Tony Corfield 1919-2011
My father Tony Corfield (1919-2011) worked in adult
education all his life and one of the busiest and happiest stages
of his career was as Education Officer and eventually Education
Secretary for the mighty Transport & General Workers Union from
1950 to 1968. Tony believed in communal action and cooperation,
rather than in competition and dog-eat-dog. He himself was an open
and sunny-tempered person, with an infectious laugh. His friendly
manner combined with his thoughtful approach brought out the best
in others, who responded to his lack of ‘side’.
In the T&G’s Education Department, Tony
was in his element. He launched new programmes aimed at skilling
the shop stewards who are essential to the Union’s shop-floor
organisation. Courses on offer featured organisational and
negotiating skills, public speaking, industrial relations, and
trade union law. Every summer he organised residential programmes
for the shop stewards, held at Cirencester Agricultural College.
Staying on a beautiful campus, meeting other activists from across
the country, and updating on topical issues together generated an
intense and exciting atmosphere. Friday evenings were the
highlight, with big debates, followed by beer and sing-songs.
When Tony was working at Cirencester, our
family stayed nearby. As a teenager with an interest in politics, I
remember being allowed to sit in on some of these Friday evening
debates. They were knowledgeable and passionate. One debate was
about the pros and cons of the closed shop. ‘Would you allow a
passenger to have the ride, without paying the fare?’ was the
culminating appeal of the advocate of the closed shop, to immense
applause.
In 1968 Frank Cousins (1904-86), the powerful
boss of the T&G, left his post to become a Labour MP. In the
internal election that followed, Tony saw an opportunity for the
Union to update. He wrote and distributed a pamphlet on
Collective Leadership for the Transport and General Workers’
Union. His central case was that the powers of the General
Secretary should be cut down to size. It was a matter of principle,
not of personality. Larry Smith from the Transport section stood on
this platform but lost to the favourite Jack Jones (1913-2009).
It was an interesting moment. Larry Smith
remained within the Union, again standing unsuccessfully in 1977
for the post of General Secretary, this time against Moss Evans.
Tony, however, decided to leave to become Director of the Workers’
Education Association Social Studies Centre. He remained on
friendly terms with his former colleagues, including Jack Jones.
Tony was also proud of spotting and aiding on his educational
courses the rising star of Bill Morris, who later became T&G
General Secretary from 1992-2003 (now Lord Morris of Handsworth).
In response, Bill has very recently confirmed to me by email that:
‘My generation of the T&G owes him [Tony] a great deal of
gratitude’.
Overall, Tony Corfield’s key contribution to
the Union’s long-term promotion of high-quality educational
programmes was acknowledged in 1997 by the award of the T&G’s
Gold Medal for outstanding service. It was a mark of recognition
that he greatly valued.
But Tony always thought that the Union had
made a mistake in the 1970s by not taking steps to democratise its
internal workings. It left it, with the other unions, open to
attack from outside, which Margaret Thatcher duly provided in the
1980s.
Throughout his life, Tony wrote books and
articles on adult education, industrial relations, trade union
history, and Health & Safety. With his precursor as T&G
Education Secretary Ellen McCullough [pictured], Tony produced the
staple Trade Union Branch Officers’ Manual in 1964. It was
typical of the practical help that he always tried to provide – as
was his commonsensical WEA pamphlet How to be a Student
(1968).
Another of Tony Corfield’s publications of
relevance to trade unionists was The Rule of Law: A Study in
Trade Union Organisation and Method (1982). In it, he probed
the intersecting careers of Alan Law, the ‘Big Wheel’ of road
transport in the 1970s, and the lorry drivers’ ‘larger than life’
branch 5/35, whose meetings Tony attended by invitation. He
concluded partly with admiration for shop steward power; but also
with warnings that by using that power to abort the Labour
Government’s Social Contract with the unions in the later 1970s,
trade union militancy helped to bring in Thatcher and two decades
of militant Tory anti-unionism in response.
That judgment summed up Tony’s position. He
never wanted the unions to box themselves into the wrong corner,
politically. The role of trade unionism to defend and enhance the
role of workers in their place of work, where so much of life is
lived, is too important to be allowed to fail.
Tony Corfield is survived by his wife
Irene (née Hill); five children; and four grand-children. For
further details, see the short obituary in The Guardian’s
Other Lives: 2 September 2011, p. 38.
Penelope J.
Corfield
August
2011
