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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A number of people have helped me with the writing of this book, but I would primarily like to thank Jennie Walsh, who worked closely with me for nearly two years, and without whom it would not have been possible. Any errors in the history I tell here are, however, entirely mine, as are the views I express.

Thanks to Howard Beckett, Charlotte Bence, Louisa Bull, Tony Burke, Gail Cartmail, Pauline Doyle, Victoria Egerton, Alex Flynn, Diana Holland, Sharon Graham, Liane Groves, Asif Mohammed, Jim Mowatt, Andrew Murray, Frances O’Grady, Mick Rix, Lauren Townsend, Steve Turner, Tony Woodhouse, John Usher and everyone else who helped me to focus my thoughts, recall memories, check facts and express why I believe we all should be trade unionists. My apologies to those colleagues and comrades who, over the decades of my own trade union activism, have been influential in shaping my politics, but whom I have not named. No one is forgotten.

Leo Hollis at Verso gave invaluable feedback and support in helping to shape the structure and direction of the book, as did Andrew Murray. Thanks, too, to Mark Martin and Tim Clark at Verso for their skilful copy editing. It was a remarkably pain-free experience.

This book has been researched and written during extraordinary and polarised times in British politics. As it goes to press, we are in full general election campaign mode. I sincerely hope that by the time Why You Should Be a Trade Unionist reaches bookshops that this nation has achieved a lasting, credible settlement, one that heals our divisions and gives hope of a fairer future for all the people of this country.

Len McCluskeyNovember 2019