Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms

by Harry Leslie Smith

'Harry Leslie Smith is a vital and powerful voice speaking across generations about the struggle for a just society' Jeremy Corbyn THIS A CALL TO ARMS FOR THE MANY, NOT THE DON'T LET THE PAST BECOME OUR FUTURE Harry Leslie Smith is a great British stalwart. A survivor of the Great Depression, a Second World War veteran, a lifelong Labour supporter and a proud Yorkshire man, Harry's life has straddled two centuries. As a young man, he witnessed a country in crisis with no healthcare, no relief for the poor, and a huge economic gulf between the North and South. Now in his nineties, Harry wanders through the streets of his youth and wonders whether anything has actually changed. Britain is at its most dangerous juncture since Harry's youth - the NHS and social housing are in crisis, whilst Brexit and an unpopular government continue to divide the country - but there is hope. Just as Clement Attlee provided hope in 1945, Labour's triumphant comeback of June 2017 is a beacon of light in this season of discontent. Britain has overcome adversity before and will do so again - a new nation will be forged from the ashes of grave injustice. Moving and passionate, Don't Let My Past be Your Future interweaves memoir and polemic in a call to arms. Above all, this book is a homage to the boundless grace and resilience of the human spirit.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, War, Audiobook

240 pages, Hardcover

Published March 20, 2018

About the author

Harry Leslie Smith was a British survivor of the Great Depression, a Second World War RAF veteran and, in his 90s, an activist for the poor, for refugees and for the preservation of social democracy. He wrote for numerous publications including The New Statesman, The Daily Mirror, The Tyee, International Business Times as well as the Guardian where his articles have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook and have attracted huge comment and debate. He authored several books about Britain during the Great Depression, the Second World War and postwar austerity. He lived in Yorkshire.
Harry Leslie Smith books are represented by Greene & Heaton. His books include 1923, The Empress of Australia, Harry's Last Stand, Love Among the Ruins, and Don't Let My Past Be Your Future.

Reviews

[Richard Derus]

Harry Leslie Smith, 1923-2018

He died this morning, 28 November 2018, after a struggle with pneumonia. Please watch the video linked above. Your votes in 2020 will set the course for the entire rest of your life, no matter how old you are. #IStandWithHarry

Please, you stand with him as well.

[Martin Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has reinstalled a confidence in political involvement and humanity in me that had become jaded by the effects of uncaring governments, Harry Smiths warnings need to be heard everywhere in the UK before the next general election, the young voters need to take heed of his warnings of failure to engage and work actively to reestablish a socially responsible form of government before the wealthy few commit the many to privation and servitude, desperation and hopelessness

[Owlseyes]

"This August resembles too much that of 1939"

in: In 1939, I didn’t hear war coming. Now its thundering approach can’t be ignored
by Harry Leslie Smith

in: https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...

[Diane Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, despite the fact that much of what he wrote, particularly about his childhood, I had already read in "Harry's Last Stand". There is so much in this book that resonates for me and there are so many passages that I would love to share in this review, but that would make this almost as long as the book itself. There are many lessons to be learnt from what Harry tells us, especially if we want to change this world and make it a better place for future generations.

The following pieces are extracts from this book which particularly resonated with me:

"UKIP is a fraud. It can no more offer political salvation to the disenfranchised masses than a television evangelist can fast track you to heaven with a £100 donation to his dodgy ministry. And it is time the media and other political parties stopped paying lip service to their twenty-first-century variant of Mosley's fascism. As for the Tories, their concept of aspirational politics is a cruel deceit. Toryism is no more than an elaborate pyramid scheme where they convince everyone to steal from the lowest to keep their place in the hierarchy."

And the last part of the final paragraph of the book:

"........... Without a doubt, we will see another general election very soon and we should accept, owing to the volatility of politics today, that all bets are off. What is essential between now and the next election, if we wish to end austerity and prevent my past becoming your future, is that Labour increases its outreach to the young, the disaffected and the hard-pressed middle class. Labour has a real chance of forming the next government and returning economic and social equality back to this country. To do so will not be easy. It took almost thirty years to destroy the welfare state, and its rebuilding will be a long and arduous task. But, as I saw the foundations dug for a progressive society in 1945, I know we can do it again, although only if we don't succumb to the lure of the Tories and their media, who divide us, cheapen our dignity and make us less civilised."

