Laurie Weidberg

Laurie E. Weidberg (died 1986) was a socialist writer and speaker based in Manchester and London.

Early life

Weidberg was raised in Manchester in petty-bourgeois Jewish family with strict religious ideas. In the 1930s, at the age of seventeen, he developed an interest in leftist politics. He attended a meeting of Stafford Cripps's Labour Party splinter group, but quickly became disillusioned with the speakers (including a young Barbara Castle) whom he judged to be motivated more by self-interest than genuine concern for the betterment of society.

Career

After about a year of perusing literature from various left-wing groups, he stumbled upon the Socialist Party of Great Britain's journal, The Socialist Standard, and was instantly convinced. Soon after, he joined the SPGB, and served as a regular writer for the Standard and as an outdoor speaker at Speakers' Corner and Lincoln's Inn.[1][2]

Weidberg had a reputation for being caustic, sharp-witted, and provocative, and he harboured a particular hatred for The Guardian. Besides dismissing the newspaper's overall tone as "half-baked lefty crap", he led an eleven-year campaign to challenge its report that snow had fallen during a Lord's cricket match on 2 June 1975.[3][4] The complaint made it all the way to the Press Council, which eventually ruled in favour of the newspaper.[3] This was not the first time Weidberg had made the news in connection with a complaint about Lord's: at a match earlier in the 1970s, he removed his shirt to enjoy the sunshine, and refused a steward's order to put it back on. He complained to the Marylebone Cricket Club, which ruled that Weidberg was free to go topless so long as he remained motionless.[5]

Death

Laurie Weidberg died in 1986 after a long illness.[2][3]

References
  1. Weidberg, Laurie (January 1976). "Why I Joined the SPGB". Socialist Standard. Socialist Party of Great Britain. 72 (857).
  2. S. C. (June 1986). "Obituaries: L. E. Weidberg and Stan C. Bathurst". Socialist Standard. Socialist Party of Great Britain. 82 (982).
  3. "Unthinkable? Snow in August". The Guardian. 29 August 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
  4. "Eccentric memories and summer snow". The Guardian. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  5. "Lechery rears it head at Lord's". The Age: 26, 23. 6 August 1976. Retrieved 31 August 2014.


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