Pete Postlethwaite RIP

Jayaben Desai RIP

"What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips, others are lions who can bite your head off. We are the lions, Mr. Manager."
Jayaben Desai, to her boss, at the start of the Grunwick dispute in 1976.

"When they talked of the power of the trade union movement I listened but I didn't really believe. Now I see that power."
Jayaben Besai, when thousands of workers from other industries joined the Grunwick mass pickets.

Mrs Desai was one of the highest-profile and most articulate of the strikers, who proved that workers' struggle takes place not just in its traditional bastions, that Asian women workers can fight the bosses as tenaciously as anyone.

Her example has inspired many women (and men) in the 30+ years since.

Mrs Desai died last week. Her death is a very sad loss.

One Last Post About Uncle Albert

Click here to read the obituary I wrote for Solidarity.

And you can read some great comments from Labour left MPs here. Thanks to Mary for this.

Albert Booth's funeral

Albert's funeral took place yesterday.

Jim Mortimer, former Labour Party General Secretary, spoke of how he had first met Albert sixty years ago, when he was a young delegate to the annual conference of the engineering draughtsmen's union (now part of Unite), and of the legislative progress Albert had delivered when a minister of state, sadly repealed later by Thatcher and never restored by New Labour.

My dad gave a terrific speech thanking various people and telling some tales of events that shaped young Albert's politics and made him the socialist that he was.

My cousin Ian added some more, including Albert's choosing to fight a marginal rather than accept a safe seat in 1987, and his refusal of a seat in the House of Lords on the grounds that he would not accept any seat to which he had not been elected. My sister-in-law Anne and cousin Graeme added some more poignant and moving points. And stalwarts of Beckenham Methodist Church added their tributes too.

All in all, a pretty good send-off. I'll leave you with a letter from today's Guardian:

The death of Albert Booth (Obituary, 11 February) reminds us that he was one of the few Labour ex-ministers to refuse a peerage on socialist principles, which he shared with his mentor Michael Foot. He was also an active trade unionist in the old AUEW, worked as a marine engineer, served as a local councillor for many years and was never parachuted into a safe seat. He was one of the best representatives of old Labour sadly missing from the party today.
Tony Judge
Twickenham, Middlesex

Albert Booth: tributes

Click here for a report on Albert's death from the local newspaper for the area in which he was an MP.

Guardian obituary here.

The Mirror tells of Albert being repeatedly sacked for unionising his workplace here.

Tam Dalyell calls Albert the most principled politician he knew, in the Independent, here.

The Daily Telegraph evidently doesn't like him much, but then you wouldn't want it to, would you? It also doesn't bother much with accuracy when it comes to certain facts.

Click here for an Early Day Motion mourning Albert's death. Thanks to John McDonnell and Mary Partington for this.

There will be a service of thanksgiving for Albert's life, at which former Labour Party General Secretary Jim Mortimer will deliver a eulogy on behalf of the labour and trade union movement, and to which all Albert's many friends and comrades are welcome:
Monday 15 February, 11am
Beckenham Methodist Church
Bromley Road
Beckenham
(a short walk from Beckenham Junction station)

The photo was taken at my book launch last year, and shows Albert with my dad David and the vicar from George Lansbury's church.

Albert Booth RIP

My uncle, the former Labour MP Albert Booth, died from cancer in the early hours of this morning, peacefully in his sleep, at the age of 81.

He lived and died a socialist and trade unionist. Old Labour. And a really nice bloke.

One of his finest hours was the introduction of legal rights for health and safety representatives, a guide to which I have posted here.

I might post some photos or more thoughts later, but I'm a bit too sad right now.

Oliver Postgate RIP

This morning I heard the sad news that yesterday, Oliver Postgate died aged 83. Oliver was the creator of much-loved kids' TV from the era when I first watched it - ie. when I was a kid - including Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, The Clangers, Bagpuss, and my personal favourite Pogles' Wood (pictured). His son Daniel is a children's author, and wrote my youngest son Harrison's current favourite book, Smelly Bill.

Amongst the many tributes that will be blogged this morning, may I be the first 1920s labour history nerd to point out that Oliver was the son of Raymond Postgate and Daisy Lansbury, both lifelong, active socialists, and therefore the grandson of George Lansbury. Which, of course, makes him the cousin of Angela Lansbury; he was born in the same year as her too. And the nephew of my personal hero Minnie Lansbury, although she died before Oliver was born. And, like all GL's descendants, quite possibly also the descendant of a Tolpuddle Martyr. George's wife, Bessie Brine, was probably - although it has never been proved for sure - the granddaughter of Tolpuddle's James Brine.

So I think we can assume that Ivor the Engine had a sup at the South Wales NUR club after finishing a good day's chuffing.

