TRIBUTES TO ELLEN LUBY- The politicians’ conscience

Published: 22 July, 2010

• EVERYONE I speak to says the same about the passing of our dear Ellen Luby, it is the end of an era (New Journal, July 15).

Ellen was a thorn in the side of many but this was not because she was prickly herself.

She spoke out and fought for the rights of ordinary working people.

Everyone recalls Ellen being involved in every struggle, housing, workers’ rights, anti-fascist struggles over the years.

It was fantastic to read the tributes from each of the parties on the council, shame that, save for Councillor Roger Robinson, Ellen would be hard pressed to get a decent word about her while she was still with us.

But Ellen would in any case have brushed aside any praise of her.

She did not speak out to make a name for herself but to be the conscience of those who were elected to represent us.

She was right in stating that all the political parties had deserted working people and she had her greatest vitriol for the Labour Party because they were the party that had been formed by the workers, the trade unions and the disappointment in their failures was all the more keenly felt by her, and many others, for that.

Thank goodness that Ellen will not see the result of the Labour leadership election for she would surely be proved right that the Labour Party has lost its way just at the point when it needed to re-engage with working people not the political “chattering” classes.

I will always remember her support for the Camden Town Neighbourhood Advice Centre (CTNAC) and for Camden Defend Council Housing (DCH) and the campaign against the arms’-length management organisation.

I am proud to have got to know Ellen and am really devastated that we will no longer be able to be shoulder-to-shoulder with her at the next demo or full council.

Long live our memories of Ellen and may those memories remind us to speak out when it is needed.

For to remain quiet is to be complicit with the deeds being carried out in our names.

CATHY POUND
CTNAC
Camden DCH
Camden HOPE not hate