RETIRED
Having spent most of my adult life active in the Trade Union and Labour Movement, when the time came for me to retire from work due to my health, I looked for something to keep me active and at the same time connected to the Labour Movement. The year was 1984 and in October 1978 a Branch of the British Pensioners' Trade Union Action Association had been formed in Manchester. A large number of the leading members of the BPTUAA in Manchester were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Amongst them was the Chairman, Phil Jackson, he had been very active in the National Union of Furniture Trade Operatives, Max Druck with whom I had a long association as he had been a leading member of the party from the early days when I joined the YCL, and many other old comrades of mine. So, when Max suggested that Clare and I join the Pensioners organisation it seemed to me to present just the opportunity I had been looking for. The Pensioners movement was growing with retired trade unionists who had, like me, been active throughout their working life, fighting for better conditions at work, now using the skills and experience they had to further the interests of retired people.
In 1972, a retired, active trade unionist, William Short, called together a small group of active pensioners in Camden, London. They formed the first unit of what was to become the British Pensioners' and Trade Union Action Association. Within a few short years, Will Short died in 1976 and Fred Baker was elected to the position of General Secretary of the then British Pensioners and Trade Union Action Committee.
From that very small start, and in the very short time of four years, some 250 branches of the newly named British Pensioners Trade Union Action Association, had been founded throughout the country.
Spring 1980 saw the first issue of a quarterly newsletter, British Pensioner, a four page bulletin of news and comment on the activities of pensioners all over Britain. Priced at a modest 5 pence, it gave pensioners the possibility of airing their ideas, and became a campaigning weapon promoting the policy of action to improve the standard of life for those who had spent their life in the service of their country.
The early members believed that the new organisation had to distance itself from the paternalistic approach of the pensioner organisations that existed at that time. It had to be independent of the state so as to be able to praise or condemn all governments or political parties in accordance with their attitude to the retired. It also would need to distance itself from the charities who see the elderly as needing "tea and sympathy". As a campaigning body it was crucial that it did not compete with those pensioner organisations that saw their role as mainly concerned with social activities. Nevertheless, it had to be seen as the body fighting for the rights and living standards of all pensioners.
The election in 1979 of a Conservative Government with Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister was significant to the retired section of the community, to such an extent that many pensioner organisations, that had, in the past been willing to, "let well alone" and centred their energy around the provision of social activities such as tea dances, bingo sessions etc., began to see that they needed to get involved in the growing, campaigning movement to improve their standards.
The development within the Trade Union Movement had been given a boost when the Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, Jack Jones, retired and announced that he intended to spend his retirement working to advance the interests of retired working people.
As a well-known activist in the Labour movement, Jack was able to bring to the pensioners developing campaign, the expertise he had put to such good use during his long association with the Labour Movement.
The Manchester TUC Pensioners Association, of which Phil Jackson was then Chairman, was holding regular monthly meetings in the Post Office Club which was situated in Quay Street in the centre of Manchester. The Post Office workers Trade Union gave the pensioners a meeting room and the use of the club.
It soon became obvious that the area of Greater Manchester could not be served by one branch of the BPTUAA. So the decision was taken to widen the area of activity by establishing branches in the ten Boroughs that make up Greater Manchester.
In Bury I called a meeting of like-minded members of the Communist Party, to discuss the formation of a Pensioners organisation. The first meeting, held in the summer of 1984 and attended by Bessie Johnson, Joe Patrick, Jack Newby and myself agreed to set up a Bury Pensioners organisation that would be affiliated to the BPTUAA and connected to the Manchester TUC Pensioners Association.
The Tory Government under Margaret Thatcher had by then started on its privatisation of our national assets and amongst its targets was the Post Office. Two local Sub-Post Offices, one on Manchester Road Bury and the other situated in Dumers Lane, Radcliffe, were threatened with closure.
The area around the Dumers Lane Post Office was populated by a large number of pensioners living in bungalows built specifically for the elderly. For them the local Post Office was a most important asset as they had only a short walk to get their pensions and any other benefits that they were entitled to that were paid by giro cheque. As with most of these small sub-post offices, this one served as a meeting place where the pensioners could meet their friends, have a chat and buy some of the necessities of life. So the threat of closure was immediately opposed by the local residents. Amongst them was George Jones and his wife Ivy. George had been a very active trade unionist, a long-time member of the Transport & General Workers Union and of the Labour Party. At the time their son Colin was the Leader of the Labour Group on the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. So it was natural that they should get involved in the fight to save the sub-post office in Dumers Lane.
