Our recently deceased comrade Stan Pearce was a model revolutionary in every way. Whoever met him could not fail to be impressed by his all-encompassing grasp of the current political situation or history. His knowledge of current and past events in every corner of the world, of political systems, characters, charlatans, mythology, the arts, sport and literature was unsurpassed.
Stan never resorted to high-faluting or professorial language but used the everyday parlance of the working class which could be, let us say, ‘fruity’. Socialism for Stan was not an abstract concept to bandy about over a glass of claret but a living, vibrant, obtainable idea which would transform the lives of his class.
He took to heart the old socialist maxim ‘Educate, Agitate, Organise!’ to his heart. Like many workers he searched for answers, first joining the Communist Party for a short time in the 1960s then moving into the Labour Party when it became apparent the CP was in the grip of middle class professionals and unreformed Stalinists. Of course, the Labour Party was not much better in many respects but it retained the loyalty of the class and trade unions.
He joined the Labour Party and found himself in the same ward as Kevin Roddy, the Civil Service union (CPSA) activist and ‘Militant’ supporter. Roddy was Labour Party Young Socialists ward delegate to the Chester-le-Street Constituency Labour Party. In discussions Roddy persuaded Stan to join the Militant Tendency.
Stan threw himself into activity like a tyro. He refused no task asked of him and most of his spare time was spent reading Marx, Lenin, Engels and Trotsky. He sold ‘Militant’ at the pit where he worked, at Labour Party meetings, on the street and house-to-house sales. He did more than his share of recruitment to the Labour Party always, keeping an eye out for likely contacts. Not only this, he was out knocking on doors at election times for the Party thus stilling the tongues of Party naysayers who disliked leftists.
Stan always attended Militant local and national rallies. He was always careful not to miss a day from work. He never wanted to become a hostage to fortune and have the charge levelled against him that he was like the ones who had gone before using union business to avoid work. He wanted to be an example to others and that is exactly what he was.
Meanwhile, unseen by many, the Tendency was changing. Appeals – indeed, demands – for funds intensifying activity were issued on an almost weekly basis. The excellent full-timer for the North-east, John Pickard, was called away to London to edit the newspaper leaving a succession of enthusiastic but lesser comrades to take his place. One even had Stan visit ‘contacts’ at home for assessment and /or persuade them into the Tendency. Often said ‘contacts’ might still be at school or young girls which made Stan the object of understandable suspicion from their parents given he was in his fifties. Still, he did his duty by the Tendency.
By now Stan’s original pit, the Glebe at Washington, had closed and he transferred to Wearmouth Colliery at Sunderland. Here he made a name for himself with his activities in the two national stoppages of 1972 and 1974. Wearmouth was a deep, coastal pit much larger than Glebe but its union lodge was weak and ineffective despite the natural rebelliousness of the much more numerous workforce. Bristling with ideas and newly grasped Marxist theory Stan soon found a group of good, reliable and able men with whom to begin reconstruction of the lodge on fighting lines. Chief amongst these men was Dave Hopper, who became General Secretary of the Durham Miners Association (DMA), Alan Mardghum, John Gilles and several others. Stan introduced the Militant newspaper to them and invited them to what were quaintly called Militant Readers Meetings where lively discussions took place not only on union business and tactics but on revolutionary theory. In a short space of time these men had established a Miners Broad Left mainly in the coastal pits from Westoe in South Shields to Horden. There were a few from neighbouring Northumberland pits too.
Slowly, positions within the lodge were taken up by Broad Left members and it is not over-egging the pudding to say Wearmouth became the leading light for the whole Durham coalfield. Places were gained on the Executive Committee together with left-wing resolutions which frightened the life out of the sedentary Area Officials. The Broad Left lads and Stan were now in their element. When the Great Strike of 1984/85 occurred, even more men flocked to the left banner first raised by Wearmouth. The influence of both Stan and Dave Hopper was immense and it was no great surprise when, at the end of the Strike, Hopper was overwhelmingly elected as Durham General Secretary – the old guard having realised their day was done.
Due to the cowardly reluctance of the greater Labour Movement to actively support the miners The Durham pits closed one by one to the unrestrained glee of Thatcher and the Tories. Hopper and the DMA President Davie Guy did not lie down however, the DMA became what it should have been for decades before: a campaigning, fighting organisation on many fronts whilst still caring for its sick and injured members.
