Editing Harold Pinter (section)

== Civic activities and political activism ==
{{Main|Harold Pinter and politics}}
In 1948–49, when he was 18, Pinter opposed the politics of the [[Cold War]], leading to his decision to become a [[conscientious objector]] and to refuse to comply with [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|National Service]] in the British military. However, he told interviewers that, if he had been old enough at the time, he would have fought against the [[Nazism|Nazis]] in [[World War II]].<ref>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 21–24, 92, and 286.</ref>  He seemed to express ambivalence, both indifference and hostility, towards political structures and politicians in his Fall 1966 ''[[The Paris Review|Paris Review]]'' interview conducted by [[Larry Bensky|Lawrence M. Bensky]].<ref name=Bensky>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4351/the-art-of-theater-no-3-harold-pinter |title=The Art of Theater No. 3, Harold Pinter |first=Lawrence M. |last=Bensky |magazine=Paris Review |publisher=Paris Review Foundation |year=1966 |volume=Fall 1966 |issue=39 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-date=1 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101223541/http://www.theparisreview.org/media/4351_PINTER.pdf |format=PDF}}</ref>  Yet, he had been an early member of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] and also had supported the British [[Anti-Apartheid Movement]] (1959–1994), participating in British artists' refusal to permit professional productions of their work in South Africa in 1963 and in subsequent related campaigns.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at42.htm |title=Letter from the President: Hail the Nobel Laureates – Apostles of Human Curiosity! |journal=ANC Today |publisher=[[African National Congress]] |volume=5 |issue=42 |date=21 October 2005 |last=Mbeki |first=Thabo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622112823/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at42.htm |archive-date=22 June 2008 |access-date=26 June 2011 |oclc=212406525}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=43 |work=ANC Today |publisher=[[African National Congress]] |title=Free Mandela: An Account of the Campaign to Free Nelson Mandela and All Other Political Prisoners in South Africa |first=E.S. |last=Reddy |date=July 1988 |access-date=26 June 2011 |oclc=212406525 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015215838/http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=43 |archive-date=15 October 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=politics>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 286–305 (chap. 15: "Public Affairs"), 400–03, and 433–41; and Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 171–209 (chap. 8: "Cultural Politics", espec. "Pinter and Politics").</ref>  In "A Play and Its Politics", a 1985 interview with Nicholas Hern, Pinter described his earlier plays retrospectively from the perspective of the politics of power and the dynamics of oppression.<ref name=MerrittPandP>Merritt, "Pinter and Politics," ''Pinter in Play'' 171–89.</ref>

