unite Life
BY DOUGLAS BEATTIE
Towards a socialist future? With Corbyn’s re-election Pat Mortimer now has hope
“I did lose hope and I gathered a lot of anger,” says Unite member Pat Mortimer about the direction of the Labour Party in the years under Tony Blair’s leadership.
But now that’s all in the past, something the 94 year-old made plain in a contribution during the Real Britain fringe at the party’s conference in Liverpool.
Born in 1922 shortly before the first Labour government came to power she’s watched the party’s fortunes ebb and flow – and for many years with a front-row seat.
Pat edited The Draughtsman – journal of the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen – for two decades until her retirement in 1980, having first been assistant editor. Her union eventually became TASS, before going through more amalgamations, until finally coming under Unite’s banner.
The Draughtsmanwas a well-known monthly publication at a time of great strength for the trade union movement.
“We had an extensive correspondence column, industrial news, political news, what the union was doing in various regions. It was a popular journal.”
Pat’s own politics were formed during what she describes as a “tough childhood” in Battersea. “I grew up in a very, very poor family”, she says. “We didn’t actually go hungry but we were in debt as long as I could remember. Everything was pawned, bedclothes, saucepans, china.
“That’s why I feel strongly about grammar schools – I didn’t know anyone who went to a grammar school.” She says she retains her interest in current affairs out of a “desire for change and a recognition of the unfairness that working people suffer.”
Prime minister Theresa May is damned for choosing a cabinet “on the right” while she describes austerity as “shameful and unjust.”
For Unite though, there is nothing but praise. “I do feel strongly about the record of the union since Jeremy Corbyn has come to the fore and way they have defended him. Unite has been magnificent.
“I want to see our union continuing on its progressive path and still fighting for the interests of its members. And I think it is in the members’ interests that we get a Labour government which pursues policies which will further working people.”
Her late husband, Jim Mortimer, was Labour’s general secretary in the 1980s. What’s her message now to Labour MPs after a turbulent summer?
“I would say pack it in, stop it, stop this sniping. Recognise that you have a part to play in winning an election, get behind Jeremy.”
Pat has lived long enough to see her faith in Labour restored. She feels the party is back on a path which could well “lead to a socialist society. It’s not coming quickly; I have no illusions about that. But it gives you hope.”
Faith restored – Pat Mortimer
34 uniteWORKS Autumn 2016
Mark Thomas
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