Updated leaflet for Trade Unions - Who Needs them? Public meeting in Halifax

IMAGES OF THE PAST: Sheffield in the 1980s interview dates are April 7&8

A warm welcome Clarion House, Nelson-on-Colne, Lancs

A warm welcome

Clarion House, Nelson-on-Colne, Lancs 

UniteLANDWORKER Winter2018/19 

All photographs by Mark Harvey of ID8 photography. 

Set amidst some spectacular countryside, the Clarion House at Nelson-on-Colne is a real gem that any trade union or labour movement visitor would enjoy. 

Clarion House is the only clubhouse remaining from what was once a large network of similar countryside buildings. 

In Victorian England, working conditions across East Lancashire were atrocious, especially for children. The atmosphere was putrid from the cotton in the air and the soot and smog created by mill chimneys. Nelson socialists set up societies, such as rambling, camping holidays and cycling clubs, aimed at improving the health and well-being of the working class. 

Andrew Smith was a Nelson Independent Labour Party (ILP) member who believed people should be able to engage their physical training in the open unpolluted countryside. Nelson ILP rented properties from 1899 onwards. As membership levels rose steadily form around fifty towards a thousand the ILP set up a land society and purchased in June 1912 land ‘near New Church in Pendle.’ Clarion House cost £350 to build and since when the day to day running and maintenance has been carried out by volunteers. 

“I moved near here with my partner five years ago. A neighbour mentioned Clarion House and its historical significance. We walked the four miles and still visit regularly. I like the Clarion House values in terms of community and a little bit of rebellion, doing things independently, which in a way sums up this whole area. 

“There are always people here. Most come of their own steam and you get many ramblers and cyclists. We enjoy sitting in the garden and the view is outstanding. I doubt there are many better anywhere in England,” said Sarah-Jane Grey from Barrowford. 

The Clarion House building itself is basically one large room of benches and chairs, an attached porch, toilets and a large kitchen serving refreshments and a great cup of tea. Along with colourful banners, the walls are decorated with local and national historical figures associated with the clubhouse.

“We largely exist on the money we make from our sales. I enjoy helping as I see this as socialism in action. We work together co-operatively. Visitors get a cup of tea and can sit down and, if they want, chat and exchange ideas about how to improve things for working people. You can also just sit outside and relax. We’d be delighted to welcome Unite members,“ explained retired postal worker Sue Nike (pictured), who first volunteered at Clarion House around 35 years ago. 

Clarion House can be reached by easy or moderate walks from the surrounding towns of Nelson, Colne, Burnley & Clitheroe. It is open every Sunday from 10.30am to 4.00pm as well as some bank holidays. On other days, visitors are welcome to sit and relax outside. There is plenty of space for children to safely run around in. There is an outside toilet.  

All visitors get a warm welcome.

ILP Clarion House, Jinney Lane, Newchurch-in-Pendle, Lancashire NN12 9LL  Donations from trade union branches would be welcomed. See also a recent released video on Clarion House:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsQznVb3biM

Sheffield in the 1980s book will be launched on 30 November

TRADE UNIONS - WHO NEEDS THEM? Halifax public meeting

TRADE UNIONS - WHO NEEDS THEM? 

Joint trade union and Halifax Labour Party public meeting 

Queens Road Neighbourhood Centre, Halifax HX1 4PH

Wednesday 13 March 

7pm prompt start

Speakers to include Unite’s Mohammad Taj, retired bus driver and former Trades Union Congress (TUC)  President, GMB regional organiser Jake O’Malley and Park Ward Labour councillor Faisal Shoukat. 

As the biggest organisations in Britain, trade unions negotiate with employers in order to help protect and improve workplace rights, boost wages, create safer workplaces and represent their members at disciplinary and grievance hearings. 

Trade unions also promote the interests of members by attempting to influence those who make political decisions. This has led to improvements in safety laws and welfare benefits. The Labour Party was formed by trade unions and socialist societies and many unions are affiliated to the Party.

Born in Kashmir, Mohammad Taj, a TGWU/Unite member, was a Bradford bus driver for over forty years. In 2013/14 he was the first elected South Asian President of the TUC, which represents the majority of the trade unions. At the meeting he will be speaking about his role and how it was possible by working with other union members to radically improve wages, terms and conditions and health and safety. Taj will also speak about his struggles against racism. @tucpresidenttaj 

Jake O’Malley is a GMB regional organiser with responsibilities for retail, young members and the smart metering industry. He was the senior rep in Sheffield on the outsourced Amey private finance initiative contract for 5 years. @jakeomalley3

Faisal Shoukat was first elected as a Labour councillor for Park ward in 2011 and is standing for re-election in May. He is a cabinet member at Calderdale council with responsibility for public health and inequalities.