So, take note everyone: read this book, take note of what Harry is telling you and don't let the Tories, UKIP and the right wing press persuade you that they are on your side - because they are not!!!!

[Alex Morritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harry Leslie Smith is a rare phenomenon. A sage in his mid nineties with the lucidity and clarity of purpose to warn us of what may become of us if we do not take remedial action soon. Based on his first hand knowledge of another era with frighteningly similar social, political and economic characteristics to those of today, he interweaves his boyhood experiences of abject poverty growing up in the north of England with the UK's current worsening economic position for the majority of its citizens due to either sustained and unnecessary austerity measures since the 2008 financial crash or more recently the sharp rise in inflation and the pronounced devaluation of sterling as a result of the EU referendum result. He also lays bare the utter hypocrisy and shameful opportunism of today's crop of third rate politicians such as Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, reminding us that if charlatans of this ilk can be voted in, they can also be voted out, and that it is our duty as members of society to become more engaged in and energised by politics in order to avoid the catastrophes of the late 1920's and 30's rather than merely assume that we are powerless to bring about positive change. A wake up call, a call to arms, but also a reminder of the strength of the human spirit when confronted by seemingly insurmountable challenges.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering as well as inspiring to hear the voice of a man who actually experienced the appalling poverty familiar to many during the interwar period. An important and timely reminder of how the Welfare State was won and a cry from the heart not to lose it. We are already on the slippery slope with increasing use of food banks, rising housing costs and the gig economy. Harry is still an activist in his 90s, which should inspire more of us to get involved. The indignities and pain heaped on the poor which he remembers are bad enough - but what's worse is that this was once considered an unavoidable fact of life. Don't let that attitude return to this country. This book is a mixture of personal reminiscence, politcal awakening and facts about today's society that will make you very uneasy.

[Alice Chau-Ginguene · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Everything that we have today in terms of social benefits originates from those six years when Labour was in the government after the war. Without the Atlee government, Britain would have been a dark and fearful place during the second half of the twentieth century. And yet many of our citizens are ignorant of history and made arrogant by the fake news of the right wing, which disparages the great accomplishments we made as a nation, where we cleared the slums, gave free healthcare to all, built affordable homes and made higher education accessible to working-class kids.” -

This man is nearly 100 years old and has now written a book to tell us the truth of the “good old days”.

So just a reminder: the ‘good old days’ was a socialist era. It’s socialism that has given people security, safety and dignity. It has nothing to do with being in EU or not, foreigners, etc etc. Read history and try to look for the time when the conservatives actually did something to help YOU. You will find no evidence.

And this doesn’t just apply to the UK, it applies globally. In US, it was GI Bill and FDR who gives you stable job, affordable housing, a chance to climb up the social ladder.

Read this book so you know how the ‘good old days’ look like and be very very careful who you vote next time. And for gawd sake, VOTE!!!!

[Debs Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling to hear of first-hand experiences of a desperately bleak Britain in the Depression era that is so often airbrushed with nostalgia and described alongside the challenges of austerity politics in the 21st century.

[Ann Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and compelling memoir that makes the case for social investment as opposed to economic austerity and neoliberalism. The author, Harry Leslie Smith, was well into his nineties when he wrote this book, which concludes with a powerful call to action: "Right now, we are at a juncture in history that is as dangerous to this generation as the 1930s were to mine. There are serious threats of war emerging all across the globe, some caused by the folly of neoliberalism and others just erupting because we forgot that tyranny, if fed, will metastasize in even the healthiest of societies....My past won't become your future if you hold firm to the belief that all people are born equal and deserve the right to a life free of want, ignorance, and sickness. Believe in yourselves, in social justice, and live by the creed that we are all our brother's keeper."

