Peter Tatchell

The selection was something of a surprise, as Arthur Latham (defeated in 1979 at Paddington by 106 votes, and former Chairman of the Tribune Group) was expected to be selected (Tatchell defeated him by 37 to 30). Later the Militant tendency were cited as the reason for Tatchell's selection, but as Tatchell pointed out in his book The Battle for Bermondsey, they had at that time only a handful of members in the constituency, Tatchell had never been a member and Militant did not support his selection. Tatchell ascribed his selection as Labour candidate as due to the support of the "older, 'born and bred' working class; the younger professional and intellectual members swung behind Latham".

Tatchell had written an article for the left-wing magazine London Labour Briefing in which he urged the Labour Party to support innovative direct action political campaigning to challenge the excesses of the Thatcher regime. The article came to the attention of James Wellbeloved, a former Labour MP who had joined the Social Democratic Party. Wellbeloved, arguing it was anti-Parliamentary, used it at Prime Minister's Question Time in December 1981 to embarrass Labour leader Michael Foot. Unexpectedly, Foot denounced Tatchell, stating that he would not be endorsed as a candidate. Foot narrowly won a vote at the Labour Party National Executive Committee to refuse endorsement to Tatchell. However, the Bermondsey Labour Party continued strongly to support him, and Tatchell worked on convincing Foot that his article was in the tradition of the Chartists and the Suffragettes, and had been misinterpreted by Labour's political opponents. Read Less

At this point, Tatchell researched the Gukurahundi attacks in Matabeleland in the 1980s when Mugabe had sent the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwe army against supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. He became convinced that Mugabe had broken international human rights law during the attack, which is estimated to have involved the massacre of around 20,000 civilians. Then in 1999, two opposition journalists (Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto) were tortured by the Zimbabwe Army. The arrest in London of Augusto Pinochet seemed to him a precedent that human rights violations could be pursued against a head of state, thanks to the principle of universal jurisdiction. Read Less

Tatchell is also an active supporter of animal rights campaigns, saying "human rights and animal rights are two aspects of the same struggle against injustice". He is a patron of the Captive Animals Protection Society, a charity campaigning for an end to the use of animals in circuses, zoos and exotic pet trade. He is also a patron of Animal Aid and works with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Read Less

Tatchell concluded his article with the question...

This article received the largest number of comments, over 1,500, to any Guardian article, according to This is Cornwall. While some of the comments were supportive, Tatchell found himself "shocked and disgusted" by the anti-Cornish sentiment shown by many people.

Tatchell has written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines related to his various campaigns, and to highlight prejudice where ever he has seen it. He was highly critical of the media coverage of the Admiral Duncan pub bombing, claiming print and TV new outlets focused almost solely on the one straight victim, rather than the two other deaths and the dozens of maimed patrons.

In 2006, New Statesman readers voted him sixth on their list of "Heroes of our time". Read Less