Floodlight of Publicity, 'Organisation' & Jim Pink!

Was Bob Miller a public figure?

THE father of Northern Anarchism, Jim Pink from Ashton-under-Lyne, who was in 1960s the international secretary of the anarcho-syndicalist Syndicalist Workers Federation (SWF), used to tell me that 'anarchists must always be ready for the floodlight of publicity to fall upon them.' Many English anarchists these days dread falling under the floodlight of publicity because they say that they have their 'jobs, careers and pensions to protect'.

'Jim Pink', as the engineering apprentices playfully used to call him after the national apprentice strikes in 1960, was really called James Pinkerton, was mentioned in a document circulated by the Economic League in 1964 to local employers in Oldham as being a political pal of mine, and was also accused of being a contributor to the paper 'Industrial Youth', put out by the Manchester Apprentice Wages& amp; Conditions Committee in the 1960s. Jimmy Pink was then a copy-taker at the Daily Herald and later worked in the same capacity for the Sunday People Copy Department. Although he insisted on describing himself as a 'syndicalist'as well as an 'anarchist', because he thought it was necessary to present a convincing organisational argument for social change to the public, and he felt it was harder to do that in England if one just simply called oneself 'an anarchist'.

Thus, what Colin Trousdale said at the branch meeting of the Manchester contracting electricians that the notion of 'anarchism'conflicted with that of 'organisation' * was not so strange if one of the most major intellectual figures of northern anarchism in the 20^thcentury, Jimmy Pink from Ashton-under-Lyne, believed the exactly same. Jimmy Pink thought that the Spanish tradition of democratic anarcho-syndicalist trade unions offered a possible alternative structure to that of parliamentary democracy: it was not totally proved in Spain that anarcho-syndicalism could offer a working alternative, but some like Pedro Cuadrado have said that anarcho-syndicalist Barcelona was the first city in the world to halt the march of Fascism in July 1936, and the Italian writer Ignazio Silone (the Italian Orwell) has claimed that the Catalans with their sprite of improvisation and initiative had qualities that the more disciplined German, Austrian and Prussian trade unionists and other north European's lacked. Colin Trousdale would do well to consider how George Orwell describes the efficiency and decency of the Spanish anarchists in his book 'Homage to Catalonia' published in the 1930s. 

The argument about Bob Miller and his obituary in Northern Voices No.13, revolves around the question of whether you regard Mr. Miller as a public figure. It boils down to this, was Miller sufficiently important to warrant an obituary? There are those that argue that he was not politically significant, and therefore his obituary ought not to have appeared a publication such as the Voicesthat appeals to Joe Public and sells outside the narrow political area, but we published an obituary for Harold Garfinkel in the same issue, and he is not a well known intellectual in this country this too was somewhat critical of the subject.  In the Miller case I was comparing Bob Miller from down South to Ken Keating from Salford, and I was much more complementary to Mr Keating than Mr Miller the schoolmaster, because I believed then and I believe now, that on balance Keating was the more distinguished 'anarchist' of the two. Some people obviously believe that I was not entitled to that opinion, but they should bare in mind that I was treating each man as representative of a particular type of 'anarchist' just as George Orwell referred to W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender as the 'Pansy Poets' and 'Parlour Bolsheviks' when he wrote a letter about them to Nancy Cunard. I have discussed this matter with Bob's son Tom Miller, and neither he nor anyone else has persuaded me to alter any of the views that I expressed in the original obituary, although I wish Tom when he rang me in November 2012, had kept his promise to write a letter of 300 words to Northern Voices putting the other side of the story. .

* Significantly Colin Trousdale made a comment about what he actually said:
'Colin Trousdale did not attack anarchists (at the branch meeting of the Manchester electricians - see post entitled "Laughter as Militants Mock English Anarchists!"), Colin Trousdale (me) laughed at the thought of Anarchists having a Federation/Organised structure which I feel flies in the face of my interpretation of Anarchy . NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS WE ARE THE SPARKS M/c CONTRACTING BRANCH. Brian please refrain from mis-quoting me in print to further your petty arguments that now having the benefit of both sides of the story I feel you were in the wrong about . This problem is hardly the re-unification of Ireland or the rights of Palestinians to live in peace in Gaza. Grow up.'

Putin's PR Disaster!

BONHAN Ratycz of the Association of Ukrainians in the UK told me last night that he thought President Putin had suffered 'a serious pubic relation disaster' as a result of the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane last week.  Mr. Ratycz also told Northern Voices that he thought that it was likely that the plane had been accidentally shot down by the separatists in eastern Ukraine.  But he questioned the figure of 50 mercenaries given in the International New York Times (see previous post: 'Ukraine & Spain, is it the same?') as he said 'there is evidence that many more Russian mercenaries have crossed the boarder'.  It is probable that the figure of '50' given in the International New York Times refers only to those mercenaries in the city of Luhansk, and not all those across eastern Ukraine.   

