Kenneth Sidney Coates, 1930–2010

Abstract

September 24, 2010 (10:17 pm) C:\Users\Milt\Desktop\backup copy of Ken's G\WPData\TYPE3001\russell 30,1 032 red corrected.wpd 1 It was preceded by thirteen issues of the London Bulletin, which was then incorporated into The Spokesman from its Wrst issue in March 1970. The four Wrst issues of the Bulletin lack information about the editorship, but from the Wfth issue Ken Coates’s name appears as the editor. 2 No. 1 (March 1970): 2. 3 No. 109 (2010): 2. russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies n.s. 30 (summer 2010): 57–62 The Bertrand Russell Research Centre, McMaster U. issn 0036-01631; online 1913-8032 bituary KENNETH SIDNEY COATES, 1930–2010 Stefan Andersson stefankarlandersson@live.com Not all Russell scholars will know who Ken Coates was. Yet for those interested in Russell’s post-Hiroshima–Nagasaki political ideas and the diTerent organizations and protest movements that he initiated, particularly during his last ten years, Ken Coates is a well-known name. He became editor of The Spokesman.1 He also became the chief director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (brpf), and as such he carried on Russell’s major concerns: nuclear disarmament, peace, human rights, and social justice (particularly for the voiceless ). In the 1960s these concerns were manifested in the brpf, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (vsc), and the International War Crimes Tribunal (iwct). The latest issue of The Spokesmanz was prepared by Coates just before he died. A section, “Ken Coatesz—za Tribute”, was added. His assistant editor, Tony Simpson, writes in it: Forty years earlier, in 1970, writing the Editorial Notes for very Wrst issue of The Spokesman ,2 Ken had remarked Russell’s own anticipation of the new journal during what proved to be the last week of his own life: ‘He had wanted the journal desperately in order to be able, the better, to organize support in all the various battles in which he was engaged’. As Ken then said of Russell, so we may now also say of him, The Spokesman is dedicated to carrying on that work.3 Here I will only give an overview of his relationship with Russell and his role in the brpf. For those interested in Coates’s background, political engagements, writings, etc., I refer the reader to the tributes and the many obituaries that have September 24, 2010 (10:17 pm) C:\Users\Milt\Desktop\backup copy of Ken's G\WPData\TYPE3001\russell 30,1 032 red corrected.wpd 58 stefan andersson 4 The second of the following three obituaries has links to several other obituaries of Ken Coates: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/29/ken-coates-obituary http://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/ken-coates-a-euology/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7958792/KennethCoates .html 5 1, no. 22 (18 May 1962): [6]. 6 “A Message to The Weekz”, The Weekz 3 (4 March 1965): 106. [Not in the Bibliography .z—zEd.] been published in the British press.4 Anyway, they have very little information on Coates’s activities in the 1960s, and when they do, it is sometimes wrong. I never met Coates. Now I regret that I didn’t, considering the welcoming attitude he showed me in his responses to my inquiries regarding his part in the brpf, vsc, iwct and later Russell Tribunals. The e-mail correspondence was passed on by Tony Simpson as middle man, but I did receive one “snail mail” from Coates in which he answered a few speciWc questions, to which I will return . Before that I had been blessed with several e-mails. My last was never answered, doubtless due to ill health. The Bertrand Russell Archives have many letters and other documents that are related to Ken Coates. In preparing this obituary I have researched bracers for letters that could shed light on Coates’s Wrst contacts with Russell and how he got involved in the brpf, vsc, and iwct. I haven’t found any letters that reveal exactly when, why and how Coates became one of Russell’s most competent and devoted co-workers, together with Christopher Farley, Ralph Schoenman...