A MUCH-loved political activist from Rugby has died.
Liz Peck passed away on Wednesday July 16 at University Hospital Coventry.
Liz was active in local politics as a member of groups including Rugby Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the Stop The War Coalition, and Rugby Against Racism and Fascism.
She is remembered by former TUSC colleague Pete McLaren, who writes:
Liz Peck was well known in Rugby and Warwickshire as a tireless campaigner on behalf of the poor and oppressed; she fought vigorously against war and was an advocate for peace.
Liz arrived in Rugby in the early 1980s where she remained for the rest of her life. She soon became active in local politics, joining a number of progressive, ecological and socialist organisations and campaigns.
I first met Liz when Rugby Stop The War Coalition (STWC) was set up in 2002. Liz vehemently opposed Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and was amongst the Rugby contingent of around 100 who joined one and a half million others in London to oppose the war, the largest ever political demonstration in British history. We managed to lose Liz in London as she wandered off to talk to long lost friends she bumped into, something that was repeated many times on future protests!
Liz remained an active member of Rugby STWC, writing articles for its regular newsletters and helping to distribute them. She was present when we sent a delegation to lobby then Labour MP Andy King on his support for the invasion, and she was furious when he defended it.
She joined Rugby Against Racism and Fascism in 2008. Liz was a leading member, helping to deliver leaflets to every household outlining the BNP’s attempts to stir up racial hatred in Rugby.
When austerity began to bite in the 2000s, Liz was a founder member of Rugby Against the Cuts and played an active role in challenging local councils’ implementation of public spending cuts. She attended regional and national meetings on our behalf, including the Peoples’ Assembly held in London in 2013.
Liz was a fervent supporter of Rugby TUSC and was at the forefront of every campaign and every election we contested. When we began leafleting and talking to residents about Universal Credit on a regular basis outside Rugby Job Centre, Liz was always there and usually had something to say to anyone who dared not to take a leaflet, let alone join her in discussion!
Liz was a one-off, a life force. Her friends were ‘little bunnies’; those she didn’t like she was much less complimentary about! There was no halfway.
She will be sadly missed, not just by her adoring family and extraordinary number of friends, but also by the others whose lives she touched. I can’t believe she has gone.
