Margaret Simey passed away yesterday aged 98. She died in her sleep after a short illness. Margaret was a fighter for the Working Class, and a woman who has a lot of respect in the area where she first became involved in politics and were she stayed till her last days. She was former Chair of Merseyside Police Authority and former Labour councillor for Granby/Toxteth and a community activist for over 60 years, up until the last, she was still thinking of others. The memory of her will live on always in the hearts of Scousers and all who were lucky to work with her and make her acquaintance. Margaret was the first women to complete a sociology degree and after her original graduation at Liverpool University in 1927, she cut her teeth in the suffragettes movement and she began to make a name for herself, not because she was particularly looking to promote herself, she just had decent ideas which she wanted to pass on to people. She was not working class herself, but like most Scousers who knew of her, I would say she had done more than enough to be accepted as 'one of us'. I think this acceptance by the ordinary working class of Liverpool meant more to her than anything. Her funereal will likely be testament to this acceptance.

A Champion for the Community

Margaret spent some time in the Caribbean and, on her return to Liverpool, became a champion of the community of Liverpool 8 and Toxteth in particular. She stood up for all local working class people and made a name for herself amongst the Afro Caribbean community here in Toxteth, her work towards combating racism came at a time when this issue was not popular and the police and authorities were utterly blind as to there own racism being a problem. Police in the area would openly refer to black people as niggers, Margaret, like many Scousers, felt the police were wrong. Never ever think of Margaret as simply a champion for the black community, she was the champion of all working class people and the respect she had from local black families, Asian, Chinese, Jewish and whites, drew people together. When the community unites against the common enemy, racism soon falls to the wayside. This is why Liverpool has long had a tradition of showing great understanding to other cultures, many who ran from oppression, found that we ourselves, the working class of Liverpool, have long struggled ourselves against oppression and have a history of standing up for social justice and freedom. This is what makes Liverpool Great. This is why Margaret Simey found a natural home here.

A Familiar Sight.

I was born in Toxteth myself so my parents knew Margaret who was always seen in the local area, she was a familiar sight in the Granby Street area and Lodge Lane shops were she could be seen shopping with her old fashioned wooden basket. Not many politicians were seen out and about, but Margaret was a woman of the people and would not be fazed if a local asked her for housing advice whilst she was buying some vegetables. Compare this to the snobbish 'above her stations' behaviour of the likes of Councillor Carol Gustaferson, who until recently occupied the same chair as Margaret on the Police Authority. Like Carol, most of Merseyside's councillors today are not 'of the people', nor are they for the people. How comforting it was when we had the likes of Margaret always out and about in her ward, always there for the vulnerable, always there to lend an ear and solve small disputes whilst looking at the bigger picture. Many older readers may shed a tear when they see the selfish behaviour prevalent today in political circles, but rest assured that here in Liverpool, there are still those with principles and the old gang in power will be pushed out one day when we wake up and organise ourselves. Gustaferson herself was recently dealt a blow when she was kicked out by the good decent working class people of Church ward in the elections. The electorate still have principles, unluckily for some.

Queen of the Kids

Kids loved Margaret. I'd like to recall my own encounter with her, I have met her, but I cannot recall it as I was fairly young and only know this by anecdotal evidence. Nonetheless, people will tell you that Margaret, when she was canvassing for election in the Granby and Toxteth ward, would have a small army of kids following her at times. Support was genuine and you knew that Margaret was 100% honest. She had an aura of honesty around her. In many ways she was representative of a lot of working class women in Liverpool, her values and principles were, to a degree, fairly common in the community at the time and her own education inspired many local working class women to educate themselves and to gain the confidence to do so. She was not a snob, and was a natural philanthropist; she had the 'common touch', yet could deal with the most high up people and not bow down to them. Margaret had a natural understanding of what made us working class tick and her 'no nonsense' approach towards bringing better social conditions is something that , sadly, few women in politics locally have ever really adhered to today. We'll never have another Margaret Simey, that's for sure. She was a one off, one of those people who you may say of that 'God broke the mould when he made her'. Margaret's legacy to working class women here is simple. We need women with principles and convictions to represent us. Now Margaret's gone, at least her legacy lives on and the people of Liverpool can be proud that we can add one more Great name to the list of those who have fought for the good people of Liverpool over the years. People like 'Battling' Bessie Braddock and James Larkin. White, Black , Jewish, Irish and every race in the World have at some point stood up to be counted in our Great City. It is not the buildings here which give the City its spirit; it is the deeds of the people of Liverpool, the sruggle for justice and solidarity. We can't afford to lose this.

Margaret Simey Vs Merseyside Police.

During the Toxteth Riots, between 700 and 1000 police officers had been reported injured, some 500 people arrested and hundreds of them injured and approx 100 buildings or so demolished, with more damaged. A local man was killed by a police land rover and others injured. All over Liverpool smaller riots kicked off with more injuries there of both police and rioters. Kirkby's 'mini riot' was pretty much a very serious incident, but paled in comparison to the riots in the more concentrated city centres and densely populated areas. Merseyside police fired CS gas at rioters, just like in Northern Ireland. The tactics in Toxteth and throughout the UK were, in part, picked up in the struggle a few miles over the sea in Ireland. The chief constable said the riots were the work of "thieves and vagabonds" that needed 'no excuse for violence and destruction'. However, many thought that the dire economic circumstances due to Thatcherism and attacks on the working class and a police force, totally out of touch with the community and unaccountable to it, helped cause the riots. Lady Margaret Simey was chair of the police authority during the riots and clashed with the chief constable Ken Oxford over his alleged failure to acknowledge 'the possibility that social issues were behind the violence.' The police top brass did not like her outspokenness, though you suspect a few cops who genuinely disliked racism and other prejudices warmed to her honesty.

