PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

President’s column Solidarity greetings from RMT to this celebration of the XV International Brigade volunteers. IBMT was founded to celebrate and commemorate women and men from these islands who volunteered to defend the Spanish Republic against fascist forces that came to crush their democracy in 1936. If you are not an IBMT member, take this opportunity today to join us. In the entrance of RMT’s head office, Unity House is a plaque bearing names of 113 former members of the National Union of Seamen (NUS) and the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR). Since that plaque was unveiled in June 2004 by Jack Jones, President of the International Brigades Association, many more union members of the XV International Brigade have come to light. So, the total number of NUS and NUR members who volunteered to fight in Spain because – as the poet Cecil Day-Lewis wrote their “open eyes could see no other way” - numbered over 120. They were able-bodied Seamen like Otto Estensen who joined the National Union of Seamen, Middlesborough Branch in 1925 at the tender age of 15. They were railway Engineers, Workshopmen, Trackworkers – rail workers of all descriptions. My union is proud to honour them. RMT is proud to be affiliated to the IBMT. Recording our history accurately is particularly important at a time when politicians and media attempt to rewrite it to suit their own narratives. IBMT reminds us that the International Brigades volunteers from these islands had to travel to Spain undercover and with great difficulty, because the policy of Britain’s Tory government in 1936 was to appease fascism, a policy it described euphemistically as ‘non-intervention’. Tory foreign policy in 1936 sought an accommodation with Hitler, Mussolini, and their fascist allies. This meant allowing Italy to invade Ethiopia, and German and Italian troops to support Franco’s coup in Spain. In return, fascist powers allowed Britain to maintain its global Empire. This policy of giving fascists a free hand was challenged by the volunteers of the XV International Brigade who we commemorate today. But their commitment to democracy began long before the Spanish Civil War broke out and, in many cases, continued long after the War ended. Jim Prendergast was a communist, civil rights activist and a leading figure in the NUR. Jim joined the Irish section of the International Brigades and wrote for the Daily Worker (today’s Morning Star newspaper). He later helped found the Connolly Association in 1938 to support Irish immigrants in Britain and was editor of the newspaper Irish Freedom. Later Jim worked with the scientist JBS Haldane developing diving equipment for British Special Forces and became a rear gunner in Wellington bombers, the most dangerous position in the RAF. In 1966, as Secretary of the NUR Marylebone branch, Jim Prendergast led a successful campaign to expose and end racial segregation (the ‘colour bar’) in job promotion within British Rail. One of Jim’s NUR branch members, a Guard named Asquith Xavier, reported that he had been refused promotion on the grounds that he was a black man. Jim marched his NUR members out of Marylebone Station and down the Euston Road to confront the NUR executive committee in its headquarters opposite Euston Station. Dissatisfied with their response, Jim went directly to the Daily Mirror who led with the story of British Rail’s shameful racist employment practices. The British Railways Board promptly retreated and appointed Asquith Xavier to the position he had applied for as an Intercity Guard at Euston. Jim’s combination of clarity of analysis and willingness to take direct action are part of that legacy of the International Brigades that we celebrate here today. Alex Gordon REMEMBER SPAIN Speech delivered at the International Brigades Memorial Trust’s 2022 annual commemoration of the British and Irish volunteers who fought fascism in Spain (1936-38). RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2022 :: RMTnews 27 “So, what can we as women do about it? I’ll share with you a quote from the novelist Alice Walker who said: “The common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”. “Women have historically given up their power and this can be seen in the fight for equal pay and how pensions were less than their male counterparts because they had stopped at home to raise their children. “If we think about the case of Mrs Patience Round from Cradley Heath she was 79 years old and still working as a chain maker as she had done from the age of 10, supporting her husband who was disabled, she was on a low wage and needed to continue working to survive and keep her house. “Returning from a strike meeting in 1910 she was quoted as saying: ‘These are wonderful times, I never thought that I should live to assert the rights of us women, it has been the week of my life – three meetings, and such beautiful talking’. “Mrs Round had realised that she had rights and could exercise them after years of thinking she had none. So, if you are in un-unionised industries speak to the unions about recognition and get your workplaces unionised. “Together we are stronger we may all come from different unions and different parts of the country. But we are one union family who can support each other regardless of gender, race, sexuality etc and I would encourage more women to follow in my footsteps and fight for what you believe in,” Kathy said to applause. • Folk legend John Kirkpatrick and Neil Gore have written a folk opera about Mary Macarthur and the women chainmakers called ROUSE, YE WOMEN!