period. It was to be as W.B Yeats described it as 'but a...dreamy, kind delight'. It was wonderful yet it was nearly to destroy both him and his girlfriend. It was to last on and off for many years. After the love affair ended he did not believe that he would ever marry...but then love was to return many years later in more ways than one after he met Parinya in Thailand. He was soon to marry her. He also describes how his career as a social worker continued in east London and later in inner city Nottingham involving difficult and stressful work. New friendships are also described. There are chapters as well about becoming a marathon runner and also his passion as a supporter of Nottingham Forest Football Club. At a later stage after working for a national charity for several years, and then travelling around the world, he returned to work in London as a manager of services for people with learning disabilities. Later in the book he describes his experience of Thai ways with Parinya. Then cancer threatened to cut short his life with his wife. He was subsequently to move with Parinya out of London to Banbury, Oxfordshire. The covid epidemic was subsequently to pose further threats. He then describes their recent life together. Love and friendship have sustained David and compelled him to reflect on his life with gratitude. I the final chapter of the book he offers reflections on our current society, the wider world, and his heroes and anti-heroes.

David was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He attended 6 different schools and studied at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he received a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree. He later returned there to gain his social work qualification. He had a lengthy career in social work and social care management, specialising in child care and later working with people with disabilities. In his eighth decade he has reflected about his life and prepared this memoir. It is his first book.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cox, David

Leseproben

Rodger and I shared some accommodation in New Cross during the first year at university, but it was very cold in winter and the following year we both moved to rooms that Rodger had found in a Methodist hostel in Camberwell. Although the study rooms were small, they were comfortable, and breakfast and evening meals were on offer. There were many interesting people living there from different walks of life. I was to get to know a few of them well. There was a student health visitor, the daughter of a famous horror writer and a recovering heroin addict. The pub opposite featured regular music events at weekends, including sometimes an Egyptian belly dancer. The busy East Street market was just up the road. Maybe we would have both been better off initially in our first year living in a university hall of residence, which might have been available, but we had not pursued it. In the medium to longer term, everything worked out well.

As Rodger’s girlfriend Jenny had also attended Holt School and was a friend of Cathy, it was natural that we were soon operating as a foursome, although as Cathy had failed to get the necessary grades to attend the Goldsmiths’ College art course in London (part of the University of London), she remained at school in our first year to resit the exams. Jenny commenced a psychology course at Goldsmiths’ College, which was based in New Cross.

We arrived at LSE at the beginning of the student revolt in the UK, and at the start of the major Vietnam War protests. While studying economics, political thought, British government, international politics and psychology, for exams at the end of the first year, I was soon, therefore, getting a rather different practical political education in student protest and opposition to the Vietnam War. At LSE at the time, there was a significant number of American postgraduate students who had previously been involved in campus protests at Berkeley, Columbia, and elsewhere in the US. Many of these Americans were members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Those that were involved in SDS, along with other students from the Socialist Society, were participating in the wider political struggle in addition to attempting to achieve internal changes to the university. As well as opposing the escalating war in Vietnam, these student leaders were demanding changes in various aspects of wider society. Two favourite chants on student demonstrations were ‘Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh!’ and ‘Free, Free, LSE, Free it from the Bourgeoisie!’ A small number of these students had also been active in supporting the dock strike in the UK that had been taking place in recent months. One or two students I met at that time also claimed to be anarchists.

One of the substantial issues raised by radical students in my first year was concerns about the appointment of Walter Adams as director of LSE, given his administrative and academic background in apartheid South Africa. This appointment raised issues not only about Dr Adams but also about his selection by the board of governors, which included the controversial chairman, Lord Robbins. Left-wing students were suspicious about and opposed to Walter Adams’s appointment and distrusted Lionel Robbins in his role at LSE, as well as disliking him for his liberal market economics. There was also a wider debate taking place about the role of liberal ideology in British universities, involving a critique that suggested that those academics who presented a liberal position on the surface if faced with pressure or a crisis would often resort to a more conservative or even reactionary position defending the status quo and contemporary capitalism.

One interesting issue at the time involved the LSE bookshop, which was basically owned by LSE and overseen by the board of governors chaired by Lord Robbins. As part of the student protests, a significant number of students decided to steal books from the bookshop, read them, and then return them for half-price compensation, allowing resale, thus boosting the students’ income. It was a popular practice.