As soon as we heard of this struggle by local pensioners to save this important asset, we approached George Jones and offered our help in the campaign. A petition had been started, the Jones family were seasoned campaigners and had not allowed the grass to grow under their feet. When I met George and his wife they immediately agreed with our idea that the campaign to save the post office should be linked to our attempt to build a strong pensioners organisation in Bury. A meeting was held on Monday 6th August 1984 with myself, Bessie Johnson, Jack Newby, George Jones and his wife Ivy present. The one item under discussion was the threat to close the two Sub-Post Offices. It was agreed that we contact the two local MPs, and local Councillors asking them to attend a protest meeting. We wrote to the businesses in the area around Dumers Lane Post Office, firms like Bibby and Baron, paper bag manufacturers, Hall's Toffees and the Co-operative Society. We also contacted all the Trade Unions involved in those businesses. Before very long we had nearly a hundred members mainly from around the Dumers Lane area all working hard in the post office campaign. Hundreds of signatures were gathered on the protest petition and we then called the public meeting around the question of the threatened closures. We invited the two Members of Parliament, Alistair Burt and David Sumberg from Bury North and Bury South respectively, and leading members of the Council. The two MPs, both Tory, were faced with the horns of a dilemma. If they supported the closure they would obviously lose a lot of support, the fight to save the post offices had gathered support from all over the Borough. The local press was full of letters calling for the threat of closure to be withdrawn, and at the public meeting they were told in no uncertain terms what we expected of them.
The final result was that we were successful in saving the Dumers Lane office but the Post Office at Blackford Bridge on Manchester Road did not get the same support and was lost.
The importance of the fight was shown by the fact that 25% of our members came from Dumers Lane. At first we met in a room in the Manchester Road Community Centre which served the purpose at first but as our membership grew it became necessary to find better accommodation.
We approached the Local Council for a room in the Town Hall to use once a month. But as the Council at that time had a Tory majority, and they perceived Bury Pensioners Association to be an arm of the Labour Party, they refused us any help. This assumption that, because we criticised the Tory Government we must be an organ of the Labour Party, is typical of the attitude of the MPs and local Tory councillors. In fact the pensioners movement is a NON PARTY Political movement. We accept members from across the political spectrum and never ask for political credentials. The only criteria for membership is acceptance of the Declaration of Intent. Freedom to criticise whatever the colour of the Government Party is jealously guarded and seen as an important part of the democratic process.
At the local elections held in 1986 the Labour Party won control of the Council and we immediately applied for a room in the Town Hall in which to hold our monthly meetings. The request was granted and ever since we have held our meetings in Committee Room 1 free of charge.
The main aim of the organisation was to campaign around the issue of better pensions and services for the elderly. The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) had formed a policy that was laid out in the;
DECLARATION OF INTENT
In addition to an adequate income a pensioner should, as of right;
Live in accommodation which is appropriate to personal need and circumstances with reasonable degree of choice including sheltered housing;
Be able to call on the full range of free community and personal social services to give full support as need arises, for example, home care, including domestic help, meals on wheels, chiropody, television and telephone;
In view of the wide disparity in the availability and types of existing travel concessions throughout the country, have access to a National Scheme which should be introduced involving a levelling up of existing schemes to the level of the best schemes in operation;
Have ready access to comprehensive free health care on demand;
Be able to maintain a warm and well lit home with additional heating payments for all pensioner households from October to March each year;
Have full access to a varied and extensive range of education and leisure facilities ;
Be paid a tax-free Christmas bonus restored to its 1972 purchasing power and adjusted annually in line with inflation;
Be eligible for an adequate retirement pension on ceasing work at any time of his or her choice after the age of 60 years;
Be entitled to an adequate death grant irrespective of age;
Be relieved of standing charges on gas, telephones, electricity and water;
Have a right to be consulted by central and local government and public utilities over plans which might affect their lives.
That statement of policy is the guiding line which we in Bury Pensioners Association use as the basis for our work.
Over the years we have been involved in campaigns stemming from the Declaration of Intent. We used all the means at our disposal to fight for dignity, security and independence in retirement. Letters to the press, to the two Tory MPs, Ministers etc., etc. We held public meetings, marches through the town, deputations to Parliament. In fact every possible method of propagating our point of view and our demands for a better life for the present generation of pensioners and for those who will come after us.
Our fight is their fight.
Some of the highlights of those years stand out, such as the public meeting we held around the question of the "reforms" of the National Health Service proposed by the then Minister of Health Kenneth Clarke. The meeting was held in the Derby Hall in the centre of Bury.
