Union Man - An Autobiography

by Jack Jones

Union Autobiography (signed)

Genres: Politics, Autobiography

1 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

James Larkin (Jack) Jones, was a British trade union leader and General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
List of authors: Jack Jones

Reviews

[Rob M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Union Man is a highly accessible biography of both the man and his era. Jones writes in an approachable tone of voice with plenty of personality, speaking clearly to the reader as he would to a fellow trade union member.

I couldn't recommend this book enough to people who want to understand the real political and economic history of Britain between the 1930s and 1970s, told by one of most influential working class leaders of that time.

In light of Thatcherism's rewriting of history, those of us who are trade unionists have an obligation to educate ourselves on our own history and our own story. Sometimes we make this hard for ourselves with books that are just plain impenetrable.

Union Man is a real antidote to that.

The book is partly a memoir of a rich and interesting life, but it's also a detailed exposition on the theory and practice of militant class politics, as told by a dedicated socialist devoid of sectarian instincts. The reader will learn a lot of historical facts and, if they read it right, they'll also learn a valuable way of thinking too.

It's also a very beautiful book, liberally strewn with humanist reflections and poetry.

So next time someone bangs on at you about "union barons of the 1970s", give them this. Union Man was written by one of the biggest and most demonised union barons of them all. What we learn is that far from being the monster of the right wing imagination, Jack Jones was a thoughtful, hardworking, and highly principled man of humble origins who always tried to do right by his members, his class, and his country.

Forget what Thatcher's gormless minions preach at you, we're all much the poorer without him and others like him today.

[Senioreuge · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Larkin Jones, a very famous Trade Unionist from Liverpool named after, perhaps that city's most famous Trade Union Leader Jim Larkin who cut a swathe through Irish and British trade union thinking in the formative decades of the 20th century. Jones, a very capable and forward thinking leader of Britain and Irelands largest trade union, was fundamental to all the advances made by the working class in both countries in the middle part of the last century. He and Hugie Scanlon of the Engineering Union were known as the terrible twins of the TUC. Jones life well documented in this autobiography demonstrates a full life of a person seeking to undo, where possible, injustice wherever it is found. Be it on the shop floor or in the Spanish fight to assert their democratic entitlement to select their own government in the 1930's. Personally I found Jones to be easy to approach and eager to learn. His confidence in his class never waned and this is clear in this autobiography. Highly recommend reading it.