Harry Clement Kershaw (3 October 1906 – 3 June 1985) 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 unionist
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 ...
.
Born in
Rossendale Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England:
Places
*Rossendale Valley, a river valley
*Borough of Rossendale, a local government district
*Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency)
Rossendale was a United King ...
, Kershaw worked part-time for his father. He then moved with his family to
Barnoldswick
Barnoldswick (pronounced ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Pendle, Lancashire, England. It lies within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic West Riding of Yorkshire, West Ri ...
, where he worked as a half-timer in a cotton mill. When he was thirteen, he began working full-time as a weaver, and joined the Barnoldswick Weavers' Association, in which his father was an official. He 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) when he was nineteen, and in 1929 he was sacked for his trade union activity. Initially, he was refused
unemployment benefit
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (hu ...
, but a court determined that his activity was justified, and he was paid the benefit. However, he was unable to find work at the local mills, and instead went to work for a year in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
In 1944, Kershaw began working full-time for the Colne Weavers' Association. He was elected as Assistant Secretary of the association 1945. The association was a member of the
Amalgamated Weavers' Association
The Amalgamated Weavers' Association, often known as the Weavers' Amalgamation, was a trade union in the United Kingdom. Initially, it operated in competition with the North East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Association in part of its area, ...
, and Kershaw was elected as its full-time Second Assistant Secretary in 1947, becoming Assistant Secretary in 1960, then General Secretary in September 1968, spending his first month working alongside