Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Why?

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/A-Garland-for-May-Day-1895-Posters_i1864412_.htm

This link takes you to Walter Crane's "Garland for the Workers" which expresses some of the hopes which I think our movement was created to keep alive.

In the next few days and weeks I shall seek re-election as a UNISON Branch Secretary, and in the next few weeks and months I shall seek re-election to our National Executive.

It all begs the question.

"Why?"

Why would anyone give their time, their life, their career in this way?

That's easy to answer. 

It is a great honour to be a trade union representative - and our movement is humanity's only hope that our future may be better than our past.
After a generation in which the tide of reaction has risen to engulf us, now - more than ever - is the time for us to stand firm.

Like any good union rep, I know that I should say that I do all this for our members - but like any honest parent, I know that the truth is that I do all this for my children.

I did not grow up expecting to live in an England in which "pound shop Enoch Powells" and their Poujadiste hangers-on won support. My parents' generation bequeathed a better world to their children - but we seem to be offering something worse to those who will come after us.

‎So I think it's fairly obvious why anyone, given the chance, might try to do their best for the trade union movement - in the (perhaps forlorn) hope that we can turn the tide.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.

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