Written by Mark Metcalf, a free 56-page booklet on Mohammad Taj will be available at the event. There will also be stalls containing trade union literature.

The meeting is being co-ordinated by Mark Metcalf, trade union liaison officer for Halifax Constituency Labour Party. For more details contact Mark on 07392 852561 or at mcmetcalf@icloud.com @markmetcalf07 

PROBLEM? WHAT PROBLEM?

This article by Mark Metcalf was published in the Big Issue in November 2003. 

PROBLEM? WHAT PROBLEM?

Abuse, attacks and murder - why has racism in Sunderland become so severe, when only a tiny proportion of the city’s residents from black and ethnic minority backgrounds? 

It is now just over six months since the British National Party (BNP) stood a record number of candidates at city council elections in Sunderland. The 25 who stood for that far right party gained 13,500 votes, equivalent to nearly 14% of the total votes and in one ward, Town End Farm, BNP support almost reached 30%.

The City of Sunderland and the surrounding areas have always had a tiny black and ethnic minority community. Today, less than 1% of 279,000 residents of Sunderland are drawn from black and ethnic minority backgrounds, of which 857 are refugees, according to latest Home Office figures.

A number of Labour Party and trade union activists have detailed frustration in getting their respective organisations to take racism seriously, and claim the flourishing of the B&P instrument can't be blamed on the lack of concerted anti-racism action in the past. The activists I spoke to claim they commonly were told “there isn't a problem here” in reference to County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. This was usually followed by “there aren't any black people here.” One ex-ward Labour party secretary who didn’t want to be named recalls that “racist ideas, views and jokes went largely unchallenged” at both party meetings and informal social events. 

The government’s decision at the end of 2000 to start settling asylum seekers in places such as Sunderland, with no increase in resources, has brought underlying social tensions to the fore in the city. Some parts of the established local community felt they were losing out to newcomers. It is this situation that the far right and, specifically, the BNP  exploited to win votes in this year's elections.

Meanwhile, residents complain of frequent racist attacks. One local Asian shop owner, who asked not to be named, said he'd had his window smashed “over 20 times.”  The police response? “Useless.”  Local politicians? “Racist and corrupt.” In June last year,  Baldish Singh was subject to a brutal attack by 39-year-old Andrew Thorpe, who sports   a National Front tattoo. The attack left Singh unable to speak. Thorpe got just six years in prison while Singh is likely to need constant care for the rest of his life. His solicitor is now pursuing a criminal injuries claim on his behalf.

A few months later, in a brutal attack, Iranian refugee Payman Bahmani was stabbed to death. His housemate Mohammad said at the time "we've had our windows broken over 25 times, we know the attackers, they abuse us and tell us to go home." He claimed that the police had open “failed to listen” to the complaints, an accusation denied by the police, who later secured a life sentence for Stephen Roberts, aged 18, for the murder.

Following Bahmani’s death, the police established a community panel that included members of the dead man's family, and also involved all the agencies such as the North of England Refugee Service. "This group was heavily involved in the investigation, been briefed on a regular basis, and the feedback was positive," a place spokesperson said. "This work continues today with the Special Investigations Unit (which tackles racist crime and incidents in Sunderland) and with community beat managers in the area.”

The three Sunderland police area commands (Sunderland City, Sunderland West and Washington) all now have dedicated place asylum-seeker liaison officers. Marianne Goodfellow from the Refugee Network says: "The police regularly visit the two outreach sessions we organise. They make the asylum-asylum-seekers aware that they are there to help them. Their attitude is more positive than before.”

When members of Sunderland Fans against Racism visited the local youth clubs to ask what is said at school on the subject of racism, however, the usual answer they received was “nothing."

I spokeswoman for Sunderland City Council disputes this. ”The City Council sends regular newsletters to schools, including items such as information on religious festivals, advice on responding to racist incidents, myth-busting information on asylum seekers and examples of good race equality practice.”

A group of refugees who formed a local football team, the International Cultural Centre  (ICC) FC, claim to have experienced racial abuse and even, on occasions, physical attacks. One game, in March this year, against pub team Sandhill, from the Grindon area, was halted for a number of minutes after a fight broke out involving players and supporters from both sides. The ICC secretary at the time wrote to Durham FA. "Sandhill supporters started to shout at our players with racial comments and there was at least one incident where a supporter put his finger to his right ear then moved it across his throat to the other ear as if to say ‘you die’." 

