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Stan Hemsley - Tributes to a Truly Great Man
Stan Hemsley died, aged 88, of a massive heart attack in a Christchurch rest home on May 2, 2007 His funeral will be held at: The John Rhind Chapel at 1.00 P.M. Monday May 7, 2007 19 London Street, which runs off Stanmore Rd. Christchurch The Burial will be in Lyttleton after the service More details in The Press, Obituaries, May 3
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Stan was a dedicated member of the executive and tireless worker for the New Zealand Nuclear Free Peacemaking Association from our foundation in 1981. He helped our national 3-part campaign started in 1981 to have the government declare New Zealand a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. Although his family was desperately poor - Stan often had no shoes and left school at age 12 - he continued to educate himself. Stan was an original one-off individualist who researched and came to his own conclusions. He could turn his hand to anything - from almost any trade to planning to personally build his own house. He wrote brilliant 'Letters-to- the editor' of the Christchurch Star and Press on peace and many other subjects. He designed and made peace banners for our various marches and demonstrations. He could always see the big picture - that mankind was capable of triggering his own global suicide and often came close to doing just that. That realization kept Stan working for peace and nuclear disarmament all his life. Almost every week during the 1980's, he operated a Nuclear Free NZ peace stall in Christchurch Square, often on his own, but usually with others. They gave away and sold literature, badges, stickers, T-shirts and posters and publicised the cause. He loved people and getting involved discussing the issues of the day. In 1982, he constructed a huge dummy of a nuclear missile out of a steel drum, welded the front cone and tail fins then painted it red for danger. He wanted to dramatise the terrible dangers of the international nuclear missile race. He would drive around Christchurch with the missile and an informative sign on a trailer. Then put it on display at peace events to demonstrate man's perilous and fragile existence. Stan was a unique mixture of hands-on practicality and insights into the multiple environmental, war and nuclear threats to humanity. He was a great human being, and a kind man who will always be fondly remembered. Larry Ross, Founder/Organizer, NZ Nuclear Free New Zealand
For details of wars, 'false flags' and NZ nuclear-free and related issues of interest to Stan, see http://www.nuclearfree.org.nz Phone 03-337-0118, P.O. Box 18541, Christchurch
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The following is an essay on Stan and his activities by Murray Horton of the Anti-Bases Campaign and Campaign Against Foreign Control of New Zealand
Stan was a very active member of so many organisations, including CAFCA and ABC. He was a regular attendee at the Waihopai spybase protests, until quite recent years, being one of the oldest participants. In the 90s he was involved in CAFCA campaigns, such as that opposing the sale of TrustBank to Westpac, and was a regular activist in the Campaign for People's Sovereignty, which fought the former Southpower on issues of prices and ownership (among other things), and the Society for Publicly Owned Telecommunications (SPOT) which campaigned against Telecom's many abuses. Long before he crossed our path Stan was a prominent grassroots environmental campaigner, particularly on issues like saving native forests from logging. I first met him when he transported a group of us (in his bloody uncomfortable little van) to a Save Aramoana Campaign activity in Dunedin , in 1980. He was into everything in the peace movement and for years he manned a stall in the Square once a week to campaign for a nuclear free NZ, a victory of which he was justifiably proud. For decades he was a stalwart of the Labour Party but he found that membership harder and harder to justify in the 80s, what with Rogernomics ripping the guts out of the working class and then that same Government signing NZ up to the Anzac frigates (another one of his big campaigns). He became very disillusioned with Labour. Stan was a Lytteltonian born and bred, living and working his whole life there, spending years working at sea (on fishing boats) and at the port itself. Once he retired he devoted himself fulltime to activism. If there was a public meeting, march, picket, stall or petition on any one of a broad range of issues, you'd find Stan in the thick of it. He was an enormous asset to the progressive movement for many, many years. Murray Horton CAFCA & ABC Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa Anti-Bases Campaign Box 2258 , Christchurch , New Zealand
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