Rodney Bickerstaffe – a celebration
A celebration and archive of information
Message from Nelson Mandela to Rodney Bickerstaffe on his retirement in 2000. Courtesy of Warwick University Modern Records Centre @MRCWarwick https://twitter.com/MRCWarwick/status/1250803896198606848
You would get a phone call, ‘It’s Rodney’, said in that slightly self-mocking tone which suggested he wasn’t entirely happy with whoever had decided that...
Rodney Bickerstaffe 6 April 1945 – 3 October 2017: a Tribute Rodney was a lovely man. We mourn his death after a long illness, endured...
Rodney Bickerstaffe was a great champion of the International Brigades. The men and women who volunteered to fight fascism in Spain from 1936-39 were an...
(From Left Lives in Twentieth Century Ireland: Volume 2 published in Dublin in 2019 by Umiskin Press) courtesy of Dan O’Neill. Rodney Bickerstaff led the...
Rodney shocked many colleagues and friends when announcing his intention to retire from the General Secretaryship at the end of 2000. However, it wasn’t so...
The perception by the leadership that a union for all public sector workers was desirable was shared by much of the rank and file. Motions...
Rodney said he believed in a form of hierarchy but only to ensure things got done. He gave his officers at both national and regional...
An interesting footnote to this section suggests itself from the 1968 Report by the Executive Council to National Conference. The announcement is recorded that Sydney...
Following his mum’s letter to Sydney Hill and an exchange of letters with the General Secretary, in which Rodney said “I would be happy to...