[Matt Heavner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing life. I bought this after seeing Smith's obit in the NYT. An important perspective (British perspective, yes, but the translation to the US isn't that hard). This is primarily a biographical look at how the British poverty of the 1930s (that Harry grew up in) and then how the shared destiny (forced by WW2) led to the "safety net" / British social compact. (And what has become of that compact in the following ~70 years.) This is an insightful, retrospective, important perspective to consider in our modern times of Trump, Brexit, and more societal challenges.

[Judie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Harry - it was a pleasure getting to know you through your writing - you will be missed.
Rest in peace and hopefully your struggle will be carried on through your young readers.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a baby-boomer, and a middle-class one at that, I found this a real eye-opener, and it helped explain the significance of Labour Party/socialism to someone who's always been that way inclined but without realising the extremities of experience that have shaped people's adherence to the politics of the left.

Needs reading by lots of people. I'll be passing my copy on.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really important book with a warning message by the late great Harry Leslie Smith who right up until his death at the end of last year, aged 95, was fighting for Socialism against the corruption of the elites and the Tories who have inflicted austerity on the poor, the vulnerable, and the just-about-managing. In a no holds barred depiction of a brutal and impoverished childhood, before the NHS and the welfare state, Harry warns of the erosion of those things he fought for in WW2 and that were part of the social contract from the war until the end of the 1970s. Harry describes the tragic loss of his sister as a child because his family were living in appalling conditions and couldn't afford medicines or the doctor. He describes the heart breaking break up of his parents due to poverty and his mother moving from one place to another trying to provide for her children in slum conditions. Her work including collecting rent and sleeping with men for financial security. Harry was a survivor and lamented the recent unravelling of democracy giving rise to populism, Trump, Brexit and an anti-refugee sentiments:

"My early experiences traipsing from one town in Yorkshire to the next as my family pursued steady employment make me grimace each time a spokesman from UKIP or the Tories talks about immigrants stealing British jobs all the evils of ‘free’ movement rather than attacking an economic system that benefits are richest corporations but makes people flee their homelands in search of better opportunities. Unless Britain wishes to become a xenophobic as Hungary or as racially biased as the USA, we must stop looking at the victims of neoliberalism and globalisation as the impediment to a prosperous and well rewarded life. In fact the most dangerous threat to people’s wages at the moment is Theresa May’s promise to prioritise concerns people have on immigration over our need to belong to the single market, which means we are headed for a hard Brexit. This is incredibly dangerous to Britain because our nation may find, like in the 1930s, few are willing to buy our goods because of the protectionist economics and nationalist politics of other nations, including the increasingly isolationist United States.

The political discourse Jeremy Corbyn has started in the Labour Party about the benefits of migration is good for this country. Corbyn believes that the real problem Britain faces isn’t migration because newcomers to our country can add to its wealth through the valuable skills many bring here, through the taxes they pay and through the businesses they build. To Corbyn, the real issues that are destroying the prosperity of workers can be laid squarely at the feet of an establishment that encourages wage suppression, contains the rights of trade unions, adopts the use of zero our contract, pays a ‘living wage’ that no one can live on and dismantles many social services that people depend on. Naturally, Corbyn and Labour also understand that migration has affected marginalised communities that were gutted by austerity, which is why they have called for the migrant impact fund suspended by the Tories to be reinstated as it helped vulnerable areas shoulder the burden on services that can arise from an influx of low skill migrants.

I’ve seen the mob call out many times throughout my life that it’s migrants that are ruining Britain. I remember the signs that said ‘No blacks. No Irish. No dogs’ in both good times and bad. But we must remember what my generation learnt in the 1930s: it’s not migration that is eroding the fabric of our civil society but issues like low wages, lack of job protection, insufficient or too expensive housing, lack of opportunity and the state taking too little tax from either the elite or giant corporations.."

An important must-read book for anyone who cares about equality, humanity and our relationship to our European neighbours and beyond.

[Liz Milner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms (Kindle Edition)
by Harry Leslie Smith

A Negative Spin, but it Works!

Any good publicist will tell you that a negative spin is the most difficult spin of all. In this book, which is part autobiography and part political tract, Harry Leslie Smith attempts to sell us on the Welfare State by describing his impoverished childhood in a Northern English slum (Barnsley, Yorkshire) during the Great Depression.

