Kevin Bean 1955 – 2024
Many people will be saddened to hear of the death of Dr Kevin Bean who died peacefully at home with his partner Pauline Hadaway next to him on October 12th. I knew him as a friend, activist and a member of Wavertree Constituency Labour Party. When Kevin first arrived at a Wavertree meeting the right wing didn’t really know what to make of him. They assumed that a well spoken, polite academic and member of the Irish Studies department at Liverpool University would not be the type to rock the boat and argue for socialism. No doubt their initial assessment was coloured by his conservative but elegant dress sense topped off with an Irish tweed jacket and stylish hat. He once told me of his plan to have a ceremonial burning of his jacket once he was fully retired.
At the time Kevin joined Wavertree CLP Jeremy Corbyn was the leader of the party and the left for a short time were in the ascendency. Given his politics, administrative and communication skills he was elected as secretary of the CLP and played an exceptional role in setting up a weekly bulletin for members during the Covid lockdown. All members were invited to contribute to the bulletin but this outraged the Labour right wing as the last thing they wanted was any political discussion within the membership!
Kevin was a lifelong campaigner for Palestinian rights. His understanding of the Middle East was reinforced by a number of visits to Palestine. To ensure his unhindered access through Israeli immigration he had an excellent cover story: he was a pious Catholic pilgrim to the Holy Land and had a number of items in his luggage to demonstrate his intent, including a bible and rosary.
During his last visit he was nearly unmasked when he was part of a group who were chased through olive groves by the IDF and cannisters of tear gas. Kevin managed to evade the IDF but unfortunately not the thought police of the Labour party because in 2020 Kevin and three other members of the Party executive were suspended for criticising their MP Paula Barker who had written an article in the Jewish Telegraph, without any prior consultation with the executive officers. She wrote, among other things: “Luciana [Berger] leaving the Labour Party was a shock to many and I find it deeply regrettable that she felt she could no longer stay.” Luciana Berger MP, parachuted into the safe Labour seat for the 2010 general election, was one of the most vocal opponents of Jeremy Corbyn, who used her position as MP to publicly undermine and sabotage him at every opportunity. She helped to spread the lie that the Labour Party is overrun by antisemites and thereby fostered the current atmosphere, in which pro-Palestinian campaigners are regularly tarnished and vilified as antisemites – and she particularly singled out the Labour members in her own constituency. In the end she jumped ship and joined the Liberal Democrats, which really could not come as a “shock” to anybody who had followed her political trajectory. Tom Watson declared that she had been “forced out by racist thugs” in her CLP.
Barker, elected with the help of the left, including the Wavertree 4, supported that narrative in her article. The four members felt so concerned that they wrote a private letter to her, but she simply brushed their concerns aside. Without any decision-making CLP meetings taking place where they could have presented a motion, the four decided to publish their views in the weekly internal CLP bulletin, which had been functioning as a medium of debate and featured all sorts of local and national events during the Covid-19 lockdown. The four wrote: “Paula’s words will most certainly be taken to imply that we, as a CLP, were responsible [for Berger’s departure]. This accusation has been repeated by our political opponents, such as the anti-Corbyn Labour right and the Liberal Democrats on numerous occasions, culminating in Tom Watson’s calumny, under the protective cloak of parliamentary privilege. In the furore that followed, individual officers and members, were subjected to further abuse and false allegations in the media, all of which were designed to obscure the political differences between Ms Berger and the CLP.”
Kevin was eventually expelled from the Labour Party for being a “Communist”. I think he thought of this as a wonderful accolade from a party that has embraced neo-liberalism and suppressed freedom of speech. Yes Kevin was a Communist, a Marxist and active Trade Unionist. I used to describe Kevin as our secret agent on the left. Given his committment as a fighter for his class and his elevation to the status of a Communist by the Labour Party I presented with a fake KGB identity card which he loved.
Kevin played a key role in the UCU strikes of recent years. As chair of his branch he was respected by the membership not least because of his kindness but also because of his sharp intellect and humour. He was first into the Union office every strike day to organise effective picketing around the university campus and ensure a steady supply of tea, coffee and sanwiches for UCU pickets and their supporters.
Kevin was an expert on fine wines and extra strong European beers. He explained to me once that as we were unable in later life to drink lots of pints, strong bottled beers with a high alcohol content were “perfect for people of our age Phil”. As a connoisseur of fine food and drink he refused to allow the pandemic to interfere with his embrace of good food shared with friends. My partner Hazuan Hashim and I had a number of ‘zoom dinner parties’ which Kevin and his partner Pauline. Naturally kevin dressed up for the occasion.
Following his expulsion from the Labour Party Kevin became more politically active and was a regular supporting strike pickets as well as the weekly protest against Council cuts outside the former Wavertree One Stop Shop which was closed down by the Labour Council. Kevin aquired a carboard cut out of Keir Starmer; he would entertain fellow protesters by having imaginary conversations with him.
Kevin was later to meet Starmer in person when he turned up for lunch at a Liverpool restaurant. Kevin was part of the team who accompanied Audrey White who received a tip off about where the Labour leader would be having lunch following a brief morning visit to Liverpool to talk about ‘economic growth’. We called ourselves the ‘A’ team and the four of us booked a table half an hour before Starmer’s grand entrance. On his arrival Audrey sent a message to some fellow ‘A’ team members who were stationed in a pub just around the corner. Their job was to protest outside the restaurant as Hazuan Hashim and myself filmed Audrey and Starmer. It was a plan that could have gone wrong but the intelligence was good and everyone knew what their role was. Everything went happily according to plan. In fact it was a dream because Starmer and his colleagues sat at a table near us in front of a window looking onto the street where the protesters gathered. During the film – which has been viewed by millions – you can hear Kevin in the background commenting to a silent Starmer who hadn’t a clue what to do. In fact with my camera focused on Starmer I was squeezed between a table with a plain clothes police officer trying to pull me away on my left and Kevin on my right side holding me still so I could get the shot! Following the brief interuption to our meal we returned to our table to finish our meal which Kevin insisted on paying for.
Many people have been influenced by the teaching, kindness, genorisity and humour of Kevin Bean. His lasting legacy will be found in his writings. Kevin wrote many articles – all in long hand and in that sense was a bit of a dinosaur. For the purposes of research he viewed the internet with some suspicion and was always keen to point out that only a fraction of what has been published or written is actually available on the internet. His critically aclaimed book The New Politics of Sinn Féin is an assessment of the ideological and organizational development of Provisional republicanism since 1985. The book explores how the Republican movement has changed over the years and uses original research and interviews to consider the origins of what has become known as ‘New Sinn Fein’.
Kevin appeared in a film I made with Hazuan Hashim called ‘The Anatomy of a Witchunt’ in 2002. In it he spoke eloquently about the direction of travel of the Labour Party. He was a delight to have in the studio because his interview was done in one take!
During his illness Ann San, member of the Merseyside Pensioners Association and life long nurse, ensured everything was in place for Kevin as a terminally ill cancer patient. She told me that she “felt so glad that our paths crossed. He was far too young to leave this world and I do know how much he valued people. I wish I’d known him longer so that I could have had him for a friend for longer”.
Kevin is survived by his partner Pauline Hadaway, his sister Patsy, his children from his marriage to Susan – Kathleen, Bernadette, Teresa and James-Joseph – and by five grandchildren.
A celebration of the lives of Kevin Bean and Terry Harrison will be held on Friday 24th January 2025, from 6.00pm at the Casa Bar, Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BP. All welcome.
