With passion and purpose, inspirational campaigners have changed so many lives

Mick Mcgahey knew a thing or two about campaigning, about standing up, being heard, and making a difference.

It was the former Scottish miners’ leader who once said: “If you don’t run, they can’t chase you.” It is as true now as it was then and gave me the perfect title for a book telling the stories of ordinary people making an extraordinary difference.

The sheer strength of the human spirit in the face of terrible injustice has always moved me deeply. Social progress is never easy. Those with power want to keep it and those without it, if they want it, must fight for it. The most meaningful, lives-transforming change comes from below. It comes through social, economic and political pressure from the ground up. It comes from grassroots, from people organising and finding a shared voice, in trade unions, cooperatives, pressure groups or community organisations.

Driven by a sense of injustice, a search for the truth and desire to make the world a better, fairer place, ordinary women and men have found themselves forced by circumstances into stepping up, taking on positions of leadership and influence, recruiting new people to their cause, challenging the current order, persuading and cajoling and campaigning.

My book is a collection of accounts from the inspirational people who have been at the forefront of local, national or international social justice campaigns. From the miners’ strike and Hillsborough to the mesh-injured women of Scotland and the families of Grenfell, these stories, and the campaigns which inspired them, are both educational and life-affirming.

These struggles and campaigns were tough, brutal and life-changing for those involved. They required bravery, leadership, personal sacrifice, tenacity, organisation, skill and drive to see them through to their conclusion.

Many have resulted in glorious victories, others in crushing, soul-wrenching defeat, but all of them teach us something about the human spirit, about promoting and defending ideals and principles, about personal strength, collective action, leadership, justice, democracy and common decency.

The people I spoke are of all ages and backgrounds, but every one of them stood up and fought for what they believed was the right thing. Not one ran. Mick Mcgahey would have been proud of them.