Dave Hallsworth, who has died aged 78 of bone cancer, was a working-class activist who joined the Communist party while on active service in Korea but resigned in 1956 after the suppression of the Hungarian uprising. He finally found a political home with the small but militant Revolutionary Communist party. Born in Manchester, he left school at 14 and soon joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor. He was discharged after being jailed for a month for trying to organise sailors on a warship. Years of trade union work followed and in 1981 Dave led a long and bitter strike against redundancy at the engineering company of Laurence, Scott and Electromotors, in Openshaw, Manchester, where he worked. The strike featured in Ken Loach's banned Channel 4 documentary, Questions of Leadership (1983). Dave was secretary of the Tameside trades council at this time, committing it to a policy of supporting Irish freedom and a conference to discuss the Northern Ireland troubles. As a result, the TUC sent its future general secretary John Monks to disband the council. In 1983, he won a respectable 400 or so votes as an Independent candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne in the general election. Dave was a cheerful host, putting on barbecues for Manchester socialists. He was a great mocker of other people's excuses - and of his own. A moving orator, he kept an active interest in politics right up to his death, and contributed often to the online journal Spiked. He is survived by Elsie, his fellow activist and wife of more than 50 years, and their sons, Andrew and Duncan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/otherlives/story/0,,2230067,00.html
Thursday 24 January 2008
Obituary: Dave Hallsworth
Dave Hallsworth, who has died aged 78 of bone cancer, was a working-class activist who joined the Communist party while on active service in Korea but resigned in 1956 after the suppression of the Hungarian uprising. He finally found a political home with the small but militant Revolutionary Communist party. Born in Manchester, he left school at 14 and soon joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor. He was discharged after being jailed for a month for trying to organise sailors on a warship. Years of trade union work followed and in 1981 Dave led a long and bitter strike against redundancy at the engineering company of Laurence, Scott and Electromotors, in Openshaw, Manchester, where he worked. The strike featured in Ken Loach's banned Channel 4 documentary, Questions of Leadership (1983). Dave was secretary of the Tameside trades council at this time, committing it to a policy of supporting Irish freedom and a conference to discuss the Northern Ireland troubles. As a result, the TUC sent its future general secretary John Monks to disband the council. In 1983, he won a respectable 400 or so votes as an Independent candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne in the general election. Dave was a cheerful host, putting on barbecues for Manchester socialists. He was a great mocker of other people's excuses - and of his own. A moving orator, he kept an active interest in politics right up to his death, and contributed often to the online journal Spiked. He is survived by Elsie, his fellow activist and wife of more than 50 years, and their sons, Andrew and Duncan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/otherlives/story/0,,2230067,00.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I well remember Dave Hallsworth from his anti-NF activities in the 1970's.
I must say I had--have--more respect for him than for the modern Labour party members. His was an older form of left-wing activism. More honest, gutsy, passionate and ideologically pure than the people we see on the Labour benches in council and Parliament.
The passing of an era.
Post a Comment