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Jon Baldwin<\/strong> reviews the new book by Gregor Gall, <\/em>Mick Lynch: The Making of a Working-Class Hero<\/a> (Manchester University Press, 2024)<\/em><\/p>\n Mick Lynch is a 60-year-old London School of Economics alumnus who earns a six figure salary, owns a Victorian terrace house worth \u00a31million and supports Brexit. Yet in the summer of 2022 the status of \u2018working-class hero\u2019 was suddenly thrust upon him by the lumpen online left-wing following a series of severe yet quite sane ideological skirmishes with the UK\u2019s corporate media.<\/p>\n As the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers<\/a> (RMT) \u2013 who oversaw extensive industrial action at the time \u2013 he is perceived as one of the most active, high-profile militants in the country. Indeed, apart from Arthur Scargill in the 1980s, it is difficult to recall the last time when a union leader has become such a household name.<\/p>\n Gregor Gall\u2019s new political biography, Mick Lynch: The Making of a Working-Class Hero<\/em> (Manchester University Press, 2024), traces and analyses Lynch\u2019s journey to this vaunted status by following \u2018The Four Ps\u2019: persona, politics, period and power. That is, he is calm, collected and calculating; his politics are progressive and social democrat in ambit; the period of the 2022-23 strike action choreographed him on to centre stage; and the RMT have the resources of associational, structural and institutional power. And so he took the opportunity to be the astute voice of the union, rejuvenating its organisation so it could publicly punch above its weight.<\/p>\n As Gall recalls, when Piers Morgan linked him to the Thunderbirds\u2019<\/em> arch enemy, \u2018The Hood\u2019, during an interview, Lynch retorted, \u2018Is that the level of your journalism these days?\u2019 On Good Morning Britain<\/em> he reminded Richard Madeley, the programme\u2019s host, that \u2018you do come up with the most remarkable twaddle sometimes.\u2019 And, as Sky News\u2019<\/em> Kay Burley attempted to conjure up visions of picket line violence from the 1980s, he exclaimed, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this line of questioning \u2026What are you talking about? You\u2019ve gone off into the world of the surreal.\u2019<\/p>\n Lynch\u2019s self-assurance, use of plain language, factual correctness, indignation and sarcasm felt authentic and refreshing to media-literate viewers who were emerging from lockdown and, even worse, from a monotonous party-political hum of prepared statements which proclaimed, like an Oxbridge choir, national consent on COVID. Gall suggests that, as a new voice with \u2018soft power\u2019, adept at out-manoeuvring mediated mantraps and reframing socio-political issues to represent his members\u2019 concerns, fellow union leaders can learn a lot from his survival in the bear pit of broadcasting.<\/p>\n In the phenomenal wake of 46 million online views of Mick Lynch video clips, as well as the popularity of Mick Lynch mugs and Mick Lynch tote bags, Gall notes that there is no application process, no adjudication committee, and no references required for appointing a working-class hero. Indeed, as Brecht states in Life of Galileo<\/em> (1943), \u2018unhappy is the land that needs a hero\u2019, and Lynch arrived in such an unhappy land at exactly the right time. The working class is disenfranchised, beaten down by years of austerity, low in confidence, low in class consciousness and low in workers\u2019 collective struggles. Following the Establishment\u2019s political execution of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, the void in the mainstream was there to be filled.<\/p>\n Even the comedian Stewart Lee would name Lynch as the \u2018best spokesman for workers\u2019 rights and leftwing values this century.\u2019 Yet he would also call Lynch a \u2018Brexit arse made good\u2019 due to the RMT\u2019s support for Brexit \u2013 or its Lexit variant \u2013 due to the belief that rail nationalisation could only occur again under such insular conditions. This ignores the fact that many European countries have nationalised railways however and, surprisingly, Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour Party has recently pledged that, should they reach government, much of the rail network will be renationalised<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gall\u2019s biography probes the inner workings of the RMT and can be seen as neither a hagiography nor hatchet-job, but both a celebration and critique of Lynch. For instance, the author suggests two major contributions that this leader has made. Firstly, to reinvigorate social democracy as a counter-narrative and alternative ideology to neo-liberalism; and, secondly, to rekindle the heat of trade unionism and galvanise the working-class with collective self-confidence.<\/p>\n He continues that there are six essential functions of leadership which are relevant to unions and the position of general secretary. These are: 1) clear agenda setting and framing of arguments; 2) confident public speaking and communication; 3) effective negotiation skills; 4) insightful strategic planning; 5) productive caucusing and alliance building; and 6) active management of people and organisational resources.<\/p>\n Gregor further argues that Mick Lynch\u2019s predecessor Bob Crow surpassed him in all these functions. For example, in terms of strategic planning, the RMT has a very limited strike fund, whereas Unite<\/em><\/a> has the ability to pay \u00a370 a day strike pay in an effort to secure victory, under both Len McCluskey and Sharon Graham\u2019s leadership. As a critical friend of the unions, Gall also advances more innovative tactics, coordination and organisation.<\/p>\n He writes that Lynch is best characterised as a social democrat, because he advocates reforming capitalism rather than abolishing it. His thinking on politics is about pragmatism, compromise and he is known as a \u2018dealmaker\u2019. This may well serve RMT members, but what of the wider working-class community to whom he is supposedly a hero? From the perspective of Marx and Gramsci on the unions, this can be regarded as a lost opportunity.<\/p>\n![\"Mick](\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Mick_Lynch_and_Richard_Madeley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mick](\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Mick_Lynch_Tote_bag.jpg\")
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