Without the protections of life, health, education and dignity conferred by the Welfare State, Smith and his family lived grim lives of unrelieved squalor. Neglect, abandonment, exploitation, and violence were daily experiences for Smith and his siblings. At the age of seven, Smith began his first job dragging a beer barrow through the slum. Compared to this memoir, Frank McCort’s Angela’s Ashes is a fun-filled romp through a Hibernian Wonderland.

A strange thing happened to me while reading Smith’s narrative. Though I greatly respected Smith for the articles he’d published in The Guardian, I became desperate to believe that he was a dirty, bare-faced liar because the world he depicted was so cruel. His childhood world was one without compassion, without human agency and without hope ― in the words of Charles Wesley, “A world of deepest shade/unpierced by human thought/the dreary regions of the dead/where all things are for naught…”

I’ve always had a backhanded admiration for the Ayn Randian romantics who argued that the “Nanny State” was depriving people of creative opportunities, though I recognized that they usually did this with support from Nanny State institutions such as universities. Smith’s book provided a salutary correction to this. It forced me to realize that doing time in a garret may be fine for booshie romantics such as myself, but it is no place for children, the sick, the old and the vulnerable.

Surveying the rise of austerity, inequality and “alternative truths,” Smith writes, “History, is repeating itself but it is not coming back as farce but retribution for our own irresponsibility at not defending our stake in a just society.”

Though his writing is at times melodramatic, Smith makes his case forcefully and well.

[Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not often I have two books on the go at once — in fact, this was the first time — but something told me I was going to need something 'lighter' to offset Harry Leslie Smith's look back at the rise of fascism in the 1930s.
And I wasn't wrong.
In fact, this was the first book I couldn't read before going to sleep because the life Harry was brought up in was just so soul-crushingly grim.
But I could not leave this book unread. I only had to read about the slums and squalor of Yorkshire, Harry grew up in it.
And that's what makes this book an important one to read now.
As the world edges ever closer to ecological and financial meltdown, it would serve us all well to remember what happened the last time we danced on the edge of the cliff.
The Wall Street Crash, The Great Depression, a government that didn't give a toss about the poor, no NHS, mass unemployment, people surviving (barely) on stolen scraps, borrowed slices of bread and the charity of a driver at the Weetabix factory... but this isn't a tale of Victorian England. No. This is England in the 1930s.
A little short of 90 years ago.
We turned things around back then, sure. The rising tide of fascism was stemmed (with the loss of millions of lives), the NHS and social housing were created (don't believe the lie that this can't be done), and an impressive period of prosperity unfolded.
Sadly, we might not be so lucky this time around.
Harry is looking back at his own life in minute, personal, painful detail, drawing regular parallels with the cruel and unnecessary austerity ideology the Tory government brought in after the financial crisis of 2008.
A man uniquely positioned to see both events from the same vantage point, he can see where cutting government spending ends. And unless you're already rich, it's not anywhere pretty.
At times over-written, at times far too personal, Don't Let My Past is a grim but vital essay on the how a certain political ideology leaves nothing but pain and suffering in its wake.

[Andy Haigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

'I am an ordinary man who lived through extraordinary times. I am one of the last remaining voices from an era when Britain was savage and brutal to all those who did not have wealth'.

Harry Leslie Smith, Don't Let My Past Be Your Future.

Harry Leslie Smith with his latest book, part scathing political polemic, part memoir and part warning, demonstrates that nobody is ever 'too old' to become a writer.