Student militancy at LSE at this time was soon part of a much wider movement involving universities and colleges across the UK. Those attending Colleges of Art were especially prominent in some of the sit-ins and other activities. It should be emphasised, however, that the student protest movement at LSE and elsewhere in the country always, in my experience, involved only a minority (albeit at times a large minority) of students. The majority did not partake and continued to focus on their studies.

In my initial period at LSE, there were also to be various memorable events both there and away from it. First, this was a period soon after Enoch Powell, the Conservative politician, had made his infamous speech predicting future ‘rivers of blood’ as a consequence of mass immigration. Some London dockers, led by Jack Dash, decided to support him, and they arranged a demonstration at Westminster outside Parliament. There was also a counterdemonstration with many students present, which I attended. Following various chanting by both groups, the dockers on one side of the road decided they were going to demonstrate their support for Powell by breaking through the police lines, running across the road, and attacking those demonstrating against them. The policing was inadequate and fighting soon broke out. Not being very skilful in this area, I was soon punched in the face by a small but seemingly strong opponent who had more boxing skills than I did! With a badly bruised face, I had some explaining to do when I next met my tutor at LSE.

Secondly, and most memorably, after the events of May 1968, the BBC decided to make a TV programme about the worldwide student revolt and paid for various student leaders to travel to London. These students were soon speaking in the Old Theatre at the LSE, describing their various struggles (especially regarding opposition to the Vietnam War), and I was in the audience listening to them. The lecture theatre was packed out and overflowing as we listened to Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a student leader from the University of Nanterre and the Sorbonne, involved in the May events taking place in Paris, SDS students from Germany, Japanese students, American students, Czech students involved in the Prague Spring, and many others. It certainly felt like a worldwide movement and was both intensely exciting and very empowering, even though many different views and perspectives were forthcoming from socialists, communists, Maoists and anarchists. Undoubtedly, the most poignant speech was from a Czech student experiencing the Prague Spring, who emphasised their struggle for basic rights such as freedom of speech, which he noted many of the others present took for granted. Overall, it was almost possible to believe that the world really could be changed in major ways for the better and that perhaps capitalism was not all-powerful. One suggestion was for the development of red bases, which would then build links with the working class. Although we were certainly naive in some respects about how change could be achieved particularly regarding the possibility of the engagement of the working class, my involvement in these events means that even today I believe that with the mobilisation of enough support, radical progressive change is still possible.

Thirdly, because of a previous protest and sit-in, the authorities at LSE had somewhat unwisely decided, by early 1969, to install security gates in various areas, which could be closed if there was trouble. I think the idea was to prevent any full occupation of the buildings. Unsurprisingly, the militant section of the student body could not accept this new reality and decided to take direct action. I watched as an axe was taken to what proved to be rather flimsy gates. They were all removed within a short time and they were never to be introduced again. However, there were other repercussions which included the LSE administration using Court injunctions to ban certain students from any further activities. I recall that Dr Paul Hoch, an American postgraduate student who was undertaking a post-doctoral thesis on the philosophy of mathematics, appearing in the High Court in the Strand, representing himself. I attended one day of the hearing.

The Vietnam War was my war in much the same way as the Second World War belonged to the previous generation. It created a political catalyst that led many young, and some older, people not only to oppose the war the Americans were fighting against a small developing country in Southeast Asia in the name of anti-communism, but to question the nature of capitalism itself. It was obvious to us that the Vietnamese government and people, rather than being part of some international communist conspiracy, had instead been fighting what was essentially a nationalist struggle against colonialism and imperialism since the Second World War. In fact, the Vietnam War radicalised large numbers of people worldwide and became a key moral issue that divided opinion, especially in the United States, and led to the questioning of the status quo and the post-Second World War orthodoxy arising from the Cold War.

The domino theory on Communist conspiracy was fatally undermined by the Americans waging a war against a people who rather than being controlled by the Chinese had been struggling for their independence against them for at least a thousand years. The dreadful television and camera images of the bombing and destruction, with the widespread use of napalm, in a military campaign carried out indiscriminately against civilians as well as the Vietnamese guerrillas, raised crucial moral as well as political questions. It was only much later that I was to read books on the war, including Neil Sheehan’s A Bright...