Jack O'Brien Dash (23 February 1907 – 8 June 1989) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

communist and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

leader, famous for his role in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

dock strikes. Born in Southwark to a family which was often in poverty, Dash grew up on Rockingham Street. His father Thomas was a scene shifter at the theatre where he met Dash's mother, Rose Gertrude John, who appeared on stage there. She died aged 40 of tuberculosis, when Dash was seven, followed a few years later by his father. Dash left school at 14 to work as a page boy at a

Lyons Corner House J. Lyons & Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly, London in 1894, an ...

. He later became a

hod carrier A brick hod is a three-sided box for carrying bricks or other building materials, often mortar. It bears a long handle and is carried over the shoulder. A hod is usually long enough to accept 4 bricks on their side. However, by arranging the br ...

for a bricklayer, and worked in other jobs for short periods in between which he was unemployed. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps and served for two years; he also became a professional boxer, fighting about a dozen bouts. Dash joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1936 and also joined its front organisation, the

National Unemployed Workers' Movement The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 G ...

. After the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in 1939 he joined the

Auxiliary Fire Service The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded ...

while waiting to join the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

, although eventually he remained in the AFS (later the National Fire Service) for the rest of the war. In 1945, he found a long-term job as a docker and a member of the

Transport and General Workers Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

and the

National Dock Labour Board The National Dock Labour Board (NDLB), which administered the National Dock Labour Scheme, was an administrative board for the operation of British docks. Creation of National Dock Labour Board In 1947, Parliament introduced the "Dock Workers’ ...

. Dash prided himself on having been involved in every London dock strike from 1945 to 1969, stating that all but one had been worthwhile; the exception was an inter-union dispute. He was regarded by some as a firebrand and an agitator and was vilified as a

bogeyman The Bogeyman (; also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, bogieman, boogie monster, boogieman, or boogie woogie) is a type of mythic creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearance and conceptions var ...

by the conservative media in the same manner as Derek Robinson and

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

would later be. Dash, who was interested in poetry and would quote Samuel Butler or Robert Browning in his speeches, was often invited to address prestigious bodies: he spoke at 40 student meetings, and opposed the motion 'This House would outlaw unofficial strikes' at the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

debating society. Jack Dash was the outstanding rank and file leader of his generation in the London. While he enjoyed undoubted success in improving conditions for workers - between 1959 and 1972 the wages of dockers trebled - repeated industrial action in the 1960s and 1970s contributed to the total decline of London's docks by 1980.Lindop, Fred. "Unofficial Militancy in the Royal Group of Docks 1945-67". Oral History, vol. 11, no. 2, 1983, pp. 21–33. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40178765. Retrieved 8 June 2020 After a life-time of activism, Jack retired to become an official London tourist guide and devote more time to his other hobbies of writing and painting. In retirement, Dash became an advocate for pensioners' rights. He was commemorated by the naming of "Jack Dash House", a municipal office building on the

Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ha ...

. Built by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1990 to honour the London dockers' Communist leader, it houses local council offices and the Jack Dash Gallery which holds regular exhibitions of contemporary art from Britain and around the world. Jack Dash died in London in 1989 at the age of 82. His autobiography ''Good Morning Brothers!'', published in 1969, was a testimony to his work as a militant trade unionist and his lifelong membership of the Communist Party. In it he said that the only epitaph he wanted was: "Here lies Jack Dash / All he wanted was / To separate them from their cash".

References

External links

Jack Dash, British Communist, 82
- ''

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'' obituary
Jack Dash photo
- www.portcities.org.uk
Jack Dash House
- www.towerhamlets.gov.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Dash, Jack Communist Party of Great Britain members English trade unionists People from Elephant and Castle 1907 births 1989 deaths British firefighters English people of Welsh descent Royal Army Service Corps soldiers English communists Auxiliary firefighters Civil Defence Service personnel 20th-century British Army personnel