Digby Jacks (16 May 1945 – 21 October 2011) was a British student activist and trade union official. Jacks became the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of the UK's National Union of Students in 1971, serving until 1973, and was subsequently an official for the

Manufacturing, Science and Finance Manufacturing, Science and Finance (or the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union; almost exclusively known as MSF) was a trade union in Britain. Over eighty members of Parliament (primarily members of the Labour Party) were members. Histor ...

trade union. Jacks was raised in Charlton, south London, the son of a building surveyor, and read biology at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, and gained a teaching diploma at the

Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to m ...

. He taught for a time at Holland Park Comprehensive School before his election to the NUS Executive in 1969. A member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

when elected NUS President, Jacks was the second candidate from the left, in this case the Radical Student Alliance, succeeding

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...

, also elected on the RSA ticket, to win since the beginning of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

: national student politics having previously been dominated by an anti-Communist alliance. Proposals from

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, then Education Secretary in the

Heath government Edward Heath of the Conservative Party formed the Heath ministry and was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II on 19 June 1970, following the 18 June general election. Heath's ministry ended after the February 19 ...

, which would have affected the union's autonomy and finances, were dropped after Jacks led a successful campaign mixing protest and argument. After his term as NUS President, he wrote ''Student Politics and Higher Education'' (), a book which examines the broad left's political strategy in student politics. Retiring as a regional officer for the Amicus trade union in 2005, he was a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillor in the London Borough of Hounslow until 2006 and secretary of the lobbying group Alliance for Finance. Digby Jacks died in October 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacks, Digby 1945 births 2011 deaths British trade unionists Communist Party of Great Britain members Councillors in the London Borough of Hounslow Labour Party (UK) councillors Presidents of the National Union of Students (United Kingdom)