Burston Strike School Rally - 6 September 2015

Celebrate May Day!

Southend Trades Union Council invites you to celebrate
May Day, International Workers Day

The original Mayday celebrations date back to 1886 when workers in Chicago held a general strike for an eight-hour working day that was brutally suppressed.

Mayday has continued to be celebrated internationally ever since along with campaigns for decent conditions and even the concept of the weekend!

People fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today but they cannot be taken for granted. The sacrifices of so many people cannot be forgotten or we'll end up fighting for those same gains all over again.

Please come and join us in our celebration of Mayday on Saturday 2nd May!

Workers' Memorial Day - 28th April

Every year more people are killed at work than in wars. Most don't die of mystery ailments, or in tragic "accidents". They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn't that important a priority. Workers’ Memorial Day (WMD) commemorates those workers.

Workers' Memorial Day is held on 28 April every year, all over the world workers and their representatives conduct events, demonstrations, vigils and a whole host of other activities to mark the day.

The day is also intended to serve as a rallying cry to “remember the dead, but fight for the living”.

Over 20,000 people die every year because of their work. Most of these because of exposure to dangerous substances. In 2015 the theme for the day is "removing exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace" Hazardous substances are found in almost every workplace in the UK and many workers have no protection against the possible effects, despite the fact that tens of thousands of workers have their health destroyed by asthma, dermatitis, lung disorders and cancers because of exposures.

In addition to hazardous substances many unions and trades councils will be campaigning on the general theme of demanding better regulation, greater inspections and an end to the anti-health and safety rhetoric from the government and their allies in the press.

Mick Connolly - an appreciation

MICK CONNOLLY’S early life was not calm. He was one of five children (four sons, one daughter) to mother Ellen and father Danny — a Communist Party member.

During the tail-end of the Blitz in 1941, Ellen moved her children to the relative safety of Swindon, where Mick was born in July of that year.

Returning soon to London, Ellen would again move the children to safety, this time to Lancashire, where they saw out the war.

Danny became a university lecturer of politics and economics while Ronnie became a Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) official, and Terry attended Hull University on a T&G bursary.
Patsy however was evacuated to Wales with their nan, where sadly she was killed in a road traffic accident in 1944 aged just 4.

After the war the family would return to their native Wapping.

Mick (pictured) attended Wapping’s St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Primary School — now demolished and redeveloped — after which he followed his father and brothers into employment in the London docks and joined the Communist Party.

Political education started in the home and continued at work and Mick was quickly elected as a T&G shop steward to defend the interests of his co-workers. During this time he was a contemporary of well-known communist dock and river workers such as Jack Dash and Harry Watson.

Mick married Paula in 1962 and they had two sons, Sean and Mark. The family grew, and Mick’s love of his grandchildren was well known in the Southern and Eastern Region TUC (Sertuc) office. Sean and Tricia had Chloe and Sam, and Mark and Tania had Thomas, Joe and Zak.

While a dock worker he benefitted from the structured support for working-class activists (that hardly exists now) to further their education, going to the London School of Economics and graduating in 1966 with a politics and economics degree.

He was then a T&G full-time officer, based in the union’s Stratford district office and working and organising in east London.

The Stratford office became a hub of organising and political mobilisation as Mick was joined by a number of key young left-wing officials, many of whom went on to hold senior office in our movement.

One of these, Barry Camfield, who was later Unite assistant general secretary and is now with the Australian Nurses & Midwives union, said on learning of Mick’s death: “I was 24 when I met Mick and he was head and shoulders above everyone. Confident, strong, principled and so supportive. I thought he would live forever. Very sad. A big part of my life has gone, he was a rock, a mate, a comrade. Makes you more determined to fight for union freedom and socialism.”

Mick was later appointed by Ken Livingstone, leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) as director of the Greater London trade union resource unit (GLTURU).

The unit’s work was wide-ranging and cemented Mick’s reputation as a leader in anti-racist campaigning. While at GLTURU Mick also commissioned work on London’s manufacturing base, questioning the over-reliance on defence industries and the arms trade.

Mick was a great internationalist. He had an enduring affinity with the Spanish republic and unions, particularly the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) in Catalunya. He was quick to draw the lessons for London from the experience of economic regeneration enjoyed by Barcelona when the city won the right to stage the 1992 Olympic Games.

Mick of course lost his job when Thatcher abolished the GLC in 1986 and he returned to the role of lay activist. He eventually became vice chair of T&G region 1 (London, South-East & East Anglia) regional committee, one of the key left regions in the union.

London taxi driver, T&G executive council and TUC general council member Peter Hagger, who died too young in 1995, was a close personal and political friend.

During the miners’ strike the T&G established a special unit in the region 1 office staffed by Mick and Peter to track the movement of coal across London and the south-east. It mobilised trade unionists to try to stop the coal getting to power stations. Both Mick and Peter’s powers of persuasion and motivation were legendary.

