- Konni Zilliacus
Konni Zilliacus (
13 September 1894 –6 July 1967 ) was a left-wing Labour Partypolitician in theUnited Kingdom .Zilliacus was born on
13 September 1894 inJapan , where his parents,Finland-Swedish Konrad Viktor (Konni) Zilliacus (1855–1924), a prominent activist for a Finland independent ofRussia , and American-born Lilian McLaurin Grafe (1873–1938), were living in exile.He travelled the world with his parents until settling at
Bedales School inHampshire in 1909, where he became friends withJosiah Clement Wedgwood 's sons. He continued his studies atYale University before enlisting duringWorld War I .Soon invalided out of the medical corps, Zilliacus joined the
Union of Democratic Control and worked for the Liberal Party MPs Noel Buxton andNorman Angell . He travelled with Wedgwood toRussia , where he developed a sympathy for theOctober Revolution , and leaked details of Britain'scounter-revolutionary activities to the press. He then joined the Labour Party and began working for theLeague of Nations , of which he became a powerful advocate, working on Labour's foreign policy. He also wrote on international affairs under the pseudonym "Vigilantes". After the Nazi invasion ofCzechoslovakia , he resigned from the secretariat of the League of Nations in protest.In
World War II , Zilliacus worked for theMinistry of Information and joined the1941 Committee . He was elected as MP for Gateshead in 1945 and became known as aleft wing critic of government policy. In 1949, he voted against joiningNATO and was expelled from the party, becoming a founder member of theLabour Independent Group , but he left the group later in the year when it supportedStalin overTito . He stood as a Labour Independent candidate in the1950 UK general election , but lost his seat. In 1952, he was readmitted to the Labour Party, and he took Manchester Gorton in the1955 UK general election . He became a founder member of theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament and in 1961 was suspended from the party for several months for writing an article for a Czech magazine. He held the seat until his death, on6 July 1967 .References
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUzilliacus.htm Spartacus on Konni Zilliacus]
*Rayment
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