SOCIALIST UNITY

CWU-sponsored UPW Working-Class History Book:

“Grasshoppers, Stonkers and Straight Eights:   George Massey and Bristol Post Office Workers 1930-1976″
  by Dave Chapple, Branch Chair, Bristol and District Amal.

This book has been published with the financial assistance of the CWU, the Lipman-Miliband Trust and the South West Region TUC. Dave’s book is centred on the discovery, a few years ago, of an old UPW minute book in his Branch office, the minute book of a 1935-37 Bristol UPW Rank and File Movement, and an oral history project involving the only surviving member of that group, George Massey.

George, who will be 94 on February 20th, is the oldest Honorary Member of the Bristol Branch, and, almost certainly, the oldest living member of the UPW Executive Council. His memories cover a working class Bristol childhood with a Post Office father, Boy Messenger from 1930, SC&T/Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist, War Service in the RAF, marriage to Mary-a Bristol telegraphst in the Blitz-and UPW service as a Bristol Branch Officer in the 1950’s.

A self-educated and at times dissident Communist from 1935, George was expelled from the CPGB in 1938 for opposing the Moscow Trials, and, twenty years later, was in trouble again for protesting the execution of Hungarian ex-Prime Minister Imre Nagy. Promoted to overseer in 1959 whilst still a Communist, George organised regular collections for postmen and telephonists among his fellow managers during the seven week UPW strike of 1971 and was a welcome guest speaker at strike rallies. Dave’s book is a fitting tribute to a Post Office union stalwart who has also been an active socialist for 76 years.

However, Dave’s book is no mere biography. It charts the rise and fall of Communist-Party influence in one important UPW Branch over thirty years, under the different pressures of a Rank and File Movement, World War, 1945 Labour Government, the H-Bomb, and the long Cold War.

We hope that Dave’s book will encourage CWU and other trade union branches to consider local union history projects themselves. These might include recording memories of retired activists of unions such as the UPW, NCU/POEU or CPSA; the collecting of old photographs, certificates, or long-forgotten branch banners; the cataloguing of surviving Branch Minute books, press cuttings and other records; and the holding of special branch committee meetings to discuss our union’s history at local or national level.

Dave’s book is a large-format A4 sized softback, 242 pages, profusely illustrated with photographs and UPW documents, none of which have ever been published in book format.

If Trades Councils/Trade Union Branches wish to order copies, the costs are £12 for 1, £18 for 2, £25 for 3, or £30 for 4, all post-free, from Dave Chapple, 1 Blake Place, Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 5AU, Tel. 01278 450562, e-mail davechapple@btinternet.com  ”