In his last 25 years, Pinter increasingly focused his essays, interviews and public appearances directly on political issues.  He was an officer in [[International PEN]], travelling with American playwright [[Arthur Miller]] to [[Turkey]] in 1985 on a mission co-sponsored with a [[Helsinki Watch]] committee to investigate and protest against the torture of imprisoned writers.  There he met victims of political oppression and their families. Pinter's experiences in Turkey and his knowledge of the Turkish suppression of the [[Kurdish language]] inspired his 1988 play ''[[Mountain Language]].''<ref name=BillingtonGussow>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 309–10; and Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 67–68.</ref>  He was also an active member of the [[Cuba Solidarity Campaign]], an organisation that "campaigns in the UK against the US blockade of [[Cuba]]".<ref name=CubaSolidarityCampaign>{{cite web |url=http://www.cuba-solidarity.org/aims.asp |title=Cuba Solidarity Campaign – Our Aims |work=cuba-solidarity.org |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718215408/http://www.cuba-solidarity.org/aims.asp |archive-date=18 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>  In 2001, Pinter joined the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milošević (ICDSM), which appealed for a fair trial and for the freedom of [[Slobodan Milošević]], signing a related "Artists' Appeal for Milošević" in 2004.<ref name=timesobit>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5398006.ece |title=Harold Pinter: An impassioned artist who lost direction on the political stage |first=Oliver |last=Kamm |work=[[TimesOnline]] |date=26 December 2008 |publisher=[[News International]] |location=London |issn=0140-0460 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20100417023241/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5398006.ece |archive-date=17 April 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pinter strongly opposed the 1991 [[Gulf War]], the 1999 [[NATO]] bombing campaign in [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|FR Yugoslavia]] during the [[Kosovo War]], the United States' 2001 [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|War in Afghanistan]], and the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|2003 Invasion of Iraq]].  Among his provocative political statements, Pinter called Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] a "deluded idiot" and compared the administration of President [[George W. Bush]] to [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name=timesobit/><ref name=ChrisafisandTilden>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/11/books.arts |title=Pinter blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair |first1=Angelique |last1=Chrisafis |first2=Imogen |last2=Tilden |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=11 June 2003 |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group|GMG]] |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |oclc=60623878 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517075730/http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jun/11/books.arts |archive-date=17 May 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>  He stated that the United States "was charging towards world domination while the American public and Britain's '[[mass-murder]]ing' prime minister sat back and watched."<ref name=ChrisafisandTilden /> He was very active in the [[Peace movement|antiwar movement]] in the United Kingdom, speaking at rallies held by the [[Stop the War Coalition]]<ref name=Turinspeech>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3585148/The-American-administration-is-a-bloodthirsty-wild-animal.html |title=The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal |first=Harold |last=Pinter |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=11 December 2002 |location=London |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629120116/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3585148/The-American-administration-is-a-bloodthirsty-wild-animal.html |archive-date=29 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and frequently criticising American aggression, as when he asked rhetorically, in his acceptance speech for the [[Wilfred Owen]] Award for Poetry on 18 March 2007: "What would Wilfred Owen make of the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|invasion of Iraq]]? A bandit act, an act of blatant [[state terrorism]], demonstrating absolute contempt for the conception of [[international law]]."<ref>Pinter, ''Various Voices'' 267.</ref><ref>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 428.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://articles.cnn.com/2006-03-16/entertainment/pinter.europe_1_theater-harold-pinter-prize-ceremony |title=Harold Pinter: Theater's angry old man |first=Porter |last=Anderson |work=CNN |publisher=Turner Broadcasting System |date=17 March 2006 |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016132831/http://articles.cnn.com/2006-03-16/entertainment/pinter.europe_1_theater-harold-pinter-prize-ceremony?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ |archive-date=16 October 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pinter earned a reputation for being pugnacious, enigmatic, taciturn, terse, prickly, explosive and forbidding.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Harold Pinter's poetry: The known and the unknown |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |location=London |publisher=[[The Financial Times]] |date=20 August 2011 |volume=400 |issue=8747}}</ref> Pinter's blunt political statements, and the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature, elicited strong criticism and even, at times, provoked ridicule and personal attacks.<ref name="HariPryce-Jones">See, e.g., {{cite web |url=http://www.johannhari.com/2005/12/05/harold-pinter-does-not-deserve-the-nobel-prize |title=Harold Pinter does not deserve the Nobel Prize : Johann Hari |first=Johann |last=Hari |work=johannhari.com |date=5 December 2005 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5zu9LmhTL?url=http://www.johannhari.com/2005/12/05/harold-pinter-does-not-deserve-the-nobel-prize |archive-date=3 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}; {{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112950379731670200#articleTabs%3Darticle |title=The Sinister Mediocrity of Harold Pinter - WSJ.com |first=Christopher |last=Hitchens |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |url-access=subscription |date=17 October 2005 |publisher=[[Dow Jones & Company|Dow Jones]] |location=New York City |issn=0099-9660 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5zu9P9hXJ?url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112950379731670200.html |archive-date=3 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}; and
{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/215795/harold-pinters-special-triteness/david-pryce-jones |title=Harold Pinter's Special Triteness |first=David |last=Pryce-Jones |work=National Review Online |url-access=subscription |date=28 October 2005 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5zu9UAqOB?url=http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/215795/harold-pinters-special-triteness/david-pryce-jones |archive-date=3 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>  The historian [[Geoffrey Alderman]], author of the official history of Hackney Downs School, expressed his own "Jewish View" of Harold Pinter: "Whatever his merit as a writer, actor and director, on an ethical plane Harold Pinter seems to me to have been intensely flawed, and his moral compass deeply fractured."<ref name=Alderman>{{cite web |url=http://www.currentviewpoint.com/cgibin/news.cgi?id=11&command=shownews&newsid=1075 |title=Harold Pinter – A Jewish View |first=Geoffrey |last=Alderman |work=currentviewpoint.com |year=2011 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708213833/http://www.currentviewpoint.com/cgibin/news.cgi?id=11&command=shownews&newsid=1075 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[David Edgar (playwright)|David Edgar]], writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'', defended Pinter against what he termed Pinter's "being berated by the belligerati" like [[Johann Hari]], who felt that he did not "deserve" to win the Nobel Prize.<ref name=Edgard>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/dec/29/harold-pinter-politics |title=Pinter's early politics |first=David |last=Edgar |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=29 December 2008 |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group|GMG]] |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |oclc=60623878 |access-date=26 June 2011 |quote=The idea that he was a dissenting figure only in later life ignores the politics of his early work. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110122749/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/29/harold-pinter-politics |archive-date=10 November 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=PinterColossal>See also the comments of [[Václav Havel]] and others, excerpted in "A Colossal Figure", which accompanies a reprinting of Pinter's essay {{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/pinter-torture-and-misery-in-name-of-freedom-510906.html |title=Pinter: Torture and misery in name of freedom – World Politics, World – The Independent |first=Harold |last=Pinter |work=[[The Independent]] |date=14 October 2005 |publisher=[[Independent News & Media|INM]] |location=London |issn=0951-9467 |oclc=185201487 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216021411/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/pinter-torture-and-misery-in-name-of-freedom-510906.html |archive-date=16 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}, adapted from Pinter's "Acceptance Speech" for the 2005 [[Wilfred Owen]] Award for Poetry published in Pinter, ''Various Voices'' 267–68.</ref>  Later Pinter continued to campaign against the Iraq War and on behalf of other political causes that he supported.

Pinter signed the mission statement of [[Jews for Justice for Palestinians]] in 2005 and its full-page advertisement, "What Is Israel Doing? A Call by Jews in Britain", published in ''[[The Times]]'' on 6 July 2006,<ref name=Alderman/> and he was a patron of the [[Palestine Festival of Literature]]. In April 2008, Pinter signed the statement "We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary". The statement noted: "We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land.", "We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East"<ref>{{cite web |title=Letters: We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/30/israelandthepalestinians |website=The Guardian |date=30 April 2008}}</ref>