Davison, Stan
2013 "Davison, Stan", 2013, HistoryTalk On leaving the army at the age of twenty Stan did an electricians course in Surrey for six months. He immediately joined a printing firm in central London called Novellos found for him through the Hendon ETU (Electrical Trades Union). Describes the...
| Institution: | TUC - Trade Union Congress Library |
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| Language: | English |
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London
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C46C8CC6-5064-4FFE-BC17-997C1A54687D http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C8FF1AC5-807C-4D79-B4E9-22DDA5459356 |
| Summary: | 2013
"Davison, Stan", 2013, HistoryTalk
On leaving the army at the age of twenty Stan did an electricians course in Surrey for six months. He immediately joined a printing firm in central London called Novellos found for him through the Hendon ETU (Electrical Trades Union). Describes the period of the Cold War in the 1950s and the role of the CIA and Catholic Action. He moved to BEA (British European Airways) at Northolt for ten years (1949- 59) followed by ten years working full- time for the CPGB in which did a variety of organisational and agitational tasks with an office in Southall and then ten years on London Transport until retirement in 1989. Here he worked as an electrician and was a member of the Craft Alliance in LT garages working on Routemaster buses.
Stan was from the start an active trade unionist. He needed to be a member due to the closed shop that was strongly supported by his first union, the ETU and was warmly invited to attend branch meetings in north London. He was also involved with left- leaning people initially because of his reading and meeting members of CPGB and studying Marxism. He was a shop steward at BEA in the 1950s and secretary of the local branch of the CPGB. This was part of the red belt of factories in west London with at least ten CPGB factory branches. He collected party dues from Wal Hannington. He describes being in many different versions of the electrical unions from the ETU and ballot- rigging to breaking away from the ETU and forming EPIU as a new national union after the expulsion of EEPTU from TUC and the foundation of the rank and file bulletin Flashlight. The ETIU later became part of UNITE. He
Decribes the role of CPGB in this period and how workers were attracted to its policies and aims. He became secretary of the very strong CPGB group at Heathrow Airport after Northolt was merged. He was involved in the development of the Democratic Left out of the CPGB. On LT he was in the Craft Alliance and describes issues affecting maintenance staff in garages and the London Bus Committee. He was also involved in CILT (Campaign to Improve London Transport) bringing workers and passengers together and later the various GLC transport campaigns under Ken Livingstone. After retirement, he became chair of the Greater London Pensioners Forum and LOPSG (London Older Peoples Strategy Group)
In his clip Stan talks about setting up Flashlight and EPIU (Electrician Plumbers Industries Union).
Click on the pdf icon to read the entire transcript or click on the mp3 icon to hear a clip of the interview. |
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| Physical Description: | Photograph TEXT |