The tour comes to an end

posted by: Nick Lowles | on: Friday, 13 February 2009, 08:28

It has been a really fantastic week touring the country with Liz McElroy and Lindsay Patterson, two US trade unionists from the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers of America. We have spoken at a dozen meetings – to regional unions, to local branches, MPs and community activists. We’ve been to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and all across London. We were even able to join the Unite construction workers on their lobby of Parliament. In between we managed to enjoy a drink or two, eat some curry and fish and chips and savour the atmosphere in Soho’s famous Gay Hussar restaurant. And even after all that, Lindsay, who became better known as Nightclub Billy, managed to find the energy to go out clubbing every night.

The point of the visit was simple. To share some basic organising techniques and learn how the US unions engaged their members during the recent elections. I think anyone who turned up to a meeting to hear Lindsay and Liz were suitably inspired and few, I guess, will forget them in a hurry. Of course, the key question is what will be carried out over here. It was really great yesterday to attend a local GMB branch meeting in Barking and Dagenham, where 30 stewards were hopefully pumped up enough to put into action some of what they had heard.

Lindsay repeatedly made the point that the issues facing us over here were similar to those facing American workers. Liz would come out with fantastic one-liners which we will use to remind (or haunt) some of the key union organisers we met along the way. Here is my favourite:

“If not me, then who? If not now, then when?”

Our fight over the coming months has certainly been boosted by their visit.