Only Apathetic Fools Don't Riot sometimes

In 1981 Toxteth, like many working class areas in the UK, had unemployment, bad housing and poor education, in Toxteth this was in an area with a large population of white, black and mixed-race residents. The racism came from the police and authorities at times and many of the working class residents, for the most part, lived happily with each other regardless of colour. The media at the time tried to link the riots to 'race', but the participants in the 81 riots or uprisings were, to some extent, the voiceless speaking out in the only way they knew how. Margaret Simey spoke out at the time and remarked that in the face of such conditions, Toxteth's people would have been "apathetic fools" if they had not rioted. She was absolutely right. Margaret Simey had the guts to speak out for a generation which needed to stick together. We should have heeded her advice and went on to challenge the system using the political path.

The Love of the Common People

Margaret had many interests, but she was mostly concerned with social injustices and her heart was with the working class people of Liverpool and the working class and poor and oppressed all over the World. She was a woman who would have liked Kirkby Times, she was a bit of a rebel, and she had no time for the corrupt and the gutless lackeys who infect Merseyside's political system today. She wanted us working class to rise up and take over, that's what she was getting at, and she set an example for us to follow in as much as she did what she did with complete honesty. Her love of the common people led her to reject the fancy titles which some of our political leaders vainly tried to get her to accept. She was offered the freeman of the city of Liverpool in 2002, and told them to stick it, doubtless politely, but there was a clear message in this rejection. She remained a rebel till the end, even as illness set in she took to writing on the matter by calling for more social care and provision for others to ease there pain. That she should busy herself with these matters as she was dying, is testament to her love of the common people.

Liverpool has lost one of its greatest daughters. I hope that her funeral will be public so that the people of Liverpool can turn out to pay our respects. There will be far more people for this event than there was for the visit of the Queen a few months back. This proves that no matter how great the titles some people may hold, this cannot buy the love of the people. Margaret done well to reject her titles, the establishment is our enemy and I pray that one day the working class women of Liverpool will rise up to carry on the fine example set by Margaret Simey.

The struggle is not over. It's only just begun. It is time, as it always was, for the Working Class of Liverpool to fight back. This is what Margaret was trying to encourage us to do.

One Of Us.

Kirkby Times offers condolences to Margaret's surviving family and friends and pays tribute to Margaret's life and her struggle for the ordinary working class people of Liverpool. We have no 'OBE's' or 'Knighthoods' or other such trinkets and shiny tokens to bestow upon Margaret Simey. Margaret's award, from the decent working class majority, is that she was thought of as 'one of us'. The people of Liverpool have no higher award or accolade than this.

The Secret in the Stone

The Secret in the Stone: A Call to the Working Class of Liverpool today from the working class of 100 years ago. Thanks to the Kirkby Huyton Prescott Trades website (here ) for passing on to the public the following story of hope.........

On July 19th 1904, King Edward VII and his wife Queen Alexandra, officiated at the Foundation Ceremony for the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world. There was not a poor man or woman in sight. Three weeks earlier on the 27th June 1904, Fred Bower a socialist stonemason and his pal James Larkin, the inspirational Liverpool Docker, who became the greatest Irish Labour Leader of the twentieth century conducted their own covert ceremony, designed to remind prosperity that "within a stones throw from here, human beings are housed in slums not fit for swine". Their letter and documents addressed to a future socialist society were placed inside a tin, and laid in the foundations of the Cathedral between two courses of bricks. Queen Victoria's son then 'did his bit' in front of 7000 prosperous guests who new nothing about the Secret in the Stone. (Extract from 'The Secret in the Stone' by Ron Noon.)

Weapons

Martin Luther King once said we have love as our weapon, he was right because Love for your family, your loved ones and friends, for your community and your Class and for the common man and woman is at the heart of all progressive revolutionary movements of social change. But Love is not the only weapon us working class have. We've got a whole bunch of weapons. We've got strikes, pickets, boycotts, unions, community empowerment and many other forms of working class resistance. There are millions of us out here. Nothing can stand in our way if we unite. We have to balance the love for our own people with some hate for those who exploit them. Even a beautiful, kindhearted, sweet natured woman like Margaret Simey knew and understood that change won't come without a fight. Like James Larkin and Fred Bower, she knew herself that even in 2004 in Liverpool, as in 1904, some "human beings are housed in slums not fit for swine".(proof) When Jesus Christ himself turned over the tables of the moneylenders in the temples, the message was the same. Sooner or later the working class have to stand up again.

To end this article/tribute, let's just say thanks to someone who genuinely cared for the common people and someone who stood up for the people of Liverpool.

Thanks Margaret. Rest in Peace.