Barry Camfield recalls a visit to South Africa with Mick in 1989, at the invitation of the South African T&G, a couple of months before Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

They went to a bus depot with South African T&G president Vivian Zungo, who worked at the depot, and union general secretary Jane Barrett.

Vivian and Jane were called inside to deal with a major dispute, leaving Mick and Barry in the car outside. The clouds formed and it began to rain. Mick’s comment on this turn of events: “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t need to fly 6,000 miles to sit in the pissing rain outside a bus garage during a strike. I could have done this anywhere in London.”

In 1993 Mick was appointed Sertuc regional secretary, a post he held until his retirement in 2006. He made sure that Sertuc led the TUC’s anti-racism campaigning and was instrumental in gathering a popular front of anti-racism organisations under the banner “Unite Against Racism,” following the election of the first ever BNP councillor.

Mick organised the TUC’s Unite Against Racism march where over 40,000 people marched through Tower Hamlets in March 1994. Campaigning continued and the BNP was defeated in May.
In 1997 Sertuc put on an organising conference and Mick invited as keynote speaker the then US Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern.

He was ahead of the game as usual and 350 delegates heard the call to build our unions by recognising the difference between organising and recruitment.

Working with mayor Ken Livingstone, Mick again showed his international credentials by mobilising the unions to support and engage with the European Social Forum held in London in 2004.

Mick strode the Sertuc stage like a colossus. Full-time permanent TUC regional secretaries were a new-ish phenomenon and Mick created and coalesced Sertuc as the TUC’s leading progressive region — always with the breadth of working-class interests at its centre. That meant anti-racism and women’s equality was, and is, at its heart.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes described Sertuc as “the TUC’s broad left.”
Mick liked that.

Written by Megan Dobney (SERTUC) and Adrian Weir (UNITE)

Mick Connolly - 22 July 1941 to 29 January 2015

You will no doubt now be aware that our previous Regional Secretary Mick Connolly died on Thursday 29 January.

Mick’s funeral will be held on Saturday 7 February, and all are welcome to attend and celebrate the life of our dear comrade. You are also welcome to bring your banners

Saturday 7 February at 10.30am, South Essex Crematorium, Ockenden Road, Corbets Tey, Upminster RM14 2UY

And afterwards at the Top Meadow Golf Club and Hotel, Fen Lane, North Ockendon, Upminster RM14 3PR

Please note that public transport is available to the Crematorium (nearest tube/train station is Upminster, then a taxi, or bus number 370 will stop outside the Crematorium on request) but Mick’s family say that a car may be advisable for getting to the Golf Club afterwards, although as it is quite close some relay driving may be provided

If you wish, donations are welcome to Prostate Cancer UK (www.prostatecanceruk.org)

Annual Report for 2014

Southend Trades Union Council

Registered with the TUC 

Secretary’s Report for year ended 31^st December 2014

Introduction

During last year, we convened 11 general meetings of the Southend TUC with an average attendance of 5 delegates.

We received affiliation fees for 2014 from 11 branches of the following Unions:

CWU, NUT, PCS, RMT, UNISON, UNITE

In addition, we maintained our affiliations to the Essex Association of Trades Councils (CATC) and the National Pensioners Convention (NPC).

A special thank you is due to Des and Rachel Heemskerk, for the use of their home for our meetings throughout the year.

Work of the Year

(a) Jobs, Growth and a New Economy

In the run up to the TUC’s national March and Rally on Saturday 18^th October, we held a successful street stall in Southend town centre on Saturday 4^th October. We prepared and distributed a leaflet which advertised the national march and rally, and the coach from Southend organised by UNISON. There were expressions of interest from 14 people. On 18^th October, 30 people travelled to London from Southend on the UNISON coach.

(b) Good Services and Decent Welfare

Throughout 2014, we have supported the industrial action taken by colleagues in the Public Sector to defend jobs and services. We expressed our solidarity with: members of the PCS who took industrial action in June; and to the health unions and PCS, who took co-ordinated strike action in October.

We have also supported the FBU in their current dispute over pensions. A donation was made to their hardship fund, for which the cheque was presented at the Southend Fire Station picket line on 6^th December.

(c) Strong Unions

At this year’s Leigh Folk Festival, we held a stall on both the Saturday and Sunday event. The Trades Unions are now recognised as the major sponsors of the annual festival, and our involvement is welcomed by the Organising Committee.

For the fourth successive year, we have organised a mini-bus to the Burston March and rally. This year’s event commemorated the 100^th anniversary of the setting up of the strike school by Annie and Tom Higdon.

Summary

2014 has been another successful year, in which the Southend TUC has been able, by campaigning activities, to raise its profile both within the trade union movement locally and the community in which our members live and work.

Ian Pope
Secretary