Union Man.

 For those of you familiar with my earlier posts on the subject of the Trades Union Movement you will know my feelings on the matter. The one thing that I am proud about, above all others, and dear reader there is not a lot that I have been proud of in my life, except for my undying support over fifty seven years for the Blues, is the fact that I was one of the appellants who took Thatcher through the British and European courts for Banning TRADES UNION membership at GCHQ in 1984. Having won in the High Court where Judge Glidewell ruled that the government ban was unlawful, the usual strings of the British establishment were pulled and greased and we were subsequently defeated in the so called Court of Appeal, The Lords[1] and the European Court. We were subsequently vindicated however when the International Labour Organisation ruled in our favour and in 1997, almost the first act of the new Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, was to once again allow free Trades Union membership at GCHQ. We had Defeated Thatcher. The following is an extract taken from Wikipedia, to which I subscribe and to those of you who don't may I humbly suggest that you do support this encyclopedia of our modern age.

Trade union disputes

NUCPS banner on march in Cheltenham 1992

Main article: Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service

In 1984, GCHQ was the centre of a political row when the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher prohibited its employees from belonging to a trade union. It was claimed that joining a union would be in conflict with national security. A number of mass national one-day strikes were held to protest this decision, seen as a first step to wider bans on trade unions. Appeals to British Courts and European Commission of Human Rights^[23] were unsuccessful. The government offered a sum of money to each employee who agreed to give up their union membership. Appeal to the ILO resulted in a decision that government's actions were in violation of Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention.^[24] The ban was eventually lifted by the incoming Labour government in 1997, with the Government Communications Group of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union being formed to represent interested employees at all grades.^[25] In 2000, a group of 14 former GCHQ employees, who had been dismissed after refusing to give up their union membership, were offered re-employment, which three of them accepted.<sup>[26]

 Of course banners, brass bands and singing have long been part of the history of the Trade Union movement as has been these songs some traditional and some modern.</sup>

 

 

And today I discovered this tribute by Phil Ochs to the labouring men and women. Only this rather muted video is available on youtube but ther is a superb version on, "Sliced Bread Records - The Songs of Phil Ochs" by Pat Humphries.

This song was never recorded by Ochs and this recording was made on a tape recorder at a concert in New York City in January 1964, hence the poor quality. In recent years, in some places, it has become an anthem for the labour movement. As the recording is so poor I have listed the lyrics, with cord changes below, wich have been compiled by Trent Ochs.

Hands

By Phil Ochs, Arrangements & lyric changes by Jim Glover

G                      Bm            C              D 
I've seen the hands of laborers that lifted all the loads
        G                         Bm           C                      D
And the granite stuck to their fingers as they dug the canals and the roads
    Em                      Bm
Now they're cleared and the bridges span
C                          D
The river paused for a power dam
    G                   Bm      C                  D
And now the hand of the laborer is reaching out to you

Chorus:
       G           Em    C    D               G           Em 
Oh the hands hands hands that worked to build land, land, your land
    D            G         Em C D                     G
The labor of the woman and the man workin' with their hands

Hands, hands, hands a-workin' with their hands

I've seen the hands of the miners digging out the coal.
The black dust stuck to their fingers as they lived their life in a hole.
The rocks they're still under the ground, and now their mine is a-closin' 
down. 
And now the hand of the miner is reaching out to you. (Chorus)

Well I've seen the hands of the lumberjacks; forests swaying in the breeze.
And the splinters stuck to their fingers as lumber was torn from the trees.
And the wood that came from the timber tall built your buildings from
wall to wall.
And now the hand of the lumberjack is reaching out to you.

And I've seen the hands of the farmers plowin' across the fields.
And the topsoil stuck to their fingers as the land was split by the steel.
Just growing all they could grow, to fill your tables row after row.
And now the hand of the farmer is reaching out to you.

Oh the hands, hands, hands were working on the land, your land.
The labor of the woman and the man working with their hands.
Hands, hands, working with their hands.

 Notes [1] Such is the twisted mentality of the English legal system that all

 confidentiality was breached

 by them,two hours before we filed into the house

 to hear the verdict that was to affect our lives, as the press had been notified

 of the judgement and a sympathetic journo had phoned us to inform us that we had

 lost. 

 THE BASTARDS.