Ken Gill: 1927-2009
May 24th 2009
It is with great sadness that Unite has to report that Ken Gill,
former MSF general secretary, has died aged 81.
Unite joint general secretary, Derek SImpson,
said: “Ken Gill was a trade unionist of principle, steadfast in his
commitment to the labour movement and socialist values. He
helped TASS into a real force for trade unionism in manufacturing,
and then had the vision to create MSF, one of the unions which
contributed to the formation of Amicus and hence Unite.
"Ken will be sorely missed by his many friends
and comrades in the movement. He was a man of deep
intelligence who always put the interests of the movement
first. Unite sends its deep condolences to his family on
their loss, a loss all of us in Unite share."
Ken Gill, an
appreciation
by John Green and Joe Gill,
This
obituary first appeared in the
Morning Star on Monday May 25 2009
Ken Gill was born on August 29 1927 in Melksham, Wiltshire.
During the second world war, aged 15, he became an apprentice
draughtsman.
Gill was politicised at an early age, having experienced poverty
in his childhood during the Great Depression and having lost his
older brother Lesley, who was an airman in bomber command, during a
raid over Germany.
During the war, his family took as a lodger a Welsh miner and
Communist, who convinced the young Gill of the cause of socialism.
At the end of the war, he became an election agent for the local
Labour candidate in Melksham.
Gill was well known for his ability as a caricaturist, but his
artistic talent was not limited to cartoons. As a child, his entry
to a Daily Sketch competition of children's art was disqualified
because the judges did not believe that a child could produce a
work of such maturity.
As a working-class lad at that time, artistic talent was not a
path to a creative career but to a seat in a drawing office and he
duly "did his time" at a mechanical handling firm.
He continued in this field of engineering when he came to
London, using his artistic skills to provide prospective customers
with freehand perspective drawings.
In 1949 at the end of his apprenticeship, he moved to London and
in 1950 he married Jacqueline Manley (nee Kemellardski), the former
wife of Michael Manley, who later became prime minister of
Jamaica.
In his early thirties, Gill became a director of a successful
engineering firm, proving his skills as a salesman and
negotiator.
However, his political commitments and involvement in trade
unionism led him in a different direction.
He was elected as a regional official of the Draughtsmen's and
Allied Technicians Association (DATA) in 1962 and was posted to
Liverpool, with responsibility for Merseyside and Northern
Ireland.
A wave of industrial militancy was sweeping both regions at the
time, and Gill found himself leading workers in a series of
industrial battles.
His success as a persuasive, militant but shrewd union official
brought him higher office in 1968, when he was elected as deputy
general secretary.
Two years earlier, he married Tess Gill, a civil rights lawyer
and leading figure in the British women's movement. They had three
children, Joe, Tom and Emma.
In 1974, Gill became general secretary of DATA's successor, the
Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Staffs Association
(TASS).
Faced with technological change and industrial decline during
the 1980s, Gill reinvented TASS during the early part of that
decade, taking in a range of unions, such as the Gold and Silver
Workers, the Metal Mechanics, the Sheet Metal Workers and the
Tobacco Workers Union.
In 1988, Gill and his long-time rival for the leadership of
"white-collar" unionism Clive Jenkins - who was Association of
Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs general secretary -
buried the hatchet and brought their two unions together to create
one new union, Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF), with each
as a joint general secretary.
Jenkins retired first and Gill became general secretary, serving
from 1988-92. By the time Gill retired in 1992, it had become a
large multi-industry union, eventually joining Amicus.
In 1974 Gill was the first and only Communist to be elected to
the TUC general council with over seven million votes. He joined
other leftwingers there and led a militant broad left grouping
which spearheaded a number of ideological and economic battles
during the militant '70s.
He was one of the most prominent members of the so-called
"awkward squad" who made the industrial relations work of
successive governments such a difficult task.
With the election of a number of leftwingers to the leadership
of the big trade unions during the '70s, there was an expansion of
"broad left" grass-roots groups, dominated by the Communist Party,
particularly in the AEU, ACTT, TASS, ETU and UCATT. These groups
worked around rank-and-file papers such as Engineering Voice,
Flashlight and the Power Worker.
