Henry Suss and the Jewish Working Class of Manchester, Interviews with Dave Chapple. Available from Somerset Socialist Library, £12/£7 (low-waged) incl. P&P. Reviewed by Andy Gibbons
Over 200 pages of interviews and photos make this book fascinating reading. It starts from his upbringing in the mainly Jewish community of Cheetham Hill, through his election as a Communist Party councillor, and his activity in the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW, now part of the GMB).
Henry was a founder of the Communist Party of Britain in 1991, and at the age of 90 he is still involved with the Bridgewater and Sedgemoor Peace Group.
Dave Chapple is a Communications Workers Union (CWU) activist and secretary of Bridgewater Trades Council. He has enough material for another book on housing. He's planning others including one on his time as a processing rep and senior shop steward at Bridgewater Postal Delivery Office (1989-2003).
As a teenager Henry Suss got involved in local anti-fascist activity, and joined the Communist Party after the war.
He organised several workplaces and rose to the executive board of the NUTGW. Among the documents reproduced in the book are some of his NUTGW conference speeches (on housing and nuclear disarmament), election material and his thoughts on the CPGB's dissolution.
I'd almost forgotten how viciously they turned on the Shop Stewards Movement, and expelled leading trade unionists like Henry.
The vast bulk of the book is the interviews, which I found riveting. The last section, 'Looking Back on Communism' is probably the weakest part but for most of the book you could almost forget that he is a Stalinist.
Apart from his time as a councillor, I'd have liked more on the Miners' Strike and his Trades Council work. In some areas Trades Councils have become like rest homes for retired Communists.
As a reflection of the level of class struggle, the Trades Councils Movement is in a gradual decline. A lot could be made of the comparative solidarity organised by trades councils in the last two major Fire Brigades Union (FBU) disputes.
In other areas, trades councils have been reconstituted as the 'unions in the community,' around particular issues.
In the latest issue of the trade union magazine Solidarity, there is an assessment of the Trades Council Movememt. Dave suggests that 're-enfranchisement' is a possibility and key to revitalisation.
Obviously, this would help for example set up local branches of 'Keep Our NHS Public', and organising specific initiatives such as overseas Workers networks.
Anyway, I wholeheartedly recommend this book and look forward to the next one.