Tuesday 14 June 2022

Read the Sean McGovern - a trade union champion for disabled people book

 

Sean McGovern – a trade union champion for disabled people

 

https://markwritecouk.files/wordpress.com/2022/06/sean-mcgovern-booklet-final-print-june-2022.pdf

 

 

FOREWORD BY JIM MOWATT

 

The main tutorial room in the Unite National Education Centre in Birmingham is dedicated to Sean McGovern – that alone is testament to the high regard (and affection) with which our Union’s members held Sean McGovern.

 

And Sean was not, as you will discover in this excellent account of Sean’s life, only a great trade unionist, he was additionally a very successful campaigner for disabled peoples’ rights and a formidable political operator. Perhaps Sean’s most significant contribution was his ability to integrate different strands into coherent campaigning; and to do all that with integrity and courage.

 

Mark Metcalf brings to life the contrasting fortunes which impacted on Sean and the triumphs which Sean achieved. As with other women and men about whom we have written in this series of Unite booklets, Sean McGovern was a very effective leader; by definition he had tons of followers – I was one of them!

 

You’ll hear from other followers from a wide variety of organisations in this booklet. Such was the variety of activities, organisations campaign groups and individuals that he genuinely supported that the cover of this booklet ought to be a modernised version of a Pieter Bruegel the Elder landscape as there was so much going on simultaneously in Sean’s colourful life. For not only was Sean very well read (donating his extensive library to the union), he was a dedicated follower of fashion from his expensive footwear to his scarves and headgear.

 

As Sean McGovern (1957-2020) was a unique character it is entirely appropriate that this first ever booklet on a disabled trade unionist is about him. This work follows a very simple format in that it consists of Sean’s own words accompanied by interviews with some of his family and great friends. Thank you and congratulations to the author, Mark Metcalf, for crafting this booklet and bringing Sean to the attention of the next generation of activists. Sean is an inspiration.

 

In solidarity Jim Mowatt Unite the union

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