Gill spearheaded trade union opposition to the Labour
government's demand for a social contract at the 1974 TUC and mass
demonstrations against Barbara Castle's contentious industrial
relations Bill, In Place Of Strife.
He was instrumental in promoting the Communist Party's
alternative economic strategy within the trade union movement. This
proposed a more radical socialist agenda as the answer to the
economic woes and serious attempts were made through the trade
unions to make it Labour Party policy.
There were strong fears within the Labour Party that this new
militant trade unionism would seriously undermine the party. Prime
minister Harold Wilson alluded to leaders like Gill when he spoke
of "a tightly knit group of politically motivated men" out to
undermine democracy.
In 1985, Cathy Massiter, a former MI5 officer who had resigned
from her job the previous year, appeared on a Channel 4 documentary
detailing how the security services had phone-tapped the homes of
trade unionists, peace campaigners and civil libertarians,
including two senior members of the current government - Patricia
Hewitt and Harriet Harman, who both happened to be close friends of
Tess Gill - despite the fact they had done nothing illegal.
In Gill's case, they burgled his home to plant a bugging device.
The allegations were confirmed in Peter Wright's book Spycatcher,
when the former intelligence officer boldly wrote that "we bugged
and burgled our way across London at the state's behest."
Gill actually raised the issue directly with then home secretary
Leon Brittan to little effect.
Despite being among the most prominent Communists in the
country, Gill always saw himself first of all as a trade
unionist.
The Communist Party at the time still played a powerful role on
the industrial stage even though it had declined as a political
force.
Gill fought within the TUC for the trade union movement to take
more progressive positions internationally, and to support
anti-racism and equality within the movement itself.
He and his union were active supporters of the fight against
South African apartheid.
On Gill's initiative in 1988, the union paid the deposit for the
stadium concert that celebrated Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday
while he still languished on Robben Island, placing the issue of
apartheid in front of the British people as never before.
This was acknowledged by Mandela when, after being freed and on
his first British visit, he chose the union's conference hall to
meet and thank ANC exiles and activists.
Gill hardly fitted the cliche image of a Communist. While he
could be forceful and committed, he was rarely dogmatic or
unnecessarily aggressive. He was tall, with a rugged handsomeness
and his soft Wiltshire drawl and ready laughter belied his steely
determination. His charm and persuasiveness easily disarmed many of
his harshest critics. He was always a popular and well-liked member
of the general council even if the colour of his politics
weren't.
Gill believed vehemently that the unions were a necessary basis
of any radical social change. But he also believed that the Labour
Party was central.
"If you cannot win back the (Labour) Party," he said, "then you
are certainly not going to be able to start another mass
party."
He never relinquished his hobby of cartooning and drew his
colleagues during the interminable speeches and discussions at
union conferences. They captured the idiosyncrasies of their
subjects and they now form a unique archive. The TUC in 2007, on
the occasion of his 80th birthday, held an exhibition of his
work.
Gill retired as a trade union official in 1992. But this didn't
mean withdrawing to a country retreat or taking a seat in the House
of Lords. He continued campaigning on radical issues, marching and
speaking out against the Iraq war, right up until his illness
confined him to his home.
He was particularly keen on promoting solidarity with Cuba. For
over a decade, he was chairman of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in
Britain and met Fidel Castro on several occasions.
As chairman of the People's Press Printing Society management
committee, he was expelled from the Communist Party of Great
Britain for defending the Morning Star against the Eurocommunist
leadership of the party.
He was later active in formulating the paper's broader
appeal.
After his divorce from Tess Gill, in the '80s, he married Norma
Bramley, a politically active teacher with whom he lived happily
until the end of his life.
It was Norma who cared for Gill during his long battle with
cancer, which he met with good humour to the last.
This article first featured in the Morning
Star, Britain’s daily paper of the left.
Members wishing to commemorate Ken Gill's life can purchase his
book of caricatures: "Hung, Drawn and Quartered" from the Morning
Star. Available from the Morning Star, cheques for £12+£2 p+p
should be sent to PPPS, William Rust House, 52 Beachy Road, London
E3 2NS or call 020 8510 0815 to order by credit card.
Obituaries in other newspapers
The Guardian -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/24/ken-gill-unions-obituary
The Times -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6359702.ece
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