Tony Benn (1925-2014) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn ) was President of Stop the War from 2003 to the day he died on 14 March 2014.
This is what Stop the War said on the occasion of Tony Benn’s death on 14 March 2014: “Like you all we are deeply saddened by the death of Tony Benn, who was president of Stop the War from 2003 until the day he died on 14 March 2014.
Tony travelled round the country speaking at meetings large and small, always to a delighted reception. He opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was right there last year when we campaigned successfully against war on Syria.
He fought the BBC when it refused to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Fund appeal for Gaza during the Cast Lead bombing by Israel in 2009.
Everywhere you went with Tony, people came up and spoke to him. Doormen, taxi drivers, shopkeepers and people in the street wanted to shake his hand. He was loved by millions for his straightforward talking and for his opinions, which chimed more with theirs than mainstream politicians.
We will miss Tony profoundly but we are determined to continue fighting for the cause of peace which was so important to him.
Read our obituary in full here
We will publicise details of events to commemorate Tony as soon as we have them.”
Tony Benn attacking Israeli influence over the BBC in interview with the BBC in which he managed to give details of where to send money for Gaza where 1400 Palestinians had been killed and 5,000 injured by the Israeli attacks in its genocidal Operation Cast Lead (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War ) (the BBC interviewer bleated about money getting into the hands of Hamas, but as Benn observed Hamas was the democratically elected government) : “ I love the BBC, I support it, but it has capitulated to Israeli pressure” [1].
[1]. “When Tony Benn took on the BBC over Gaza”, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJqPvblDC4s .