Edwin Marsden (26 April 1913''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007'' – 30 August 1975) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist and

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

activist. Born in the

Openshaw Openshaw is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, about three miles east of the Manchester city centre. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Lancashire, Openshaw was incorporated into the city of Manchester in 1890. ...

area of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

,Graham Stevenson,
Marsden Eddie
, ''Compendium of Communist Biography'' Marsden trained as a draughtsman but instead became a steel erector.

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...

, "Obituary: Eddie Marsden", ''Annual Report of the 1975 Trades Union Congress'' In 1935, Marsden joined the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

(CPGB), radicalised in opposition to the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.''

New Society ''New Society'' was a weekly magazine of social inquiry and social and cultural comment, published in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1988. It drew on the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, social history and s ...

'', Vol.27, p.120 He also joined the Constructional Engineering Union, serving as a site steward for more than thirty years. In 1952, Marsden was elected to the executive of the union, representing North West England, and in 1962 he became the union's full-time organiser for the region, also representing the union on the executive of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. Meanwhile, he became increasingly prominent in the CPGB, serving on its Lancashire and Cheshire District Committee, and standing unsuccessfully for the party in the 1963 Manchester Openshaw by-election, and again in the seat in the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and 1966 general elections. F. W. S. Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1950–1973'' In 1968, he was elected to the party's Executive Committee. Marsden was elected as general secretary of the union in 1968. Three years later it became part of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, albeit remaining largely autonomous, with Marsden continuing as general secretary of the union's new Construction section. This gave Marsden increased prominence in the trade union movement, and he was a prominent figure at meetings of the

. Marsden died in 1975, still in office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsden, Eddie 1913 births 1975 deaths Communist Party of Great Britain members General secretaries of the Amalgamated Engineering Union People from Openshaw Trade unionists from Manchester