Mr. Ratycz pondered the extraordinary attitude of the Russians and said 'it's as if they belong on another planet they just want to destabilise the Ukraine'.  Jim Pinkerton, a northern anarchist who had studied Russian in the 1970s, often told me that the Russians had many good points but their history had not been much influenced by the sprite of Greek civilisation that allows for individual integrity in society.   

Today's editorial in the International New York Times states: 

'The facts about the shooting down of the plane must be established by trusted, international experts.  The most likely finding, for which American and other Western officials say there is strong evidence, is that the jetliner was brought down by rockets fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine. That would require not only ground-to-air missiles but also the expertise and equipment to guide them, raising the possibility of assistance from Russia itself.  Russia has denied any such role, and its military officials have pushed a compelling scenario, inculpating Ukraine.'   

Furthermore, also according to today's International New York Times editorial: 

'In that same statement, Mr. Putin also sought to transfer blame to Ukraine, saying the tragedy would not have happened if Kiev had maintained a cease-fire.'   

Some of this may prejudge the issue, but where the editor of the New York Times writes of ‘the most likely finding…’ ,  the speculation seems to make sense.  It is just important to remember that it is simply speculation until more facts are known.  

Jim Pinkerton, 'Verdi Man' & opera buff

WHEN in the Autumn of 2001 the distinguished old Lancashire anarchist and former international secretary of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation, Jim Pinketon, had just suffered what was to be his first stroke and was speechless in bed in Ashton-under-Lyne General Hospital, Harold Sculthorpe produced a pair of headphones and played him some Puccini, Derek Pattison, another life-long friend said:  'Jim was more of a Verdi man, Harold!'.   This year is the bicentennary of both Verdi and Wagner and it caused a little consternation when last December the Teatro alla Scala in Milan opened its season with 'Lohengrin' in observation of Wagner's bicentennial rather than with an opera by Verdi, who was born in Roncole, Italy, in the Duchy of Palma, on either the 9th or 10th, October 1813 (the records are unclear). 

Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 22nd, 1813 (no doubt the German records are clearer).  It seems they never met and had little nice to say about each other.  Yet in later life, in 1899, Verdi told a German newspaper that Wagner was 'one of the greatest geniuses' who left treasures of 'immortal worth', admitting that as an Italian, he could not claim to 'understand everything' in Wagner, but he declared before 'Trista und Isolde... I stand in wonder and terror.'  The scholar Richard Taruskin has suggested that though some of Verdi's praise may have been genuine there is 'sufficient evidence of leg pulling' in the old man's answer to the fawning German interviewer.  Anthony Tommasini, the journalist, writes:  'For the most part Wagner and Verdi existed as titans in their separate realms.' 

The Puccini music made Jim Pinkerton jerk briefly in his hospital bed when the head-phones went on his ears possibly showing some recognition, but he was never to converse again with any of us and died on March 9th, 2002 at the age of 79-years.  He was never again to listen to his 78rpm records of Caruso, Nelly Melba, Alfredo Kraus and a Zazuela from Spain or drink his fine Burgundy.

Since its excursion last year into Wagner the Teatro alla Scala has redressedv the balance in the months since with new productions of four Verdi operas, the latest being 'Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacto'.  'Oberto' was Verdi's first opera ever.  Tommasini writes:  'By midcentury Verdi had become the Italian opera composer best known and most performed in Europe' as 'commissions even came to him from St. Petersburg ('La Forza del Destino') and Cairo ('Aida').'  For Tommasini:  'He was a colossus who expanded on and experimented with the Italian tradition but never really moved beyond it.'

What did this mean for Verdi? 

Anthony Tommasini writes:
'Verdi was born to an Italian opera tradition that embraced tried-and-true procedures regarding recitative and aria, scene structure and the like.'  But, 'In letters he complained endlessly about the tyranny of the tradition... the ridiculous expectations of opera audiences for set-piece arias and ensembles could infuriate him as much as the absurdities of the Italian censors, who vetoed story lines and settings that were deemed incendiary.'

Stravinsky wrote in his book 'Poetics of Music' defending the oom-pah-pah aria in the style of Verdi:
'I know I am going to counter the general opinion that sees Verdi's best work in the deterioration of the genius that gave us "Rigoletto," "Il Trovatore," "Aida" and "La Traviata," ' but, 'I maintain that there is more substance and true invention in the aria "La donna è mobile" (The woman is fickle), for example, in which the elite saw nothing but deplorable facility, than in the rhetoric and vociferations of the "Ring," (Wagner) ' 

Jim Pinkerton, who retired as a copy-taker on the Sunday People in the 1980s, was a northern, working-class, anarchist intellectual who loved Verdi and took a dim view of the English anarchist movement.  Culturally he would have preferred to belong to the Italian middle-class as that would have given him greater access to the music he so passionately desired.  But politically he adored the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists of the CNT, particularly the Catalans, as compared to them, he observed: "we English are like shrivelled up prunes".  When one considers the the British left today, particularly the half-baked anarchist movement of this island one can't help but think that he was right in this insight.