When the proposal to introduce radical changes to the way the National Health Service was organised were introduced by Kenneth Clarke in 1988 alarm bells started ringing. In Bury the Community Health Council, (the watchdog body to oversee the NHS), organised a survey, which, according to the Bury Times, was "Bury's biggest ever NHS survey...According to Community Health Council officials in the town, the vast majority of people in the borough are against Government plans to carry out radical changes in the Health Service." Over 5,000 people were interviewed, 82% of those aware of the proposals to change the NHS were against them.
Bury Pensioners Association played a prominent part in the survey with its members out on the streets and in the markets collecting the views of the people. As pensioners are the largest group of patients, it became obvious that we should fight to maintain the NHS in its present form where treatment is available "free at the point of need".
A proposal was put to the members of the Association that we should organise a public meeting to provide a platform for the discussion of the Government White Paper "Working with Patients". This was agreed and the following speakers were invited, Paul Reynolds, Chief Officer, Bury Community Health Council, Councillor D.O. Davies, Dr Flasher GP, Rev Marcus Maxwell of Bircle Parish Church and a Trade Union representative.
The meeting was held in what was then called the Derby Hall, the largest public hall in the town apart from the Town Hall, on Monday May 8th 1989.
The headline on the front page of the Bury Times for Friday 12th May, read;
NHS REFORMS MEETING ENDS IN ROW
A POLITICAL row erupted at a public meeting in Bury on the Government's controversial NHS reforms".
Monday's meeting ended in confrontation when Tories and left-wing activists flung allegations of political bias across a packed Derby Hall.
As Chairman of the meeting I was accused by the Chairwoman of Bury North Conservative Association as being "selective" in choosing members of the audience to put their point of view.
Former leader of the Labour Council, Councillor Laurie Bullas said that a number of people who supported the Government proposals had been given the opportunity to speak but used the opportunity as a political propaganda exercise.
In replying to the attack on me I said that, "To suggest that I selected people because of their political persuasion ...insulted me...I had not the time to memorise which faces belonged to which particular group and I believe ...that those who did speak covered a wide variety of interests."
The Bury Times in its report pointed out that, "Speakers who joined the discussion from the floor were, Mrs Beryl Archer...(SDP), ex-Conservative councillor Albert Little, Labour councillor Steve Ratcliffe, and Tory councillor Ray Honeyford as well as representatives from the Green Party, the Socialist Workers Party and Bury Pensioners Association."
The meeting passed overwhelmingly a resolution calling on the Government to "take note of the intense criticism of the White Paper " and proposed the setting up of a "broad non-party political 'Defend the Health Service' campaign.
As well as getting involved in the fight to save the National Health Service from being transformed into a two tier service, where those with the necessary finance could get immediate attention, and the rest wait in an ever lengthening queue, the Pensioners played their part in many other campaigns.
We wrote letters to the press and to the Members of Parliament on such subjects as the privatisation of the water industry, the deregulation of public transport, the privatisation of the other public utilities, gas, electric and of course we fought to retain the Postal Service.
At our monthly meetings we invited speakers to address us on all manner of subjects of interest to pensioners, from the amount paid in retirement pension, to the environment and wild life.
We marched in Manchester, we marched in London. We lobbied our MPs in the House of Commons and the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.
I remember one visit to the House of Commons when one of our founder members, Bessie Johnson was with us. After we had met the two MPs, Messrs. Burt and Sumberg, we were being escorted to the gate by Mr Burt, who on leaving us invited us to make arrangements with him for a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Bessie, on hearing this said, "The only place I want to see in this building is the cell where my Father was locked up for defending his class." She then explained that her Father had been on a demonstration to the House of Commons during the Hunger marches in the 1930s. He broke through the police cordon that was stopping the demonstrators getting into the House of Commons. He was arrested and kept overnight in a cell in the Palace of Westminster.
We signed petitions, we distributed thousands of leaflets. Whatever was seen as a way of bringing to the attention of the public the problems of those who have to exist on the Retirement Pension, we did it.
The Manchester TUC Pensioners Association that I joined in 1984 was responsible for producing a quarterly magazine, Grey Power. It grew out of the monthly report that was distributed to the membership at first as a few typewritten sheets. Then, in the hands of people like Wilf Charles, Syd Booth and Max Druck, those typewritten sheets became a magazine with a circulation of 10,000 copies.
Wilf Charles acted as editor of Grey Power and was responsible for the production and distribution of the magazine. Wilf had been a full-time official in the construction industry and had many contacts across the country with the Trade Union Movement. So he was able to spread the word about Grey Power. Before very long the term Grey Power was being used by the media to represent the pensioners and we were being pursued by journalists for interviews. One incident stands out when we held a meeting in the Free Trade Hall. I was approached by a journalist from Granada Television who asked if she could get a copy of Grey Power, this was before it was published in magazine format. She was very keen to get a copy as she wanted it for the evening broadcast of the news programme, Granada Tonight. I said the price to her was £5.00, she refused, I was adamant, the money changed hands and Grey Power was featured in that night's news broadcast.
