Jack Jones – a true man of the people

Apr 22 2009 by Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo

HE was a true working class hero and man of the people – someone who never tired of fighting the good fight.

And Jack Jones, one of Liverpool’s most famous and revered sons, who died last night, aged 96, fought his battles on both the national and international stage.

As leader of the then truly mighty Transport and General Workers’ Union between 1969 and 1978 – a time when, many would argue, trade unions had almost as much power – if not more – than the government of the day, Jack had the ear of prime ministers and a season ticket for 10 Downing Street.

But way before then, after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, this man of conscience was active in the Aid Spain campaign, and joined the International Brigades.

He fought for many months before being wounded in the Ebro battle in 1938, later writing about his experiences in his autobiography, Union Man.

He explained how he led a group of volunteers in a clandestine operation to Spain from the UK, via Paris. He arrived at a reception centre for volunteers, where lessons were given on how to use a rifle. He said he had no confidence in the accuracy of his rifle and had no idea if he killed anyone before he was hit in the shoulder and arm.

A man of many lives, Jack lived to fight another day – and he didn’t see any reason to stop fighting in later life. For many people in Merseyside and across the country, Jack will also be known as the pensioners’ champion – a man who fought tirelessly for the rights of pensioners well into his 90s.

Jack, who sold the ECHO on the streets as a 10-year-old when he was a pupil at Banks elementary school in his native Garston, was simply “Our Jack” to generations of Liverpool workers who looked to their union leader to help secure them better pay and working conditions.

The son of a docker, he was born in Liverpool in 1913 – and named after the Manchester-Irish socialist who was leading the nearest event Ireland ever had to a general strike when he was born.

While still at school, the 13-year-old Jones acted as a messenger between pickets and strike leaders in Liverpool during Britain’s 1926 General Strike – and he later said: “The strike taught me that people stand together, suffer together and win together. It was one of the most important lessons I ever learnt.”

Jack left school at the age of 14 to work as an engineering apprentice. He joined the Labour Party and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and soon became involved in union activities, later joining his father as a Liverpool docker.

A member of the TGWU, he was elected a shop steward. And it was as his involvement in unions and politics grew that he organised protest meetings against fascists, ahead of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

Jack served as a Liverpool city councillor between 1936 and 1939 and then he became a TGWU organiser in Coventry – and, subsequently, general secretary of the Coventry branch before moving on to become Midlands regional secretary of the TGWU from 1955 until 1963.

He then held a series of senior union posts, became a magistrate in Coventry, and was elected to Labour’s policy-forming National Executive from 1964 to 1967 – reaching his peak as general secretary of the TGWU in 1969.

The T&G was by far the most powerful and influential union in the country and his, therefore, was the most powerful and influential position.

For nine years, until his retirement in 1978, he had the ear of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet during an era when the regular “beer and sandwiches” meetings between ministers and union leaders at No. 10 became famous – or, in some people’s eyes, “infamous”.

Who, some people wondered, was leading the country? The PM – or Jack Jones? When he retired, Jack indicated his future intentions, joking: “I shall still be in the army of Labour – even if it’s the Dads’ army section.”

And it could even be argued – tongue in cheek – that Margaret Thatcher only felt it safe to take the keys to No. 10, Jack’s former second home, once he’d exited the main stage (she was elected PM in 1979, a year after Jack bowed out).

His views on the darling of the Right and scourge of the Left were fascinating – discussing her legacy with me five years ago, he said: “Margaret Thatcher was very divisive and had little or no sympathy for workers. I think she was unduly influenced by her husband, who had been an employer and born with a golden spoon in his mouth.

“I think she became more reactionary after she married him – she had previously been a member of a trade union."

After his retirement, Jack travelled the length and breadth of the country campaigning on behalf of pensioners. And it was typical of the man and his selflessness that he had quietly used donations towards a presentation for his retirement from the union to fund a campaigning organisation for pensioners.

Jack turned down an invitation to go to the House of Lords, explaining: “I refused to go to the Lords. I always said it was proof positive that there is life after death. It’s a totally undemocratic institution.”

Although he shunned the House of Lords, he became a Companion of Honour on his retirement in 1978. He had been an MBE since 1950. Meanwhile, at the Labour Party conference of 2003, he received a special recognition award for his service to the movement.

He was pre-deceased by his wife Evelyn, whose own role in the anti-fascist struggle of the 1930s was equally notable, and is survived by his two sons.

“He was a hero who never stopped fighting,” said Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle, while veteran Socialist and former Cabinet minister Tony Benn described him as being one of the "finest" men he had ever met.

Jack Jones, man of the people, RIP.