Graham Stevenson (trade union leader)

In 1973 Stevenson joined the UCATT construction union, and alongside fellow communist Pete Carter they worked together to unionise building sites in Coventry.[4][6] In one instance, Stevenson clashed with the manager of a building site during an attempted occupation that led to the famous Rotunda legal case.[6][8] Many months after the attempted occupation, Stevenson and his colleagues were arrested by the police and charged with 'conspiracy to trespass', with potentially unlimited penalties.[1][6] However, the jury at their trial was led by a sympathetic local union convener, and the jury found Stevenson innocent.[1][6][7]

Stevenson worked very closely with trade union leader and communist Frank Watters, who was famous for his trade union activism with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Yorkshire.[1][6] Together they redeveloped the Birmingham CPGB Communist Party premises into a social club, heavily featuring Jamaican Reggae music.[1] This social club became a home for many members of Birmingham's black communities, including the future general secretary of the TGWU, Bill Morris.[1][6] Stevenson met Frank Watters's daughter Lesley, and married her in 1979.[1][6] In 1980 Stevenson began his career as a full-time trade union officer, applying for the position of TGWU district organiser in Derby,[6][9] where he successfully re-unionised bus services and expanded the union's activities into the wider community.[1] He was also involved in re-establishing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).[1] In 1982 he became the organiser of the Midlands March for Jobs in 1982.[1] In 1983-84 he worked to ensure that transport workers gave their full support to striking mining workers.[1][6]

In 1999 Stevenson became the National Secretary for the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), one of the largest trade unions in British history.[1][6][9] In this capacity he also played a leading role in the founding and running of the European Transport Workers Federation, a union with 2 million members.[7][5][1] As the new vice-president of the European Transport Workers Federation,[9][10] he helped organise dock worker strikes across Europe in January 2003, forcing the European Union to abandon the commission's Directive to seek privatisation.[1] As a leading member of the TGWU, he worked to ensure the union opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[1]

In 2007–2008 Stevenson played a key role in creating Unite the Union, the largest trade union in the UK.[3] After retiring from Unite in 2010,[5][9] Stevenson dedicated the rest of his life to supporting the British communist movement. He served as the treasurer of the Marx Memorial Library between 2013 and 2019, an organisation known for housing the records of many anti-colonial fighters.[5][3] In 2011 Stevenson was awarded the ITF Gold Badge.[9] In 2017 Stevenson ran for the Mayor of Birmingham,[11] receiving just under 6,000 votes.[3]

After the disbanding of the original Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), Stevenson joined the new Communist Party of Britain (CPB) and became served the party as a leading member.[3][12] He also had a daily column in the Morning Star and redeveloped the CPB's Communist Party History Group.[3]