Whilst there might be plenty of books detailing Britain's history, in particular the wretched conditions that the poor and the working class had to endure in the years before the NHS and the welfare state were established, none of them are as affecting, harrowing and moving as Smith's recollections. The drudgery of child labour, rummaging through bins for food, being haunted by the anguished screams of those who couldn't afford morphine for their ailments, having to leave decrepit slums under cover of darkness to avoid landlords wanting money and witnessing the way poverty devastates a family, it's almost Dickensian but all the more impactful because it's not merely a story but real life.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part memoir and part political essay, this 94 year old author, tells of the punishing poverty he grew up in Britain during the 1930's-1940's during the Great Depression; and before the rise of the Labour Party and the introduction of social services and universal health care in 1945. He laments about the dismantling of such services through austerity measures introduced by the British Tory party since Margaret Thatcher's days at the helm and which has continued since. He tells of a crisis of faith in government which has turned it's back on the "working man" and caters to corporations and the wealthy 1%. He warns that when a large part of the population cannot make a living wage, or afford suitable housing and health care, then unrest is sure to follow. Populist demagogues can then emerge giving rise to finger pointing towards convenient rather than real culprits (like immigrants or various faiths). He lived through the rise of Fascism and Nazism and warns that our current times (in Europe and North America) mirror conditions then and that we must pay attention, use our voices of reason and vote to ensure the equality of all our citizens.

[David Swanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an angry book. Of course, that forces the question, is the anger justified, and the answer is yes, it is justified. The problem is that such anger easily overwhelms the message. Mr Smith has certainly lived through hard times and, rightfully, doesn't want others to experience his hardships. It is valuable and admirable that Mr Smith has written this book but the tone of the book will prevent his message being widely heard. Financial inequality is widespread; life is not fair; politicians are, for the most part, rubbish at fulfilling their responsibilities. Unfortunately, this is not the call to action Mr Smith was aiming for but it is quite a rant.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. Doesn't say anything new. Inequality breeds civil unrest, which can lead towards populism and war. He sees austerity measures against the welfare state and the growing animosity that breeds from those economically struggling as necessary ingredients for a repeat of todays populism leading towards more world war.

He sees politics as a constant battle, since the French revolution tackled the ansien regime, between those who have and those who don't. Those in power have the status quo those against have #s and justice. Dont let liberal battle be lost to remake the old and perilously poor times.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing book written by 94 year old Harry Leslie Smith. There is a chilling message in the title. Harry compares much of what is happening today with his childhood in the 20s and 30s - soup kitchens/ food banks, his family's constant struggle to find decent/any housing with the plight of refugees - I can confirm this, as grandmother was told to sell her house when she applied for welfare when my grandad was out of work in the thirties. Hard times which are coming back thanks to Austerity and will be much worse because of Brexit.

[Erick · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the message here is wonderful, the book takes a little too long getting to the meat of comparing what happened before and after World War 2 to what is happening now. The author instead gets a little too caught up with raging on about the modern politicians at first. But once he gets down to the actual comparisons of past and present, his arguments shine and the real substances of this book shines through. It just takes a few chapters to get their.

[Esther O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandparents' and great-grandparents' past .... Almost every word of it, including the near-instinctive racism and xenophobia of so-called middle England. Perhaps my children's future ?
Only one question. Why didn't I read this book sooner ? An enforced gap in a usually overloaded schedule gave me time for the luxury of reading from beginning to end.

[Sarah Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew obviously that there were going to be comparisons between today and the past, that’s the entire premise of the book. I was expecting them to be more suggested through stories and the such rather than the direct comparison he does. Although to it is great and to the point. A lovely and thought provoking book either way!!

[John Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me quite a while to get into this book. Harry's story is one that sucks you in and leaves you wanting to know more about the chapters of his life.

The only down side to the book is the constant barrage of political assertions. It feels like he realty is giving a speech at the Labour party conference.

All in all, a good read... even though it did take me some time to get into it.

[Lindsay Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

He spoke so well to champion all that is good in the nhs at a Labour Party conference that I needed to read this book. A heartfelt & moving account of his life without the social start we take for granted with our healthcare and education. Take heed - fight for it or lose it!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and passionately written. Opening up a very personal and hard past, to examine what we face today. With the one question, what future do you want?

[Dimitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een mustread voor iedereen die ook maar iets of wat persepectief wil krijgen over onze welvaartstaat.

[Zoe Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truely amazing man with a heartfelt message for all to hear

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important, heart rending and necessary.

[James The reading worm McKean · Rating 5 out of 5]

R,I,P