Informed 12 Event Long Live Lionel


Jim Boumelha remembers the NUJ’s first Black president Lionel Morrison ahead of a special event at Headland House on 30 September.


NUJ


When I joined the union’s national executive in the early 80s, Lionel was one of its first members to welcome me and wish me luck. Although we represented different sectors, I discovered over time that we had quite a few things in common – being refugees of African heritage, being both acutely aware of liberation struggles, and having clocked years of frenzied activism. While I was then still a rookie, a rebellious Father of Chapel, Lionel had already behind him years of wisdom and experience. Having just emerged from the Wapping dispute, the NUJ started geting engulfed in some of the stormiest years of its history with Margaret Tatcher in power unleashing her onslaught on trade unions. Tese were challenging times. And throughout these years, what always matered to Lionel was to put his inexhaustible energy at the service of the downtrodden, those who suffer injustice and those who bear undeserved pain. Having cut his teeth in the epic batles against Apartheid in his home country, South Africa, Lionel had no fear throwing himself head over heels in everything he embarked on, in particular making the NUJ and its members recognise and fight racism in the media and fight to remove


If I had to choose his greatest


achievement, it would be leading an NUJ solidarity delegation to the West Bank and Gaza in Palestine during the first uprising in 1987 – the first UK trade union delegation to do so.


Tis is the Lionel that most NUJ


plenty of the discriminatory barriers for Black journalists to enter the profession. But it was during the massive mobilisation against Apartheid in trade unions and local councils in the mid- eighties where Lionel gained the trust of NUJ activists. In his presidential speech the following year, in Sheffield in 1988, he welcomed representatives of the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), outlining his remarkable work on behalf of the NUJ during his term. His achievements ranged from nurturing Black students entering the profession through the George Viner Memorial Fund to helping establish the Black Members’ Council, which he chaired for many years and which amplified our collective voice.


Claudia Jones Lecture 2026


On 20 October the Black Members’ Council will hold the annual lecture to celebrate the trailblazing journalist Claudia Jones. Tis year’s lecture will be hosted by the NUJ Guardian chapel and delivered by Guardian columnist Nesrine


Malik, who will examine “the Black diaspora and our right to our stories and experiences, and the value and challenge of that in a white-curated media environment in the throes of backlash against racial equity.” Te Lecture will also be an


activists will always remember – a staunch trade unionist always ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with workers on picket lines and at demonstrations. Tis he emphasised in his speech to delegates, saying: “As a Black person I felt a relief at not being patronised and expected to talk about Black issues only. I was accepted as a trade unionist in the NUJ.” A few months earlier, leading an NUJ delegation to TUC Congress he spoke to a motion on Apartheid, referring to those languishing in Pretoria’s jail and those in death row. But his most vibrant homage was to fellow trade unionists who, he said, “in the finest tradition of resistance, have taken on the mining companies, the big business conglomerates and the might of the South African regime.” Trade unionists and others who knew and worked with Lionel will be gathering at the end of the month at the NUJ to reminisce about the stories that make Lionel’s newly published memoirs Footprints such compelling reading. Speakers include his wife Liz, who co- authored the book, and his best friend during the Apartheid years, Mathatha Tsedu, as well as three NUJ presidents who knew him well and worked with him: Francis Becket, Scarlet MacGuire and myself. Please book a ticket!


opportunity to honour the union’s current George Viner Memorial Fund scholars. Te union’s charity aims to improve diversity and inclusion in the British and Irish media, offering bursaries to scholars to support them in their studies and career so that more Black journalists can shape the news agenda and narratives. Space is limited so register now to reserve your place.


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