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Ken Livingstone’s Venezuelan adventure follows in some surprising footsteps
By Graham Stewart
“A prophet is not without honour save in his own country,” as the electorally rejected will tell you. Unfortunately, the international transfer market that finds foreign employment for footballers does not really operate for former politicians.
After all, one cannot really extol Britishness one moment and lead the German Christian Democrats the next. Either dumped politicians must develop an enthusiasm for the supranational EU or endorse revolution sans frontières. With its Che Guevara chic, the latter clearly appeals to Ken Livingstone, who has just accepted a post as an adviser to President Chávez of Venezuela.
At least in Caracas Mr Livingstone can still hang out with radical socialists. A far more adventurous journey was travelled by the suffragette activist Sylvia Pankhurst.
Having been jailed for her militant prosecution of the “votes for women” campaign, Pankhurst did not revel in the victory. She despaired at how little women voters wanted to change Britain. When her flirtation with communism ended sourly, avenues for British political adventure dried up.
Yet few imagined that, in 1936, she would pop up at the League of Nations in Geneva as adviser to His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia and Elect of God.
Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia excited her anti-fascist ire. But Pankhurst’s former feminist and socialist comrades found it surprising that she could become not only the displaced emperor’s groupie but also an apologist for his semi-feudal regime where slavery was only just beginning to be curbed and the population was largely illiterate.
Following Haile Selassie’s triumphant return to Addis Ababa in 1941, she argued vociferously for Ethiopia’s absorption of Eritrea and Somaliland and never missed an opportunity to denounce British policy. She also claimed that Ethiopian women enjoyed better rights than British women. How many Ethiopians she asked may be disputed as she never bothered learning the Amharic language.
The Ethiopian Government bankrolled her activities and, from 1956, she lived there at the Emperor’s expense. Thus the former agitator against the British Establishment ended up with the Order of the Queen of Sheba.
She died believing that her work for Ethiopia was of far greater value than anything she had done for ungrateful British womanhood. Perhaps Mr Livingstone may get a statue in Caracas long before anyone decides who should top the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.