James Pinkerton obituary

From Freedom #6315 (27th July 2002)

One of the most brilliant anarchist intellectuals in the north of England died in March. James Pinkerton, secretary of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation (SWF) until 1963, had been involved in anarchism when he came out of the army not long after the Second World War.  He'd stumbled on some anarchist speakers at London's Speakers' Corner while on a visit to the opera.  After that, he and his friend Jack McPhearson set up the Dukinfield Anarchist Group north of Manchester.

Although they were both opera lovers and played musical instruments - Jack was an excellent pianist and Jim played the cello - they were unimpressed by English middle class pretensions.  Ken Hawkes, the leading figure in the SWF, called them 'the musical anarchists'.

Both lived in council houses up to the end of their lives and both considered it best to belong to the working class.  When, in recent times, a friend of Jim's who'd become middle class said 'there's nowt better than being working class', Jim said he understood perfectly how he felt. 'The English middle class live in a no-man's land', he said.  There was a paradox, of course.  Here was a man living in a council house, playing the cello and deafening the neighbours with his treasured collection of records, which he blasted out daily from powerful speakers, his pantry full of the best Burgundy and clarets and a library of books to rival the contents of the Hay-on-Wye literary festival.  Many's the day he'd insist on playing Caruso, Nelly Melba, Alfredo Kraus or a Zarzuela from Spain, before we went down to the Trades Council meeting in Ashton town centre.

This paradox of the English social classes in the north was brought home to us when Jim was on his deathbed and unable to talk.   A Manchester book dealer, who'd befriended Jim in his later years, left his business card with a neighbour. For an anarchist this would be unseemly.  But a business card has a certain magic it would take a Balzac to explain.

The book dealer was given the key and, while creaming off the first editions, noticed letters written by Brian Bamford from Franco's Spain.  It looks like the main body of anarchist archive material went to the tip with Jim's prize collection of records, simply because English working class people don't understand these things.

Competing with the bourgeoisie

Brian remembers that in the 1960s his mother was donkey-stoning the doorstep when an anarchist friend turned up and, because of that and his middle class accent, she took an instant dislike to him. Even when Jim was best man at Brian's wedding, he said he felt uncomfortable with Brian's father and left early.  Brian reckons his father thought Jim was leading him astray, sending him to Spain to fight the Franco regime.

Stuart Christie said that, at the time of his trial in Madrid, his mother turned up and bumped into fellow anarchist prisoner Fernando Carballo.  'I introduced my mother to Fernando, who was handcuffed to my wrist.  I could not help but feel that she believed he was the evil monster who had lured her boy into this mess'.

It was the same at Jim's funeral.  His relatives were polite, but there was an air of distrust about the anarchist contingent, the healthy distrust all English people have for politicians of all kinds.  The irony of it all would have tickled Jim.

Once, when asked at a wine tasting if he was 'in the trade', Jim responded typically.  'No', he said. 'I'm that rare thing, a working class wine drinker'.  And even in his drinking, he had a contempt for the English middle classes, saying he was reluctant to buy his wine from supermarkets 'because the middle class have a cut-off price of about £9 a bottle'.

That was about ten years ago, but as he poured a glass for Brian in the 1960s he said, 'you know, we're not aping the bourgeoisie, we're competing with them'.  Anyone who could wean former Dukinfield refuse collector and Trades Council anarchist Derek Pattison from beer and savoury ducks to fine wines, pheasant, partridge and wood pigeon must be quite remarkable.

Despite his love of the English working class, on one occasion Brian mentioned that Vernon Richards, former editor of Freedom and another music lover, was Italian. Jim replied that he would most liked to have been a member of the Italian middle class.  That was the class he most envied, and this comment was obviously associated with his passion for Verdi and Italian opera. When he was lying on his deathbed,  Derek and Brian went with Harold Sculthorpe to put headphones on Jim to play him Verdi and Puccini.

Politically he identified with the Spaniards and the Anarchist Federation of Britain, which later became the SWF.   At the time of the split within the British anarchist movement, he sided with them against the then Freedom Press Group.  His feeling, as we understood it, was that Freedom Press was too remote and aloof from ordinary people.