Sandhill were fined £100 by Durham Football Association (FA) for "bringing the league into disrepute and a further £50 by the Tyne and Wear League. John Topping, company secretary of Durham FA, said: “We are very much against racist behaviour in football and any cases are and will be dealt with severely.”

He added: “in that case… Some of which did involve racial abuse, the club was severely warned about its future conduct, and had to provide a written undertaking that no such behaviour or comments would happen again and which it has done.”

But Russell Thompson, manager of Sandhill, claimed the refugee team had "started it" after “one of our players had two of his teeth knocked out… and was called ‘white trash’.”

In August, members of the cast of South African musical Umoja reported that they had been spat out in the street and insulted while distributing leaflets for their show at the Sunderland Empire. Director Todd Twala said: “We have been all over the world, to Japan, Australia, Denmark, France Finland and London, and no one has treated us like this."

As a result, Sunderland City Council subsequently launched a hotline for members of black and ethnic minority communities to report racist attacks.

Chris Mullin, one of two local MPs, admitted that racism in the city is a big problem, which he attributes to “Sunderland (having) until recently an overwhelmingly white population with little experience of contact with other cultures. Whilst there may have been some complacency in the past about the degree of racial prejudice in Sunderland, that is certainly not the case now. Nor has it been for some time.”

The city council spokesperson added: Whilst Sunderland has recently been the subject of unwarranted negative media coverage, presenting us a racist city this is both inaccurate and insulting to this of us who live or work here.” 

However, only this month, five people attending Sunderland’s home game against Coventry at the Stadium of Light were arrested by the police for racist behaviour. It was reported that all to 200 supporters had been involved in chanting racist abuse at the visiting supporters. Raymond Holmes aged 32 from Pennywell was subsequently fined £200 with £50 costs and banned from attending matches for three years. A juvenile, who can't be named for legal reasons, was fined £100 with £45 costs and also banned from attending matches for three years. The BNP will be hoping to exploit racist tensions at the June 2004 local elections, when all 75 seats will be up for grabs. Whether it increases its share of the vote or not it is clear that the task of tackling racism in the city will continue for a long time to come.

Edward McHugh headstone unveiling is to be on 29 June

HELP TO ERECT AT 10.00am ON SATURDAY 29 JUNE 2019 A HEADSTONE FOR HERO EDWARD McHUGH IN FLAYBRICK MEMORIAL GARDENS, BIRKENHEAD 

Irishman Edward McHugh (1853-1915) was a radical trade unionist, labour movement activist,  social reformer and land rights organiser. 

Sadly, McHugh, co-founder of the National Union of Dock Labourers, lies in an unmarked grave in Flaybrick Memorial Gardens, Birkenhead. 

————————————————————————————————————————Rural poverty forced McHugh’s family to emigrate from Co Tyrone to Glasgow where he witnessed urban destitution, particularly amongst the Irish who had fled the Great Famine of the 1840s and Scottish Highlanders who had moved south because of the Clearances.  

McHugh became a firm supporter of Henry George who contended that the unequal distribution of land lay behind all social ills. As secretary of the Glasgow branch of the Irish Land League, McHugh’s talents as a speaker and organiser saw him chosen to lead a Land League mission to the Scottish Highlands where he helped direct the nascent crofters’ agitation along radical lines. He later toured Scotland with Henry George himself.

McHugh’s talents were then harnessed by the Trades Union movement. He and Richard McGhee established the National Union of Dock Labourers, leading bitter strikes in 1889 in Glasgow and in Liverpool in 1890 and following which he settled in Birkenhead.

He spent the mid 1890s in New York City where he organised the American Longshoreman’s Union and preached George’s ‘Single Tax Gospel.’

In his death, McHugh was buried at Flaybrick Memorial Gardens. His headstone was destroyed by the German bombing of Merseyside in WWII. It is now time to make sure that McHugh’s final resting place is marked by a suitable headstone for a very great man. In November 2018 a well attended meeting in Liverpool established a committee to do just that and it is planned to unveil the headstone at 10.00am on Saturday 29 June. A list of labour movement speakers is being drawn up. 

In addition a booklet on Edward McHugh will be published in March. If enough funds are raised then it is proposed to make a short documentary on McHugh. 

More details? Speakers are also available. 

Please contact Mark Metcalf on 07392 852561 and at mcmetcalf@icloud.com and/or Luke Agnew (Unite rep at the Memorial gardens) on 07792 110973 and at maximun1000@googlemail.com 

You can donate to the fundraising appeal, which has raised around £600 by early February. Make cheques out to Bolton Trades Union Council and on back state ‘Edward McHugh’ and send to Bolton TUC, ℅ Bolton Socialist Club, 16 Wood Street BL1 1DY