The Socialist 22 August 2012

Support South African Miners

Support South African miners

Lobby the TUC on 9 September: Demand a 24-hour strike against austerity

Zero-hour contracts mean zero rights

Scrounger? The truth about living on the dole

Tottenham: a year since the riots

Fare rises and rail cuts: Kick the fat cats off our railways!

NHS: Dewsbury mass meeting opposes PFI

Another News of the World perjury charge

Doors close after A-level results

Justice for Kingsley Burrell!

Updates

WikiLeaks and Assange: No extradition to the USA

Shafilia Ahmed murder: A question of women's rights

Tommy Walker - tribute to a working class fighter

Them & Us

And the toilet seat medal goes to... Sheffield City Council!

Southampton rebels continue fight against council cuts

Victory for One Housing workers

Draconian sentences for Pussy Riot protest will backfire on Putin

End seafarers' poverty wages

Builders plan to stop 'Besna 2' at Crown House

In Brief: POA rejects pensions offer

Food: Scoffing on profits

The Olympics: Sport for all, or just for the elite?

Previous issues, etc

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Tommy Walker - tribute to a working class fighter

Andy Bentley

Tommy Walker, who has died aged 91, was a working class hero. This Communist Party member inspired many trade union activists in Stoke-on-Trent and beyond.

My father and Tommy were both joiners and worked together on many jobs. Tommy fought like a lion for building workers on the sites.

At Seddons in the 1960s Tommy was a thorn in management's side. Seddons was like something out of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - the boss's son, John Seddon, was called 'Master John'!

They wanted to get rid of Tommy by sending him to some remote site. The foreman told Tommy: "I have a message from Master John. He wants you to go to another job". Tommy replied, "Tell Master John that Master Tom says his request is refused!"

Inspiration

Tommy talked about the need to organise building workers to fight the bosses and that this fight would not stop until the working class had achieved socialism. Tommy was blacklisted but became a regional organiser for Ucatt union.

I started work in the building trade in 1972 and marched alongside Tommy in strike action against the 'lump' (casual cash-in-hand labour -Eds) and in defence of the victimised Shrewsbury pickets, in the great miners' strike of 1984/5 and against the poll tax.

During the miners' strike I joined the Militant. Despite some political differences I visited Tommy regularly to sell him the Militant newspaper.

Tommy and my dad introduced me to the class struggle and which side I was on.

Tommy was an inspiration for the battles to come.

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