He thought that Freedom in the 1960s had a good position on civil liberties and that, under Vernon Richards's editorship, it was 'a good bedside read'.  But he felt it lacked a grasp of the economic and social conditions of everyday life.  For him, it was never a paper that could become part of a movement as the Spanish anarchist papers had become.

He admired the Spanish anarchists politically and socially, even if he was drawn to the Italians culturally.  In June last year, after we'd had some Spaniards from the CGT round to his house, he remarked that 'we English are like shrivelled-up prunes compared to the Spaniards'.  He clearly took a dim view of the English anarchist movement.

Jim resigned as national secretary of the SWF in 1963, at a time when the peace movement was in ferment. Many young people were joining the anarchist movement, and some had gone into the SWF. While he was happy to see the numbers increase, he said that not many of the newcomers were workers.

In the 1950s he'd translated the SWF pamphlet Communist Terror in Bulgaria from French and, with Jack McPhearson from Dukinfield and Julian Pilling from Burnley, had gone on to reproduce Direct Action as a propaganda sheet on a flat-bed duplicator.  He'd been treasurer of Northern Industrial Action, a group of libertarians including anarcho-syndicalists from the SWF, people from the old Solidarity Group, the Independent Labour Party and miscellaneous anarchists.  This group, formed in Manchester around 1962, was the North's answer to the National Rank and File Movement. He attended meetings of the reformed Manchester Anarchist Group from 1964, as well as the 1965 SWF conference. He also wrote for Freedom on the anarchist movement in Manchester.

Adviser to apprentices

He was an adviser to the engineering apprentices in Rochdale when they put out their paper, Progress, in 1960.  This was in the wake of the national apprentices' strike for improvements in wages and conditions in May that year.  He also assisted with the production of Industrial Youth (IY), which came out during the engineering apprentices' strikes of 1964 and 1965. This paper was supported by the Manchester Apprentice Wages & Conditions Committee during the dispute, and continued as a publication for apprentices until late 1966.

Jim was named at the time by the Economic League, an organisation of bosses' informers, as someone implicated in the apprentice's paper.  One employer circularised the Economic League's findings to its apprentices, warning them of anarchist involvement.

In 1970, Jim attended the trials that followed the Arrow Mill strike at Rochdale, where the police had been brought in to break up a sit-down strike of Asian workers.  An anarchist had been arrested for actions that took place on the premises during the dispute.  After the strike and the trials, he backed the Campaign for Shop Stewards in Textiles in Oldham, Shaw and Rochdale, which had Asian and anarchist involvement. It was during this campaign that he first met then mill operative Bob Lees.

Later in the 1970s, he was involved with the North West Workers' Alliance which used to meet in Oldham.  This was an anarcho-syndicalist body which was associated with the SWF.  A copytaker on several newspapers in Manchester, he was an active trade unionist in NATSOPA and SOGAT and Father of the Chapel on the Daily Herald and the Sunday People.

Most people outside the North West won't have heard of Jimmy Pinkerton. That's because he was never a prolific writer or regular public speaker. He despised oratory.  He was really a Socrates of the north of England, who stimulated those with whom he came into contact.  Not just with wine and music, but with his intellectual rigour and the breadth of his ideas.

He'd left school at 14 and was near enough self-taught but we, who've done our stints on the treadmills of the universities, have seldom found anyone to compare for clarity of vision and thought with Jimmy Pinkerton.

When he attended the Marseilles Conference of the AIT as an SWF delegate in the late 1950s, he later said the French delegates had considered him an 'opportunist'. He spoke fluent French and was always determined to discover practical solutions for the presentation of an anarchist programme.

He'd often upset people, such as when he supported the 1999 NATO action in Kosovo. He considered the action necessary to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing, and quoted the historical example of the Roman legion that had done a detour to put down a case of child sacrifice in the empire.  'Sometimes', he said, 'the big battalions do the decent thing'.

He was critical of Chomsky's line over the Balkan conflict, which he saw as worn-out anti-Americanism. Many of our discussions in recent years centred on Chomsky, following the criticisms of Chomsky's linguistics and philosophy in a recently published journal, Chomsky and his Critics.

Jim was puzzled by Chomsky's hostility to the late novels of George Orwell, and he said some of Chomsky's comments were 'intelligent'.  He took the view that Chomsky was jealous of Orwell because he was a creative writer and a novelist, while Chomsky - for all his brilliance was simply a 'functional writer'.

With Jim Pinkerton's loss, there will be a gap in the lives of so many of us who looked to him for intellectual stimulation, moral guidance and friendship. A couple of years ago, referring to his regular talks with some of the northern anarchists, he told us 'you lads keep me going'. Jim was the father of northern anarchism and we are his children.

Brian Bamford, Bob Lees and Derek Pattison

A shorter obituary by Brian Bamford for the Guardian, can be read here.