N30 In Stoke - Video & Speeches (1)

This is one of the speeches from the N30 Rally in stoke today. It was a moving speech by the daughter of the late John Urwin, who died in September. John was a good comrade who I first met just before the beginning of the 1984 Miners Strike. He was an electrician at Hem Heath Colliery, and I was with him in Hem Heath Club on the day that Miners there voted to come out on strike. Later after going to University, he became a lecturer in the TU Studies Department at Stoke College, where I met up with him again as a UNISON Branch Secretary, when I was trying to ensure that all of our stewards were properly trained. In fact, John's son was also one of my members, and even as a young man, he showed the same commitment to standing up for his rights.

In another speech I will be uploading soon, one of John's fellow lecturers, Ron Foulkes, who had been T&G Convenor at the local Rists factory, and who was also a Councillor from my old LP Branch, takes up this idea in a quote from Robert Tressle's "Ragged Trousered Philanthropists", talking about the role we all have to play in acting to make a difference.