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CLEANERS TRADE UNION On December 12th, 1972 an historic meeting took place in London to set up the first London Transport and General Workers' Union branch for The Secretary and Chainin of the branch have been appointed. They are The Branch Cormittee has not yet been formed and the Branch Secretary requests that cleaners who are members of the T.G.W.U. and would like to be considered for membership of the Cormittee should get in touch with her. (May Hobbs, 13, Middle Lane, London N.8. Tel: 348 3594) This is the first cleaners! branch to be formed anywhere and which we and we hope that proper use will be made of the machinery we now have. well on the way to being defeated with the formation of our own branch Rank & File Unity She fought also against the union bureaucrats and for the unity of rank and file working people. This was exemplified in the 1903 miners strike when union leaders tried-and eventually succeded -to send the northern miners back to work before the demands-for 8 hour day, for payment in money instead of tokens etc) by the Colorado miners had been won. On hearing that John Mitchell, President of the union wanted the northern miners to go back she said:-"1 am going to tell you that if God almighty wants this strike called off for his benefit and not for the miners, I am going to raise my voice against it. And as to President John paying me........he never paid me a penny in his life. It is the hard earned nickles and dimes of the miners that pay me, and it is their interests that I am going to serve.
And speaking to the northern miners:- "You have a common enemy and it is your duty to fight to a finish. The enemy tries to conquer by dividing your ranks, by making distinctions between north and south, between American and foreign. You are all miners, fighting a common cause, a common master. The iron hand feels the same to all flesh. Hunger and suffering and the cause of your children bind more closely than a common tongue. I am accused of helping the Western Federation of Miners, as if that were a crime, by one of the National Board members. I plead guilty. I know no East or West, North nor South when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. It is is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every working man's child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there shall I go." Mother Jones exemplified the period in which she lived and worked. She had a completely developed union consciousness, and although she called herself a socialist, she never affiliated with political parties. Often speaking on behalf of Debs, promoting his candidacy and defending the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), from the slanderous attacks against them, she devoted her entire being to promoting union consciousness and building workers" organisations. Heroic as her efforts were, her consciousness never went beyond FIRST BRANCH FORMED.
cleaners.
Secrutary: May Hobbe and Chaiman:
heartily welcome.
COMING!
JOIN THE UNE BIG UNION union building as a solution to workers problems and pressure on Government politicians as the end of her political aims.
Margaret Coulson (Source and quotes: The autobiography of Mother Jones Chas. H. Kerr & Co., Chicago 1925-reprinted 1972).
Jean Mormont.
We feel sure that organisational problems are now