Len McCluskey in Waterstones

RED LEN’S BIG READ

Len McCluskey, former General Secretary of Unite the Union, tells his story, from north Liverpool to the docks to leading the 1.4m members of his union. By JACK MCGAHAN

Len McCluskey, born in Kirkdale. He worked on the docks to then go on and become General Secretary of Unite the Union for over decade. Unite is the largest associate and major donor to the Labour Party. Many would say Len stands head and shoulders above the rest as the stand-out trade unionist of his era.

‘Always Red’ details the memoirs of McCluskey in a chronological fashion. He discusses his early years at Cardinal Godfrey Catholic School to then working as an elected shop steward on the docks for “eleven years of happiness”. His story then delves into the workers’ strikes of the 1980’s at the height of Thatcher and the tory party. The bulk of the latter end of ‘Always Red’ reflects his admiration for Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party from 2015-20 and how he was ultimately betrayed and stabbed in the back by those closest to him.

The book itself is dedicated to none other than the city where it all began for the former General Secretary of Unite. Why?

“Liverpool would stand up. Liverpool would fight for itself despite all the adversity. Liverpool stood together as a community, and still does.”

“The city is unique, that forever challenges the establishment. Liverpool never bends the knee.”

McCluskey, as a Liverpool fan was deeply affected by the Hillsborough

It wasn’t until the strikes of the 1990s that Len was more heavily involved. Len was now a prominent figure in the Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G).

The Liverpool Dockers Dispute between 1995-98 saw 500 dockers strike in Liverpool over unfair payment. A t the time, the New Labour government overlooked anti-union trade legislation ratified by the previous Conservative government.

It was the longest disputes in labour history. The support the dockers received was widespread. It was global. 130 ports in 30 different countries took action, the New York docks included, yet disappointingly the T&G did not.

“It was most extraordinary, unbelievable. How can ports worldwide stand up yet these dockers own union turn its back?”

General Secretary at the time, Bill Morris, met with Len to discuss the dispute: “When the General Secretary starts mentioning that we need to maintain the ‘fabric’ of the union, it immediately points toward a sell-out. A sell-out was in the air and the union betrayed those men.”

In that moment, McCluskey swore he would never ever allow workers to struggle again: “If a union cannot stand shoulder to shoulder with its members than what is the point?”

Moving on to the 2010’s, Len is an enormous advocate of Jeremy Corbyn. During his tenure as General Secretary of ‘Unite the Union’ (formed after T&G merged with Amicus in 2007), he felt frustration while dealing with Labour Leader Ed Miliband.

“Miliband wanted to bring Labour away from the unions. He was right wing. A union of nearly 1 million members…can you imagine? He wanted to halve the affiliation numbers. He was disgraceful.”

“After him we had Andy Burnham come along. Who thought he had secured the hard left, but then try to scoop the soft left and soft right as well. Andy bit off more than he could chew.”

Then there was Corbyn. Len describes Corbyn as a phenomenon. One we will likely never see again. “He united the Labour party. Young people believed in him. Crowds of young people cheering for a man who they believed in.”

Supporters say that he isn’t wrong. In the 2017 general election, Corbyn achieved a bigger . In doing so, Labour had won 40% of the vote.

“Jeremy was 2,227 votes away from winning by minority. May went on to form a government.”

“There are no words for what happened to Corbyn” following the election” says Len.

“He was just absolutely attacked by our own side. How many times did you see Labour MPs rushing to the Sun and the Daily Mail to absolutely castigate him. It was outrageous.”

Len said that it is the role of good people, “good working-class people”, to always remember 2017. That year proved ordinary people will vote for a radical program, he said.

“You can imagine the real establishment sitting in their clubs with a brandy and a cigar saying ‘how the f**k did we allow this Corbyn to get so close to power.

“Never again will we allow that to happen. And now they are being well aided by the current Leader of the Labour Party. We need to remember 2017.

“There is hope.”

disaster as so many others were. He stresses though: “No other supporters could have achieved what they did. Completely rejecting the outside forces who entirely failed the 97 and their families.”

Some may argue that Liverpool may bare some similarities with Glasgow and East London. Some may argue that there is a spirit or energy is shared between these places, maybe because of the docks. Maybe otherwise. What is clear, is that ‘The Pool’ has and always will “spit right back in the face of adversity”.

During his years at Godfrey’s, Len developed into quite the poker player amongst other attributes which would later serve him in his position at the head of the Union.

He does tell a story whereby him and his pals began running the school tuck shop and introduced the ‘buy one get one free’ scheme before any major retailer. Len explains that his superiors were a huge advocate of the scheme as “nothing keeps the Catholic Church happier than money”. This was until they realised Len and company were later advertising the offer as “buy one and get a picnic” demonstrating that he would have been a “crap capitalist”.

The 1970s and 80s saw widespread workers’ strikes across the nation under the Thatcher regime. Liverpool as a city experienced a period of devastation. The Uprisings of ’81 paired with the unemployment crippled the city.

Len McCluskey speaking at his book reading. Photo: Luke Pollitt

• Len McCluskey ‘Always Red’ is published by OR Books, £16.99.