Brian Higgins dies before Unite does its duty!
NV Editor: ON this Blog we recently reported
that Private Eye had revealed that bricklayer
Brian Higgins, a blacklisted trade unionist in the building
trade, had given evidence that some union officials had
been a font of information in fingering militants. One
such is alleged to be Jerry Swain, now a Unite national
officer. That was last month's news on this Blog, and we
regret to announce below the news from Dave Smith of
the Blacklist Support Group that Brian Higgins, the
victim of blacklisting, is now dead. So much for justice
on the building sites.
************
Brian's
blacklist file starts in 1978 and ran to 49 pages, the largest held by
The Consulting Association. During the miners strike, Brian was part of
the Laing's Lock Out Committee, and was
presented with a High Court injunction to stop picketing after he and
other activists were sacked for their union activities on a building
site in South London. He ignored it.
He
was also spied on by Mark Jenner, the undercover police agent
provocateur from the Special Demonstration Squad, and was a core
participant in the public inquiry into undercover policing.
Brain
sat on the BSG executive and spoke at our AGMs, until ill health led to
him to stand down. Brian was instrumental in setting up a private
meeting in Brussels with the European Commissioner
Laszlo Andor, which resulted in new anti-blacklisting legislation being
presented to the European parliament.
Brian
was uncompromising in his call for an independent investigation into
possible union collusion in blacklisting. This is Brian in his own
words, when he wrote a review for Blacklisted:
"The
book says I raged against the blacklist. I did and still do. But I have
to say the thing about it which angers, in fact, enrages me most, is
that some full time officials undoubtedly
aided and abetted blacklisting of rank and file union members and some
are probably still doing this as the Blacklist continues. It is
painfully obvious building employers – who regularly wined and dined
full time union officials, took some on golf outings
and to sporting contests, to very expensive posh hotels, and even on
visits to the Naval and Military Gentlemen’s Club – would demand some
things in return! After all there is no such thing as a free lunch and
we’re talking about this with knobs on here! Don’t
tell us that sometimes the names of site union militants and activists
did not come up, and what full time officials said, in these
circumstances, did not end up on some Consulting Association (CA) files.
This sort of socialising, fraternising and consorting
with building employers masquerading as ‘negotiations’ is corrupt and
corrupting in the extreme. It’s absolutely disgusting to think that
while fulltime union officials were doing this many rank and file union
members were being blacklisted out of existence!"
Brian
was one of the blacklisted construction workers who signed the Open
Letter to UNITE calling for an investigation to be set up. It is now too
late for Brian, but we hope that the UNITE
EC will set up the investigation into possible collusion ASAP.
Anyone
who has heard Brain speak will remember his booming Glaswegian voice,
disdain for union bureaucracy and his liberal use of industrial
language. I've stood on pickets lines and attended
union conference with Brian. I didn't always agree with everything Brian
said (but that is not unusual in the labour movement) and internal
union polemics were part of his persona, but it is undeniable that Brian
was one of the leading rank and file industrial
militants of his generation, who had a significant impact on trade
unionism in the construction industry.
As a fitting tribute, former bricklayer, Neil Findlay MSP submitted
Motion S5M-17548 to the Scottish Parliament titled:
Brian Higgins - a working class hero (full text attached)
Dave Smith
Blacklist Support Group
blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
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