Speaking for socialism

Tony Turner 1946

The Socialist Party has produced numerous "soap-box" orators and Tony Turner, whose sharp repertoire was an inspiration, with his deep rasping voice and thunderous delivery,  was perhaps in the opinion of some the most remarkable of all. He would silence any would-be hecklers with wit. When, during the war, a soldier took exception to some of his remarks and shouted at him "I’m fighting for the likes of you!" Tony replied calmly "I give you my full permission to stop fighting for me this instant!" 
Tony Turner when confronted with a heckler demanding to know what he did for a living. “A brain surgeon”, came his reply. “And now I am going to begin to work on your brain.”

Perhaps Tony's most memorable performance was in Hyde Park on 3 September 1939, the day of the outbreak of World War II. Throughout the morning and afternoon big crowds stood listening, moving on and swelling round fewer platforms as one speaker after another closed down.

The anarchist writer Albert Meltzer described the occasion:
"Hyde Park was then still a serious political forum though it had its comic turns, but these gave way to the passionate speakers that day. As what they were saying was "Stop the war" the crowds listened intently. The best speaker of all was Tony Turner of the then oratorically active though tiny Socialist Party of Great Britain who spoke for some ten hours, long after night fell, ignoring closing time. He outspoke everyone that day, and in true SPGB style gave a history and analysis of capitalist economics"

Robert Barltrop in his history of the SPGB quotes a graphic account of Tony's performance published in the Clubman in 1955:
"A plague on both your houses" growled Turner in his husky bass. He mocked his silent audience. '"Men and women, what business is it of yours if the German bosses
 oust Nuffield and Imperial Chemicals? What does it matter to you what landlord charges you rent?" He was taking it easy, welcoming interruptions to rest his voice. The Labour Party platform yielded and closed late in the afternoon, by which time the audience was near four thousand; the vast crowd moved on to the two remaining platforms. And then a strange feeling came over that audience. The two remaining platforms were vying with each other for the last word; the Communist Party
speaker was willy-nilly the last remaining advocate of the war against Germany. By nightfall the Communist speaker's voice was a whisper, a shadow; it cracked and
fell silent. The whole of the audience surged across to the opposite platform, the platform of the SPGB. An audience of ten thousand stretching as far as the eye could
see, silent and solemn, the soldiers and sailors and airmen of tomorrow, the wives and mothers of departed men, listening with the deepest attention, the most complete
respect, and on the day of the declaration of war, to a pacifist speaker. Like a sprinter who has been saving just that extra burst of speed for the last lap, Turner thundered out his denunciations in a climaxing bout of orator during which he called them every kind of imbecile and willing dupe. Then the meeting was closed. A burst of applause greeted his closing remarks, and in silence the great army streamed out of the Park homewards." .