Bob Crow

Robert Crow (13 June 1961 – 11 March 2014) was an English trade union leader who served as the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 2002 until his death in 2014.

He was also a member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

A self-described "communist/socialist", he was a leading figure in the No to EU – Yes to Democracy campaign.

Crow joined London Transport in 1977 and soon became involved in trade unionism.

His first job was making the tea, then he worked as part of a tree-felling group in 1977, before moving onto heavy track repairing.

In 1983, he was elected as a local representative to the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and in 1985 became NUR national officer for track workers.

During his formative years, prominent figures such as Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon, Joe Gormley, and Len Murray dominated the British trade union movement.

As a result, he commented that "Starting my career with these people in charge of unions, and working in a nationalised industry with people who had put in 30 or even 40 years of service helped shape my views."

He was a great lover of soul music in his teens often to be found dancing to jazz-funk and reggae in working mans clubs and pubs across London and Essex.

Crow identified as a "communist/socialist", and between 1983 and 1997, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and then the Communist Party of Britain.

He described his political philosophy with a quote from Argentine Marxist–Leninist revolutionary Che Guevara: "Hasta la victoria siempre!"

("Forever onwards until the victory!").

He kept a bust of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in his office.

He described the aims of a trade-unionist as to secure "Job security, being safe, best possible pay, best possible conditions, decent pensions, and a world that lives in peace."

In 1990 the National Union of Railwaymen merged with the National Union of Seamen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

The following year Crow became the London Underground representative on the National Executive.

In 1997 he briefly joined Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party (SLP), and was always a strong supporter of Scargill for his commitment to trade unionism.

Crow rejected the argument that Scargill was responsible for the defeats of the miners and the union movement more generally.

Crow was a founding member of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition for several years until his death.

Previously, he supported the now disbanded Socialist Alliance, and believed all socialist parties should unite.

He was regarded as part of the Awkward Squad, a loose grouping of left-wing union leaders who came to power in a series of electoral victories beginning in 2002.

After he became leader, the RMT's membership increased from around 57,000 in 2002 to more than 80,000 in 2008, making it one of Britain's fastest-growing trade unions.

Crow was a polarising figure in British politics.

Supporters praised him as a champion of the working class and a successful trade unionist; Boris Johnson argued that he held London to ransom with strikes.

Born at 162 Burrow Road, Epping, Essex to Lillian (née Hutton) and George Crow; his background was working-class, a fact of which he remained proud throughout his life.

Crow's father was a docker who taught him to read both the Morning Star and the Financial Times, but to disbelieve everything in the latter.

His father also was a lifelong member of the Transport and General Workers Union.

His family subsequently moved to Hainault.

He left school at 16 and joined London Transport, where he became involved in union politics.

In 1991, he became assistant general secretary, and on 14 February 2002, he membership elected Crow to succeed Jimmy Knapp as general secretary.

He received 12,051 votes in the election – nearly twice as many as the other two candidates (Phil Bialyk received 4,512 votes and Ray Spry-Shute received 1,997).

Six weeks earlier on 1 January 2002, Crow was attacked outside his home by two men wielding an iron bar.

He speculated that he was the victim of hired employer muscle, although it is possible, according to The Guardian, that the culprits were members of far right activist groups who were active in Dagenham at the time.

Crow was a member of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress.

In the 2005 general election, he endorsed Robert Griffiths, the Communist Party of Britain candidate in Pontypridd, calling him "a champion of workers' rights".

Griffiths went on to win 233 votes (0.6%), coming last out of the six candidates.

From 2006 until his death, he was a member of the Executive Board of the International Transport Workers Federation, the global trade union for transport workers.

Under Bob Crow's leadership, the RMT affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions and he was regularly invited to attend, in his capacity as general secretary of the RMT, the presidential council of the WFTU.

At the time he became general secretary, he had a strong negotiating position as the industry was booming, and was the leader of one of the only British trade unions which still wielded industrial strength.

In the 2010 Local Election, he publicly supported the directly elected Mayoral candidate in the London Borough of Hackney Monty Goldman and the candidate for Leabridge Ward Mick Carty.