Papers of Paul Mackney

MS 1591

Papers of Paul Mackney

1981 - 1992

Paul Mackney combined a deep desire for social justice and a drive for action to achieve it with an administrative flair and capacity to absorb prodigious workloads. He did not compartmentalise different facets of his life and this collection cannot therefore be divided into discrete blocks. Whilst a themed approach has been adopted where possible, the contents of each series have a close and direct bearing on others. Mackney's bureaucratic skills and his readiness to use his various representative positions on bodies to support his core beliefs are reflected in these papers. Records that may initially be regarded as the official documents of particular organisations actually contain so much diverse material generated by or centred on Mackney that they are best understood as part of Mackney's personal collection.

XXXX/401: Vinyl 45 RPM record 'Amnesty - Reinstate and set them free'. + Interview on minidisk.

MS 2009 TURC Birmingham Trade Union Resource Centre; MS 2031 NATFHE (National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education)

Not Public Record(s)

English

3.74 Cubic metres

Partially closed

Born in 1950, Paul Mackney has had a long involvement with politics and campaigning, from student politics through trades union activities and wider social and political campaigning. In 2005 Melanie Phillips described him in the Daily Mail as 'one of the key revolutionary socialist agitators in Britain', because of his prominent role in the anti-Iraq war movement and the Palestinian solidarity movement This collection relates primarily to Mackney's time in Birmingham, where he was active in further education, trades union and political activities. Records are a mixture of personal papers and working copies of official documents received or created by Mackney through his involvement with a range of organisations and campaigns.

Mackney attended Christ's Hospital School in Horsham and then studied Politics at Exeter University where he joined the International Socialists. During this period, Mackney campaigned for claimants' unions and self-help organisations for the unemployed and he compiled a claimants' guide to the benefits system. After teaching English as a foreign language in Hamburg, he became a part-time lecturer of social studies at Poole Technical College.

Paul Mackney moved to Birmingham to take up a post at Hall Green Technical College [later South Birmingham College] in 1975 and joined the Birmingham International Socialists. He was one of a number of members in the City to be expelled by the IS and after a period with the Workers' League, Mackney joined the Labour Party.

Paul Mackney became an official of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education [NATFHE]. He held a number of honorary and paid posts and became known as 'Deals on Wheels' for the number of college contract agreements he managed to broker. In 1997 he became General Secretary of the Union, and was the first NATFHE General Secretary to be elected to the TUC General Council. However, Mackney's involvement in postions of influence in the trade union movement had begun through nomination to the Birmingham Trades Council [BTC] in the 1970s, where he gained access to the management of the Trades Council, as vice-president and later as President. A prime mover in discussions to establish the Birmingham Trade Union Resource Centre [TURC], he sat on the sub-committee established by the Birmingham Trades Council to oversee the development and launch of TURC, later joining its Management Committee (again serving as Chairman and Secretary at different times). He also served on the management committee of the Youth Employment and Training Research Unit [YETRU] and prompted their eventual merger into one joint management committee.

In 1984 he chaired the Trades Council's Miners' Support Committee during the national miners' strike. Mackney later produced a dissertation about this committee as part of his studies for a Master's Degree in Industrial Relations at the University of Warwick. This formed the basis of his book 'Birmingham and the Miners' Strike: the Story of a Solidarity Movement', published in 1987.

Paul Mackney was also was involved in less formal ways, with Banner Theatre Company, CARF and BUMP (respectively the Campaign against Racism and Fascism and Birmingham against Urban Motorway Plans).

A common thread in Mackney's career has been a concern to campaign for social justice, across a range of issues. He gained a mandate through the trades union movement to serve on a number of bodies and lobbied hard on employment rights. He sought measures to mitigate the impact of mass unemployment. Mackney also strove to identify and tackle racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination, within the workplace and across society. In 1976 Mackney organised a vote of censure against the then President of the BTUC for having made racist comments. After he joined the BTUC Executive Council, Mackney worked with like minded members to promote progressive causes in social justice. Likewise, his positions on the TURC and YETRU management committees permitted him to lobby for and support campaigns at home and abroad.

In 1983 Mackney represented the West Midlands Regional Trades Union Congress on the Birmingham and Solihull Area Management Board [AMB]. The AMB was an advisory body for the Manpower Services Commission and drew representatives of employers, Youth Training Scheme administrators and trades unions together. As well as a general concern with minimising the impact of unemployment and maximising the employment opportunities for young people, Mackney was keen to combat racial discrimination. This led him to prematurely release ethnic monitoring information which the Manpower Services Commission had presented to the AMB in confidence. This information revealed a serious under-representation of black trainees on YTS schemes and controversy raged both over the revelations and the manner in which they had been made public.

Records contained in this collection [and in MS 2009 TURC including YETRU] provide details of the nature and extent of racial discrimination within YTS schemes and of the controversy that ensued from these revelations. To provide a context for individual and organisational stances taken on this and other issues at this time, the relationship between BTUC and the Trades Union Congress will be briefly examined.

Mackney's actions over the MSC report to the AMB were in line both with his personal convictions and the prevailing tendency within the BTUC Executive to support direct campaigning tactics. However, colleagues on the AMB and West Midlands Regional TUC did not appreciate his approach and Mackney was censured by Barry Shuttleworth who both chaired the AMB and was a leading member of the West Midlands Regional TUC.

The BTUC was based on delegates from trades union branches in Birmingham and Solihull who tended to be lay activists. In contrast, the Regional TUC was dominated by full-time officials from the union offices for the West Midlands Region. Different operational perspectives between lay activists and full-time officials was compounded by differences in approaches and political outlook between the two bodies. Mackney epitomised those differences, regarding his constituency as being firmly anchored within an emerging BTUC stance.

From the late 1970s the BTUC had increasingly adopted specifically a campaigning role on labour and wider social and political issues whereas the Regional TUC maintained more traditional modes of operating. The Regional TUC also remained more securely embedded in conventional labour movement politics with radical views being formulated with reference to traditional socialist and communist influences. In contrast, radical elements within the BTUC derived much influence from political movements that had gained prominence during the social and political developments of the late 1960s. [Mackney was a member of the Trotskyist International Socialists from 1968 until his expulsion in 1975.]

Paul Mackney became Head of Birmingham Trades Union Studies Centre at South Birmingham College in 1986. In 1992 he became Midlands Regional Official for NATFHE and was elected as General Secretary in 1997. Mackney then moved to London but maintained personal and professional links with Birmingham. In 2003 Mackney was re-elected unopposed as General Secretary. He was a prime mover in merger talks between NATFHE and the Association of University Teachers [AUT], with the combined University and Colleges Union [UCU] scheduled for summer 2006. Originally considered a strong contender to become General Secretary for UCU, he reluctantly stood aside from this contest for health reasons.

After moving to London, Mackney followed a similar pattern as in Birmingham, capitalising on his position to support his direct, campaigning approach to a wide range of issues. Recent examples include his opposition to the Gulf Wars and his success in 2003 in obtaining a Special General Council which secured the TUC's opposition to the Second War. Mackney never regarded himself as a pacifist, seeing a justification for wars of national liberation. However, he has always eschewed what he described as a tradition of western violence through imperialism and global political and economic strategies.

In November 2010, Mackney was one of the speakers at the National Organising Conference for the Coalition of Resistance Against Cuts & Privatisation, which was prompted by the austerity programme of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.