McCluskey to speak at memorial lecture for city union organiser
THE BOSS of the UK’s largest trade union is due to visit Leeds to speak at the first memorial lecture named after a leader of 19th century strikes in the city.
Len McCluskey, the General Secretary of Unite, is to arrive in the city on Saturday, January 26.
He will speak at the inaugural memorial lecture for Tom Maguire and pay tribute to the man at his graveside.
Mr Maguire was a key figure in the development of the country’s labour movement and was the informal leader of strikes that shook Leeds in the 1880s and 1890s.
A renowned poet, public speaker and trade union organiser, Mr Maguire died from pneumonia at the age of just 29 in 1895, with more than a thousand people lining the streets of Leeds for his funeral procession.
There is a red plaque in the socialist’s honour at Leeds Bus Station, LEN MCCLUSKEY: near to where much of his activity took place.
As part of the memorial events, Mr McCluskey will be joined by Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, at Beckett Street Cemetery near St James’s Hospital to lay a wreath and say a few words at Mr Maguire’s grave from about 11am.
The lecture itself will take place at Chapel FM Arts Centre in York Road, Leeds, between noon at 1.30pm.
Mr McCluskey will speak about Mr Maguire, his legacy and the modern trade union movement.
Mr Maguire was born to poor Irish parents in Leeds in 1866 and lived in Burmantofts, reportedly working as a photographer’s assistant. He became such an influential socialist and trade unionist that he was a friend and adviser to the likes of activist and designer William Morris, was a co-founder of the Leeds Socialist League and an architect of the Leeds gasworkers strike of 1891.
Former Leeds West MP for Labour, John Battle, published the book Tom Maguire: Socialist and Poet in 1997.
The lecture is free to attend, but people should register by searching for the event at www. eventbrite.co.uk