Len McCluskey: Union Man Who Wants to Unite the Nation
Against Cuts
by Adam Smith
The Independent
April 4, 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/len-mccluskey-union-man-who-wants-to-unite-the-nation-against-cuts-2261428.html#

If the new boss of Britain's biggest union has his way,
millions of workers will co-ordinate industrial action
resembling the start of a general strike. So expect to
see Len McCluskey in the news more often.

His union, Unite, has 1.4 million members and McCluskey
is not certain that his desire for them to go out on
co-ordinated industrial action is either practical or
legal. This is not good news for Ed Miliband, who is
indebted to Unite for helping him win the Labour
leadership, but cannot afford to be seen as the
strikers' and demonstrators' best friend.

Apart from any other differences between the Unite boss
and the Labour leader, there is an age gap of some 20
years. At 61, McCluskey - a former long-haired docker
from Liverpool - is a man with no political ambitions
outside the union movement and, as a Liverpudlian of
that age, he is someone who was caught up in the 1960s
and becomes the first leader of a major UK trade union
to admit he dabbled in illicit drugs.

But while Miliband needs Unite's money to keep Labour
solvent, there is nothing he can offer in return that
McCluskey needs. Relations got off to a sticky start
when McCluskey gave out a loud shout of "Rubbish!"
during Miliband's inaugural leader's speech.

"Yes, I did shout: 'Rubbish' and that was probably an
inappropriate thing for me to do," said McCluskey, "but
the reason that my emotions got the better of me is
because he made a statement about 'irresponsible
strikes'. I've never been involved in an irresponsible
strike in my life. I've never known one. When working
people take strike action, it's the last card. The idea
he or his advisers think there is such a thing as an
irresponsible strike is wrong.

"I think he'll come to realise that."

Referring to the outbreaks of violence at last
weekend's large anti-cuts demonstration in London,
McCluskey said: "I condemn that type of violence, but
how can this happen? How can you have 4,500 police
officers on duty - and this sophisticated intelligence
network that we have - and a couple of hundred yobs
dressed in black with masks over their faces are
allowed to rampage? For a couple of hours they were
allowed to roam free. I find that puzzling... I find it
sinister that that type of thing was allowed to go on.

"You have seen the reason: the TV was dominated by the
violence, as opposed to half a million decent British
citizens protesting. The papers were full of these yobs
causing damage, as opposed to debating what the protest
was all about. So perhaps it achieved what they set out
to do - or am I just being too Machiavellian in my
thought process? It's either incompetence or sinister.
Thirty years ago, the whole concept of agent
provocateurs - as we are now finding out - it actually
happened. I look at some of these who are committing
the violence and they did it with impunity, not even
furtively looking around to see whether anybody was
going to nab them. It was as though it did not matter
if they were arrested. It raises all kinds of
questions." The issue of police infiltration of protest
groups threatened to become a public scandal recently
after the revelation that "Mark Stone", an eco-activist
arrested for allegedly conspiring to occupy a power
station, was actually a police officer who had been
working undercover for seven years.

What McCluskey wants is radical, to say the least: the
repeal of laws introduced by the Tory government 30
years ago and upheld by Tony Blair, which imposed
immensely complex rules about when a strike can be
called and which make it illegal for strikers to gather
in mass pickets.

When, for instance, BA cabin crews repeatedly vote in
favour of a strike and are repeatedly told by a judge
that to strike would be illegal, the law is made to
look as if its loaded against working people, he
argues. He added: "If you look right the way through
the legislation introduced in the 1980s, it was
introduced in order to make trade unions less
effective. I want to try to emphasise a forward-looking
21st century approach to fairness for trade unions. How
is it possible that German, Italian, Spanish and French
workers are better protected than British workers? How
can it be right? It's palpably unfair. I suspect that
if you asked the British public whether British workers
and their trade unions should have the same kind of
rights as German, French and Italian workers, there
would be a huge majority that would say 'yes'."

Despite his appearance, McCluskey is a smarter operator
than other left-wing union leaders who have preceded
him. And he is not another Arthur Scargill, intent on
exposing the Labour leader as a traitor to the
movement.

"I personally supported Ed and my union voted for Ed,"
he said. "Relations with Ed Miliband are good and I
look forward to helping him create the kind of party
that will reconnect with ordinary working people and
get him elected as the next PM."

McCluskey reflects on his younger days, revealing that
in the 1970s, he was part of a group of devotees of the
novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist who located
the pauper's grave in Liverpool where its author,
Robert Tressell, was buried.

As regards the sixties, he says: "I did have long
hair." And did he smoke any illegal drugs?

"Yes. Probably at the time, yes."

Len McCluskey: a life in brief

* Left school in Anfield to work for the Mersey Docks
and Harbour Company

* Moved to London in 1979 and joined the Transport and
General Workers' Union as their regional and political
officer

* Appointed assistant general secretary of Unite in
2007. Nicknamed "Red Len" for his involvement in the BA
dispute

* Elected Unite leader, November 2010

* He is married with three children

* A Liverpool FC supporter, his hobbies include poetry,
chess and theatre

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