Ken Gill
Ken Gill (30 August 1927 – 23 May 2009
Background
Ken Gill was born in
In 1949, at the end of his apprenticeship, he moved to London. As a young communist at the height of the
Trade union career
In 1962 Gill stood for office in the
Gill became the General Secretary of TASS in 1974, and that same year was the third communist to be elected on to the
From the mid-1970s Gill used his position on the TUC Council to push for more radical policies in support of equal opportunities. In 1976 he "famously told the TUC Woman's Conference ... that Britain was still a 'socially backward' country,"[7] since despite the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act women would still need a 50 per cent pay increase to achieve parity with men. In 1982 he warned against racial prejudice within trade unions, saying that black workers would form their own trade unions if prejudice prevented them from being elected to union posts.[7] Gill was also an internationalist, pushing within the TUC for more progressive positions internationally. Gill and his union were among the earliest active supporters of the fight against South Africa's apartheid. On Gill's initiative, the union guaranteed the deposit for the 1988 stadium concert that celebrated Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday. When Mandela later visited the UK after his release from Robben Island, he chose the union's conference hall to meet and thank African National Congress exiles and activists.[4]
In 1984 Gill became chairman of the
TASS demerged from the AUEW in 1985, and in 1988 merged with
A lifetime supporter of the Soviet Union, he was expelled from the British Communist Party in 1985, when it broke with Moscow.[8]
Retirement
After his retirement, Gill continued campaigning, including against the 2003 Iraq war. He also played a key role in the 1993 founding of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the UK, becoming its first chair, only stepping down in 2008.[7]
Gill was also known for his caricatures of fellow trade unionists, and often made on scraps of paper during meetings and conferences. An exhibition of his work was held at Congress House in 2007,[4] and a book of his caricatures was published in April 2009.[9]
Books
- Ken Gill (Author), John Green and Michal Boncza (Editors), 2009 – Hung, Drawn and Quartered, Artery Publications, ISBN 978-0-9558228-2-7. The book is a selection of Gill's caricatures.
The Ken Gill Memorial Fund
A non-charitable trust was established in 2010 by Ken's family and close friends to commemorate Ken's life and to continue his life's work. Among its objectives are supporting the Morning Star newspaper, supporting the trade union movement and workers' rights through co-operation with the Institute of Employment Rights and to support solidarity with Cuba, working alongside the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. Trustees included Rodney Bickerstaffe, former general secretary of Unison, the UK's largest public services union.
References
- ^ Reuters, 23 May 2009, Former trade union leader Ken Gill dies
- ^ a b c Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley Encyclopedia of British and Irish political organizations parties, groups, accessed 28 April 2009
- ^ Daily Telegraph, 24 May 2009, Ken Gill
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9558228-2-7
- ^ Seumas Milne, The Enemy Within
- ^ The Guardian, 24 May 2009, Ken Gill: One of the militant trade union leaders of the 1970s, he headed Tass and MSF
- ^ a b c The Times, 26 May 2009, Ken Gill: Communist trade union leader
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/101722. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Morning Star, 28 April 2009, 'National treasure' publishes caricatures
Further reading
- Bickerstaffe, Rodney. "Gill, Kenneth [Ken]" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2013) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/101722
- Mortimer, J. E. A Life on the Left (1998)
- Thomas, Brian. "'Red Ken' is Dead" (2009) in Melksham and St. Michael's in War and Peace (2014), The Well House Collection, Melksham pp59–60