Bob Crow

Robert Crow (13 June 196111 March 2014) was an English trade union leader who served as the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 2002 until his death in 2014. He was also a member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). A self-described "communist/socialist", he was a leading figure in the No to EU – Yes to Democracy campaign.

Crow joined London Transport in 1977 and soon became involved in trade unionism. He was regarded as part of the Awkward Squad, a loose grouping of left-wing union leaders who came to power in a series of electoral victories beginning in 2002.According to Oliver Morgan in ''The Observer'', 17 February 2002: "Crow's is the demeanour of a growing number of radical leaders in their forties who see little point in being nicely turned out and moderate merely to keep in power a party that ignores the interests of their members". After he became leader, the RMT's membership increased from around 57,000 in 2002 to more than 80,000 in 2008, making it one of Britain's fastest-growing trade unions.

Crow was a polarising figure in British politics. Supporters praised him as a champion of the working class and a successful trade unionist; Boris Johnson argued that he held London to ransom with strikes.

Early life

Born at 162 Burrow Road, Epping, Essex to Lillian (''née'' Hutton) and George Crow; his background was working-class, a fact of which he remained proud throughout his life. Crow's father was a docker who taught him to read both the '' Morning Star'' and the ''Financial Times'', but to disbelieve everything in the latter. His father also was a lifelong member of the Transport and General Workers Union. His family subsequently moved to Hainault. He left school at 16 and joined London Transport, where he became involved in union politics. His first job was making the tea, then he worked as part of a tree-felling group in 1977, before moving onto heavy track repairing. In 1983, he was elected as a local representative to the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and in 1985 became NUR national officer for track workers.

During his formative years, prominent figures such as Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon, Joe Gormley, and Len Murray dominated the British trade union movement. As a result, he commented that "Starting my career with these people in charge of unions, and working in a nationalised industry with people who had put in 30 or even 40 years of service helped shape my views." He was a great lover of soul music in his teens often to be found dancing to jazz-funk and reggae in working mans clubs and pubs across London and Essex.

Trade union career and politics

In 1990 the National Union of Railwaymen merged with the National Union of Seamen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). The following year Crow became the London Underground representative on the National Executive. In 1991, he became assistant general secretary, and on 14 February 2002, he membership elected Crow to succeed Jimmy Knapp as general secretary. He received 12,051 votes in the election – nearly twice as many as the other two candidates ( Phil Bialyk received 4,512 votes and Ray Spry-Shute received 1,997). Six weeks earlier on 1 January 2002, Crow was attacked outside his home by two men wielding an iron bar. He speculated that he was the victim of hired employer muscle, although it is possible, according to ''The Guardian'', that the culprits were members of far right activist groups who were active in Dagenham at the time. Crow was a member of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress. From 2006 until his death, he was a member of the Executive Board of the International Transport Workers Federation, the global trade union for transport workers.

Under Bob Crow's leadership, the RMT affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions and he was regularly invited to attend, in his capacity as general secretary of the RMT, the presidential council of the WFTU.

At the time he became general secretary, he had a strong negotiating position as the industry was booming, and was the leader of one of the only British trade unions which still wielded industrial strength.

Communist Party and Socialist Labour Party

Crow identified as a "communist/socialist", and between 1983 and 1997, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and then the Communist Party of Britain.

He described his political philosophy with a quote from Argentine Marxist–Leninist revolutionary Che Guevara: "Hasta la victoria siempre!" ("Forever onwards until the victory!"). He kept a bust of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in his office. He described the aims of a trade-unionist as to secure "Job security, being safe, best possible pay, best possible conditions, decent pensions, and a world that lives in peace."

In 1997 he briefly joined Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party (SLP), and was always a strong supporter of Scargill for his commitment to trade unionism. Crow rejected the argument that Scargill was responsible for the defeats of the miners and the union movement more generally.

Crow was a founding member of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition for several years until his death. Previously, he supported the now disbanded Socialist Alliance, and believed all socialist parties should unite. In the 2005 general election, he endorsed Robert Griffiths, the Communist Party of Britain candidate in Pontypridd, calling him "a champion of workers' rights". Griffiths went on to win 233 votes (0.6%), coming last out of the six candidates. In the 2010 Local Election, he publicly supported the directly elected Mayoral candidate in the London Borough of Hackney Monty Goldman and the candidate for Leabridge Ward Mick Carty.

Campaign for a New Workers' Party

Crow was an outspoken critic of Tony Blair, who "squandered a massive landslide from an electorate hungry for change, poured billions of public pounds into private pockets and accelerated the growing gap between rich and poor". He deemed the policies implemented by Blair's New Labour project to be "near enough identical" to those of the Conservatives.

Speaking at the founding conference of the National Shop Stewards Network in July 2007, Crow called for a new party for the working class.

In 2013, Crow accused then Labour leader Ed Miliband of showing unions contempt. He again called on trade unions to break ties with Labour and create a new party to challenge the "anti-worker" agenda of the mainstream political parties.

RMT industrial action

After Transport for London offered workers an inflation-adjusted pay rise, Crow described TfL's approach to pay as "confrontational".

In response to the RMT declaring a 48-hour strike on 10 June 2009, Crow wrote in ''The Guardian'' Comment is free section the purpose of the move: "On London Underground, bosses are threatening to tear up an agreement aimed at safeguarding jobs, and have refused to rule out compulsory redundancies. Up to 4,000 jobs are at risk as part of a multibillion-pound cuts package that can be traced directly back to the collapse of Metronet and the failure of the PPP."

"RMT have made it clear we expect managers to abide by the existing job security agreements and we would simply not be doing our job as a union if we allowed the tube to treat our members as cannon fodder who can be hired and fired at will", adding that "It wasn't our members who created the downturn and we will not be bullied into accepting that they should be forced to pay for an economic crisis that was cooked up by the bankers and the politicians."

Rail managers recognised Crow as a moderate within the RMT; he faced calls from figures to the left of him who were more eager to use industrial action. He was also criticised by RMT members on the right of his position; Crow repeatedly championed the cause of the lowest-paid workers, such as cleaners, whose jobs were often outsourced to separate companies. Sectors of the more highly-paid RMT membership were critical of Crow for this support, believing it inefficient.

No to EU – Yes to Democracy

In March 2009, Crow announced that the RMT would be fronting the No to EU – Yes to Democracy platform with an array of socialist organisations and individuals for the 2009 European Parliament elections. No2EU – Yes to Democracy stood for a Europe of "independent, democratic states that value its public services and does not offer them to profiteers; a Europe that guarantees the rights of workers and does not put the interests of big business above that of ordinary people".

As the party leader and lead candidate in London, Crow was "not against workers coming into the country", unlike other Eurosceptic groupings, but he was against "two workers from different countries competing against each other on different rates of pay" and added that "Our main role will be out there among working people, giving them our support and helping to save their industries from privatisation".

No2EU secured 153,236 votes, compared to an RMT membership of 80,000. The party achieved 1% of the popular vote in Britain, giving them the 12th largest share of the vote, behind Scargill's Socialist Labour Party and the far-right British National Party. This was insufficient for a seat in the European Parliament. In London, where Crow was a candidate, the party secured 17,758 votes, equating to the tenth largest vote share. No2EU secured a larger share of the popular vote in this region than the Socialist Labour Party.

Accusation of cronyism

When it became known that Crow's wife had been appointed chief executive of the RMT credit union, the Milton Keynes RMT branch secretary stated he was filling posts with "henchmen". Crow responded that his wife was the only applicant for the position, and he had interviewed her for the role.

Crow's salary

The BBC
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