If the failure of the Great Strike was a bitter pill for many, Stan never let on. “We lost the battle but not the war!” was his maxim. He returned to work when the Strike was officially called off proudly marching in behind the banner and the band applauded by wives, shipyard workers and well-wishers. I’d remarked to Stan the night before how he had put on a bit of weight and asked would his pit clothes still fit him. “I hope that effing shovel doesn’t fit me!” he replied.
He remained at work – the oldest face worker in the country – until Wearmouth closed in 1993. He had spent forty-four years underground. But ‘retirement’ was not for him. With his customary energy, he threw himself into voluntary work for the union, representing members at industrial tribunals and attending union and labour movement schools. He never stopped reading, enlarging his knowledge and discussing current events. Invited overseas by international workers and comrades he visited the USA, Australia, Cuba, Poland, Ireland, the Scandinavian countries and Spain. Everywhere he went he spread the word of the need for a revolutionary party – an international revolutionary party.
In the Labour Party, great gains had been made in both Sunderland North, Sunderland South CLPs and Chester-le-Street with the left orchestrating policy. In Chester-le-Street, Stan’s constituency, Militant Gordon Bell challenged sitting MP Giles Radice (now Lord Radice), a Manifesto Group right winger, in the reselection process. This constituency, still effectively directed from jail by the disgraced GMWU regional officer Andy Cunningham, so nearly deselected Radice. At one point during the counting of votes Radice was heard to say to his wife “We’ve lost it – we’ve lost it!” In the debate over policy Bell slaughtered Radice’s right-wing arguments to loud applause. Stan, noting the closeness of the result, discovered many of the elderly faces were new members signed by GMWU officials but that some were not even union members. He raised the issue there and then to the red-faced management committee, remarking at the same time most of these newly signed-up pensioners could not afford to live like the dandy-ish Radice with his “Ten pounds per day haircuts!”
Stan maintained Militant in the North-east were doing very well, causing trouble for the right wing on policy matters and getting resolutions through and that we should have carried on as we were. “They might be able to kick out a few” he said of the National Executive Committee “but they can’t kick out the likes of us! Who’ll do the work for them?” We only need to look about today at the moribund local parties to see Stan was absolutely correct.
When the 1991 split in the Militant occurred, Stan was astounded. Later, when the enormity of this crass mistake became clear he was hugely angered. “We had it all ticking along nicely” he observed “until they thought they were bigger than the Labour Party!” He then reverted to an old North-east put down: “They tried to show a bigger cock than they had!”
The failure of the Labour Movement to recognise then fight against Blairism further frustrated him when all New Labour’s malign intentions were trumpeted by Murdoch’s media and a host of celebrity dunces. Despite this he never gave up hope or the will to fight. He did what he could.
Stan never lost faith in the ideas of Trotsky and Ted Grant. When he was introduced to Socialist Appeal a few years later, he was delighted the battle was being joined again. “The analysis is always spot on” he said.
Without Marxist method, a revolutionary tradition cannot be built and it cannot exist without cadres. The importance of a cadre – a leader – is paramount. He or she must have a firm understanding of Marxist theory, be able to analyse events as they occur and then correctly act upon them without direction from a leadership. Those who open their mouths and let their bellies rumble are worthless in the long term. A cadre is a respected person at their place of work and one who is instinctively sought out for advice and listened to. Trotsky’s notion that ‘reform vs revolution equates to astonishment vs foresight’ is fundamental to a cadre’s task. It is the Marxist method.
The same is true of the community in which the cadre lives. Such respect does not come easily for the working class is adept at winkling out bellicose poseurs. A cadre lives right and acts right at all times. A cadre should keep his or her finger on matters which interest the class even if the ‘X Factor’ or ‘Big Brother’ induces catalepsy. The same is true of sport. The ability to communicate with the class at all levels is vital and brings forth trust.
To summarise, Stan was what a cadre should be. He had strength, integrity of the first rank, a great theoretical level, friendliness and humility. He was a dialectical materialist par excellence who lived his life as a socialist in exemplary fashion.
To the young who are attracted by the ideas of Marxism, model yourselves on Stan Pearce – you will not be disappointed. That mighty heart may no longer beat but his legacy will live on.
Bob Stothard,
April 2013