A friend and comrade has died

Today in Edinburgh up Corstorphine Hill at a woodland funeral , Kenny Skeel was laid to rest. On Sunday last week in Edinburgh we lost a friend, neighbour and activist. He was one of my neighbours in the Canongate where we are campaigning against developers Mountgrange. Kenny was an artist and an artisan - he painted beautiful pictures and murals for a living but as an activist he was always painting banners, attending campaign awareness raising events and so on. He even completed a painting he was doing for the Save Our Old Town campaign while he was in hospital in the last few days of his spectacular life. He was one of the founders and stalwarts of the historic vigil for a Scottish Parliament that set up camp on Calton Hill for five years between 1992 and 1997. This helped paved the way for the creation of a Scottish Parliament, keeping the issue in the forefront of Scots' minds 365 days a year. He was a gem, a real human being, the greatest story teller I have ever known. The poster you can see is one of Kenny Skeel's pieces of art work - a poste r he did for the Declaration of Calton Hill in October 2004.

This notice appeared in the Herald last week. My thoughts are with his partner Nell.

SKEEL — KEN. Peacefully, at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, on Sunday, 18th May, 2008, Ken Skeel, aged 61, brilliant artist, dancer, story teller and passionate campaigner for Truth and Justice in the world. Dearly loved and loving partner of Nell, uncle of Gale, friend and great inspiration to many. Funeral at Corstorphine Hill Cemetery, Edinburgh, on Monday, 26th May, at 2.30pm, to which all friends are respectfully invited. Donations in lieu of flowers to ‘SOOT’ (Save Our Old Town), at http://www.eh8.org.uk/ or Plant a Tree.

Kenny travelled the world, he especially loved Afghanistan and India. He was a fighter against injustice, the war, for better communities and for Scotland's right to self determination.

“This is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent on the leaves. By leaves we live. Some people have strange ideas that they live by money. They think energy is generated by the circulation of coins. Whereas the world is mainly a vast leaf colony, growing on and forming a leafy soil, not a mere mineral mass: and we live not by the jingling of our coins, but by the fullness of our harvests.” - Patrick Geddes

Greg Tucker RIP

I’m not good at obituaries, because I’m not really good with death. But I can’t let today end without marking the passing of Greg Tucker, who died this morning at the end of his battle with throat cancer. My union, and the lefty blogosphere, will be sad today, and some have already commented. Why? Because Greg was a lifelong socialist, one who realised that socialists have to be on the battlefield with workers, and because he was a nice bloke, very easy to get along with.

I can not try to present an overview of Greg’s life as a socialist, so I’ll just mention a few things that I will always remember Greg for:

• His energetic and thoughtful contribution to solidarity with the national signallers’ strike in the 1990s.
  
• The RMT General Secretary election in 1999, when Greg stepped into the frame when the rank-and-file needed him to champion our interests. Here’s how we described it in Workers’ Liberty’s pamphlet about Tube privatisation, Tunnel Vision:
  In Spring 1999, Jimmy Knapp was up for re-election. This was RMT members' chance to vote out the General Secretary who had led us to defeat over British Rail privatisation, and to elect one who would not allow slavish loyalty to the Labour Party leadership to hold back our fight against PPP.
  Cometh the hour, cometh Bob Crow? No. Although we needed a more militant, left-wing leadership there and then, Crow preferred to wait until Knapp's retirement, when he could be more confident of winning.
  Greg Tucker stepped in as the candidate for members who wanted a fighting, political union. The press campaigned fiercely for Knapp, largely on the basis of 'red-scare' articles about his opponent. Knapp himself joined in, stating in his election address that "My opponent is supported by extreme left-wing parties and splinter groups."
  Knapp was re-elected.
  But hey, Greg got about a third of the vote.
  
• Greg was a train driver at South West Trains. In a grade dominated by the sectionalist, drivers-only union ASLEF, Greg stuck with the principle of all-grades industrial trade unionism and with the RMT. He was Secretary of RMT’s Train Crew Conference for several years, always championing rank-and-file drivers even when that rubbed him up against his own union’s bureaucracy. One example: Back in the days of Jimmy Knapp, Greg set up a website for RMT train crew - the union shut it down! (It doesn’t do that any more.)
  
• South West Trains sacked Greg after catching him in a ‘nobody-believes-that-was-random’ speed trap on the day he returned to work after taking extended leave to stand in an election. When it comes to anti-victimisation campaigns, we win some and we lose some. There are several factors that decide, one of which is the respect which the workforce has for the workmate who has been sacked. Greg won.
  
• He came to speak at my ward Labour Party once, in Dalston, when we were both in the Labour Party. And Greg and I stood as Socialist Alliance candidates together, after we’d both come to the conclusion that some struggles have to be pursued outside the Labour Party. I thought I’d mention those things, as they weren’t directly to do with the RMT. Being socialists and trade unionists are more fundamental things to have in common than working in the same industry or being in the same union.

What was that about how the good die young?

Paul Fox, Ruts Guitarist, RIP

I normally make it a rule not to post YouTube stuff too often, but having just heard of the sad death of guitarist Paul Fox, I have to post my favourite song by one of my favourite bands, 'Staring At The Rude Boys' by The Ruts ...