A later march and rally held around the Government proposal to de-regulate public transport got such great support that it was necessary to hold an overflow meeting in the street with speakers coming out to address the crowd after speaking on the platform inside.
Bury Pensioners Association grew and was recognised by the people and the local politicians as a radical, campaigning organisation. At first, the two Conservative MPs, Alistair Burt and David Sumberg, were keen to come and talk to our members. They soon realised that we were not the usual run-of-the-mill pensioner group who could be patronised and satisfied with a pat on the head. Our members asked awkward questions and demanded answers. Before long Mr Burt and Mr Sumberg found that they had pressing engagements elsewhere whenever they were invited to a meeting organised by Bury Pensioners Association. As the time of a General Election approached we would arrange a public meeting and invite all the candidates to submit themselves to a question and answer session so giving the public the opportunity to fire questions at them, Messrs. Burt and Sumberg were often notable by their absence.
One campaign that we got involved in of course was the fight against the introduction of the Poll Tax, or as the Tories named it, Community Charge, in an attempt to distance it from the original Poll Tax that led to the Peasants' Uprising.
Introduced in April 1990, the Poll Tax was probably the most hated move by the Tory government under Margaret Thatcher. It aroused masses of people to demonstrate and untold numbers refused to pay. One of those was a member of Bury Pensioners Association, Dick McNab. Taking a principled stand against the tax, Dick said, "I won't pay this terrible tax... I admit I can afford to pay the tax but it is the principle ... My wife has paid but I will not." As a result of taking this course of action Dick was threatened with having his goods and chattels seized. Along with protesters in the Anti-Poll Tax Union, members of Bury Pensioners Association mounted a guard outside Dick's home keeping vigil to prevent the bailiffs from seizing his goods in lieu of unpaid Tax. The midweek Bury Times of the 23rd October 1990 headlined the story as follows;
OAP FIGHTS OFF POLL TAX BAILFFS
and reported that bailiffs had entered the house under the pretext that they were with the electricity man who had legitimate access to read the meter. This outrageous act by the bailiffs created a storm of protest and a round the clock picket was mounted. The matter was taken up by Jim O'Brien, the secretary of the Pensioners organisation, who had a meeting with council officials and Councillors.
I can't do better than quote from the local press reports.
The following report appeared in the Bury Times of Friday 26th Oct 1990;
Pensioners' Group Joins Bailiffs Row
Bury Pensioners Association has accused local authority officers of "misinterpreting" guidelines laid down by councillors over poll tax defaulters.
The attack follows this week's incident when 69 year old Mr Dick McNab ... was threatened with having household goods seized by bailiffs for community charge non-payment.
But after Association secretary Mr Jim O'Brien talked with Bury Council finance officials, Mr McNab was given a stay of execution.
The official attitude of the Pensioner's organisations was that it was a matter for each individual to decide whether they would or would not pay the Poll Tax but we as a body would support anyone who came into conflict with the authorities over the tax. Therefore, we took part in the campaign against the Poll Tax although some members, including myself, paid. I felt that as there was a distinct possibility that non-payment could lead to a prison sentence, I had to take into consideration the effect that would have on Clare. True, she would have been looked after by the rest of the family, but I felt that I could not put her through such an ordeal. I have since gone over this matter many times, worried as to whether I took the right decision.
As is well known,the fight against the tax drew tremendous support from the Labour Movement as well as many who would not consider themselves as part of that, nevertheless, they massed in their thousands, signed petitions, marched and demonstrated until victory was achieved and the hated tax was replaced with a watered down version. Most important of all was the effect on the leadership of the Tory party. Mrs Thatcher was removed as leader of the party and as Prime Minister.
Another matter with which the Pensioners became involved was the decision by the then Tory government to introduce a tax on domestic fuel such as gas and electricity. Throughout the country, pensioner organisations took to the streets gathering signatures demanding the removal of this iniquitous tax. Once again the Bury Times reported on our activity and had the following article in the issue for Friday 8th October 1993 headed
Anti-VAT fight gathers support
Bury Pensioners Association was out in force at the week-end to collect signatures protesting at the Government's controversial decision to impose VAT on domestic fuel.
Petitions launched by the Association in Bury and Prestwich on Saturday gathered over 2,000 signatures from members of the public. And they hope to double that figure when they have a repeat performance tomorrow.
The petitions are to be presented to the Government at a mass lobby of Parliament on October 20th."