Nina Temple | |
|---|---|
| General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain | |
| In office January 1990 –November 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Gordon McLennan |
| Succeeded by | Post abolished |
| General Secretary of the Young Communist League | |
| In office 1979–1983 | |
| Preceded by | Tom Bell |
| Succeeded by | Douglas Chalmers |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nina Claire Temple 21 April 1956 Westminster,London,England |
| Political party | Communist Party of Great Britain |
| Other political affiliations | Democratic Left |
| Relatives |
|
| Alma mater | Imperial College, London |
Nina Claire Temple (born 21 April 1956) [1] is a British politician who was the last Secretary [2] of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1990 to 1991. A member of the Eurocommunist faction, she previously served as General Secretary of the Young Communist League from 1979 to 1983, where she supported social policies including advocacy for gay rights within the communist movement.
Temple was involved in the dissolution of the CPGB in November 1991 and the founding of its successor organisation, Democratic Left. Following her political career, she worked as a think-tank director, including positions at the New Politics Network and Social Market Foundation. After being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000, she co-founded the choir Sing For Joy for people with chronic degenerative diseases in 2003. She is the sister of film director Julien Temple and aunt of actress Juno Temple.
Temple was born in Westminster, London, the daughter of Barbara J. (Rainnie) and Landon Roy Temple. Born into a communist family (her father ran Progressive Tours and was a Communist Party of Great Britain member), [2] she joined the Young Communist League when she was 13, later protesting in London against the Vietnam War. [3] She has a degree in materials science from Imperial College, London. [3] [4] She is the sister of film director Julien Temple and the aunt of actress Juno Temple. [5]
Temple was supported by YCL General Secretary Tom Bell as his potential successor. [6] During the late 1970s she was general secretary of the Young Communist League and became a prominent member of the Eurocommunist faction within the party. Under her leadership, the YCL embraced progressive social policies, including being the first communist youth organisation to push for recognition of gay rights within the Communist Party, which caused considerable debate within the party in 1976. [7]
Temple's YCL also modernised its cultural approach, with a report to the League's 1979 Congress celebrating that their publication Challenge had "tuned into punk and reggae, unemployment and anti-racism, far ahead of the rest of the left and popular press". [8] However, these changes contributed to the organisation's decline, and within a few years of significant structural and policy changes, the YCL was effectively dissolved in 1989.
She became a member of the CPGB executive in 1979, and then a member of the Political Committee in January 1982. [9]
She was the Press and Publicity Officer of the CPGB from January 1983 until 1989, [10] when she became the last general secretary of the party in January 1990, aged 33. [3] She pledged to make the party "feminist and green, as well as democratically socialist." [11]
In this role Temple became one of the leading proponents of the dissolution of the CPGB in November 1991, and the founding of its legal successor, the Democratic Left, [12] [13] proclaiming that "The internationalism of the 1990s will be as much informed by Greenpeace and Oxfam, as communism once was by Marx and Engels". [14]
The dissolution was controversial within the communist movement. Many members disagreed with the decision to dissolve the CPGB and instead joined the Communist Party of Britain, which had broken away from the CPGB in 1988, while some Scottish members formed the Communist Party of Scotland. [15] Temple supported the transformation of the CPGB into Democratic Left, which was established as a reformist political organisation rather than a traditional political party. [12]
The Democratic Left continued through the 1990s, becoming the New Politics Network in 1999. Temple was its first director [12] and worked for five years for the Make Votes Count Coalition. [16]
In June 2005 she started work as head of development and communications at the Social Market Foundation, a centre-ground think tank that promotes policies combining market mechanisms with social responsibility, [17] a role she held until 2008. [4]
Temple has two children with a schoolteacher, a daughter born in 1987 and a son born in 1988. [3]
Temple comes from a family with connections in both politics and entertainment. She is the sister of film director Julien Temple, known for his work on music documentaries and films including The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and Absolute Beginners , as well as music videos for artists including David Bowie, Whitney Houston, and The Rolling Stones. Through Julien, she is the aunt of actress Juno Temple, who has appeared in films such as Atonement and the television series Ted Lasso . Juno Temple's mother is film producer Amanda Pirie. [18]
Temple was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000 at age 44. [4] She trained in counselling at the Gestalt Centre in Old Street. [4]
In September 2003, Temple co-founded Sing For Joy, a choir specifically for people with chronic degenerative diseases, working alongside fellow Parkinson's sufferer Anne Hutchinson. [4] [19] The pair placed notices in doctor's surgeries inviting others to join them and advertised for a singing teacher. With funding from the Parkinson's Disease Society, the choir became a successful weekly ensemble that progressed to public performances.
Led by acclaimed jazz performer Carol Grimes, the choir's repertoire ranges from Cole Porter classics to ethnic punk. The group has performed at various venues, from fundraising cabarets at the TUC's Congress House to singing in Westminster Cathedral at the Parkinson's Disease Society Christmas Concert. [20] [21] The demand for places in the choir was such that a second choir was established in Bloomsbury in 2009. The choirs provide both therapeutic benefits and social support for people with Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions.