My WIP book about Red Robbo, and Longbridge stuff.

[motorpunk]

Reading pile is growing. Frank Henderson was a hell of a man.

[Stroller133]

On 25/01/2025 at 08:57, motorpunk said:

If you removed any reference to communism and share those policies today, I'd imagine a lot of people would support them.  I'd even suggest they'd be popular with a lot of Reform voters - except equal opportunities regardless of sex and eliminating racism, obviously. 

[motorpunk]

Another long day at work, and dinner gone cold as I’m on the phone interviewing a fantastic old chap who knew Robbo and other socialists of the time. Will name him in the book but not here (yet). I also read that one mass walkout was caused when a supervisor simply turned a noisy radio off. I asked my BL interviewee tonight what car he drove at the time. “Well, Michael Edwardes said everyone should drive a British car, like an Austin. So I went and bought a Ford Escort instead. Besides, the quality of BL was rubbish at the time”. 😂

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, motorpunk said:

. I also read that one mass walkout was caused when a supervisor simply turned a noisy radio off.

That's triggered a distant memory - or was it Arthur Hailey's 'Wheels'? They really didn't want to work, I think.

[sierraman]

On 28/01/2025 at 08:04, motorpunk said:

Reading pile is growing. Frank Henderson was a hell of a man.

I bet Frank got a bit of handful after 8 pints of mild when politics came up in the working men’s club. 😂

[sierraman]

On 28/01/2025 at 21:32, Stroller133 said:

If you removed any reference to communism and share those policies today, I'd imagine a lot of people would support them.  I'd even suggest they'd be popular with a lot of Reform voters - except equal opportunities regardless of sex and eliminating racism, obviously. 

I’d love to have been at the meeting where he announced he was taking over Henry Boot and that all their brickies would be working for less. 

[R Lutz]

On 26/01/2025 at 12:58, comfortablynumb said:

If it's industrial relations anyone is interested in, there's a book called 'Rivethead' by Ben Hamper, interesting insight into the American vehicle industry.

Sorry, no use to the op at all.

I usually re-read that every 2 years. A fine insight into GM. While I worked for GM, my writing pseudonym was...Howie Mackem. I wrote a piece regarding Red Robbo under this very pseudonym which was published by Classic Car Weekly. 

[R Lutz]

On 26/01/2025 at 14:44, lesapandre said:

But probably he was just a nice man with unfulfilled high ideals really working in the wrong industry. 

My in-laws would disagree with you. 

[lesapandre]

Sounds like you have an interesting insight for @motorpunk.

[motorpunk]

14 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

My in-laws would disagree with you. 

What can you tell us, then? 

[R Lutz]

Father-in-law was a custody sergeant in Stourbridge, mother-in-law was a clerk in the courts, Dudley I think.

[R Lutz]

Probably a better contact would be the old Field Service Engineer. He started out in Standard-Triumph in the late '60s and ended up as the UK & Ireland chief field engineer. He's in his late '70s now and not in great health but he's got some stories to tell. I've spent a lot of time in pubs with him. 

[AnthonyG]

On 26/01/2025 at 12:58, comfortablynumb said:

If it's industrial relations anyone is interested in, there's a book called 'Rivethead' by Ben Hamper, interesting insight into the American vehicle industry.

This is an excellent read, Ben Hamper was from Flint and worked in the GMC/Chevrolet truck plant for a decade or so. Michael Moore knew him and Ben appears in the ‘Roger and Me’ film. 

There’s also a book called ‘Japan in the Passing Lane’ published in the early 80s but actually based on a Japanese reporter’s experience working for Toyota in the early 1970s.

Although there were elements of the Japanese attitude to quality mentioned above, it basically sounded like a military camp in a lot of ways, workers barracks etc. The constantly increasing tempo of production in ‘boom’ periods is also mentioned, a common theme in a lot of these books/memoirs.

Edit: dug out my copy, author is Satoshi Kamata:

[chaseracer]

On 26/01/2025 at 12:58, comfortablynumb said:

If it's industrial relations anyone is interested in, there's a book called 'Rivethead' by Ben Hamper, interesting insight into the American vehicle industry.

Good book.  See also 'A Savage Factory' by Robert J Dewar, a brutal appraisal of Ford's employment practices.

Similarly: 'The Assembly Line' by Robert Linhart does the same for 1970s Citroen plants.  Scary reading.

[motorpunk]

Research shifting from my base timeline of industrial action, some comedy strikes included, and examples of sabotage which quite tickled me - They used to put a ball bearing in cold grease inside the tubular seat frame of certain cars, knowing that once the grease melted the new car owner would have a rattle almost impossible to find and remove.

I have a key interview in Brum this week, have booked a day off work for that, and another interview next week in Oxford. Still unable to find Robbo’s daughter or, perhaps, she’d rather not get involved (which I respect, of course). I’m not on FaceBook which sort of hampers me a bit but it’s for my own sanity.

I’m also deep into the Governmental side of research now, it’s incredible the lengths they went to keep Communism at bay in the ‘60s-‘80s. Have requested documents from various places and will see what response I get.

I also bought a newspaper in Cambridge yesterday. Might sign up for this…

 

[motorpunk]

[Stinkwheel]

Im Impressed that some of the same trees are still there

[motorpunk]

This is VERY interesting. IRIS was a government funded group set up to clandestinely work against communism in the workplace. The papers are an eye-opener!

[motorpunk]

^ On that (if anyone is interested); IRIS would anonymously send union members lists of who was and who wasn’t a communist, trying to steer union voters away from the reds such as Derek Robinson. They’d also send very cleverly written anonymous letters to union publications to complain about communists in their union. Their internal notes are fascinating. I’m trying to work out who this is…

At an IRIS meeting from ‘68; “Lord Douglas not present” it says. There are almost no other names in any of the documents which are mostly hand written. Lord Douglas might be Douglas Hurd (who doesn’t seem the type to support such subversion) or perhaps Alec Douglas-Home. Or it could be a nom-de-guerre of someone else. It’s incredible the money and time the Government spent trying to influence the shop floors of places like Longbridge. My research continues…

 

 

[lesapandre]

Douglas is the family name of the Marquess' of Queensberry - various members of the family have held various titles in the 20th century. 

It's all a bit complicated - but the family tree is set out here.  They have held Parliamentary/Lords or other establishment positions. Thus the 'Lord Douglas' may be one of them. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marquess_of_Queensberry&wprov=rarw1

Personally I would doubt very much if it was Alec Douglas-Home who was PM 1963-4 and renounced his peerage to sit in the Commons.

Nor Douglas Hurd who was not enobled until 1997  - his father was a peer - but a life peer only so Hurd did not inherit any title before 1997.

It's all got a bit deepstate John le Carré hasn't it?

[somewhatfoolish]

On 09/02/2025 at 11:17, motorpunk said:

I have a key interview in Brum this week, have booked a day off work for that, and another interview next week in Oxford. Still unable to find Robbo’s daughter or, perhaps, she’d rather not get involved (which I respect, of course). I’m not on FaceBook which sort of hampers me a bit but it’s for my own sanity.

 

Do you have any children/nieces/nephews you can coerce into doing it for you? Failing that hire a researcher, canvassing for leads and passing the responses back to you isn't likely to cost much.

[sierraman]

How do people get hold of interview and court transcripts in books? I’d have thought all that shit would be classified? 

[motorpunk]

43 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Do you have any children/nieces/nephews you can coerce into doing it for you? Failing that hire a researcher, canvassing for leads and passing the responses back to you isn't likely to cost much.

Thanks. There’s zero budget for this. I can’t hire anyone. Covering graphic design and proof reading costs alone will gobble up most of the early royalties, assuming anyone buys this thing.

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

How do people get hold of interview and court transcripts in books? I’d have thought all that shit would be classified? 

I dunno! For me; The national archives are a good place to start. Then just detective work to track things down. I find names and try and find and then interview them myself. Not easy! I’ve no training in this, I’m just fascinated to find these people who are part of our industrial history. There’s just about enough for me to piece this part of the story together from what I’ve found.

ETA; The document that got Robbo sacked. 

[motorpunk]

I’ve emailed the BBC TV and radio and ITV news plus a couple of the local Brum rags, perhaps they’ll give me some airtime regarding looking for the real Red Robbo.

[Asimo]

6 hours ago, sierraman said:

How do people get hold of interview and court transcripts in books? I’d have thought all that shit would be classified? 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ff9e68e84ae1fd8592ede9/EX107_0724.pdf

Trials are normally open to the public therefore the transcripts are a public record.

[N Dentressangle]

Just had a read of 

https://newleftreview.org/issues/i129/articles/raghib-ahsan-solihull-death-of-a-car-factory.pdf

and

https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-11-08/why-70s-shop-stewards-lost

If you haven't already, sounds like Jim Denham might be worth a chat with - he's still around https://shirazsocialism.wordpress.com/author/jimcftu/

I found that through here https://sslh.org.uk/2022/04/25/the-edwardes-plan-and-your-job-when-the-1970s-ended-and-the-managerialist-1980s-began/ who give grants and fund research 🤔

[motorpunk]

35 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

Jim Denham might be worth a chat with

Funnily enough I interviewed him a few weeks ago. A really lovely guy and very helpful. And about an hour ago I posted him a copy of my last book (Looking for the real Weasel) as he seemed to appreciate a bit of humour with his history. 
 

Thanks for sharing the info! 👍🏼

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 11/02/2025 at 18:59, motorpunk said:

This is VERY interesting. IRIS was a government funded group set up to clandestinely work against communism in the workplace. The papers are an eye-opener!

Very interesting:

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Industrial_Research_and_Information_Service

[motorpunk]

4 hours ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Very interesting:

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Industrial_Research_and_Information_Service

Yup. That webpage led me to track down some of the original documents. Incredible subterfuge!  Am now ploughing through a mountain of notes. Poor old Robbo didn’t stand a chance. IRIS used to send anonymously mail typed messages (pic) to union members ahead of union elections to deter people from voting for those with communist sympathies or connections. I won’t share addresses or names on a public forum, but here are examples of these anonymous notes.