Tommy Dawson

[Tommy Dawson (LAB)]

Name: Tommy Dawson

Age: 54, 16 December, 1935

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White British

Sexuality: Straight

Avatar: Olaf Palme

Discord Username: chainsbroken

Education: University of Sheffield (grad. 1968 in History)

Career: Steelworker (1951-1965), Union Representative Iron and Steel Trades Confederation “ISTC” (1955-1964), Assistant Organising Director ISTC (1968-1971), Organising Director, ISTC (1971-1976), Assistant General Secretary, ISTC (1976-1979)

Party: Labour

Constituency: Sheffield Brightside

Faction: Socialist Campaign Group

Parliamentary Career: MP for Sheffield Brightside (1979-Present), Socialist Campaign Group Treasurer (1983-1987), Tony Benn for Leader Campaign Treasurer (1988). 

Born into a tight-knit family of steelworking socialists in the midst of the Great Depression, Tommy Dawson’s apple did not fall far from his parents’ tree. Upon graduating secondary school at 16 with decent marks, Tommy went to work at the same steel plant his father toiled in, immediately becoming an active member of his union, the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation as well as the leftist Sheffield Trades and Labour Council. Reflecting his great enthusiasm for the workers’ movement and he was elected to serve as a union representative at age 20. He became known in this role for his skilled power analysis and voracious appetite for writings on labour history and socialist theory. Sensing his promise, Tommy’s union comrades collectively scrapped together enough money to send him off to the University of Sheffield, joining the ISTC’s organising team upon graduation. In that position, Tommy was identified as a rising star on the union’s Left, who encouraged him to stand for Assistant General Secretary in 1976. He narrowly won that campaign which pitted him against a prominent figure from the union's establishment right.  After three years of attempting to build up the union (and the Left’s)  strength in that position, Tommy was recruited by comrades among Sheffield’s hard-left to stand for Parliament, convincely winning the Sheffield Brightside Labour selection battle before coasting to Westminster on 3 May.

In Parliament, Dawson has been a proud member of Labour’s hard-left. A close ally of Tony Benn, Tommy campaigned aggressively for his comrade in the 1981 Deputy Leadership election and became a founding member of the Socialist Campaign Group upon his defeat. He has never forgiven Neil Kinnock for his role in “knifing” the heart of the socialist movement in 1981 and has been extremely critical of his leadership of the party - claiming that he is in the process of “abandoning the cause of socialism” and “surrendering Labour’s proud role as marshal in the working class fight”. He enthusiastically backed Benn’s challenge against Kinnock in 1988, campaigning for him throughout Yorkshire. 

In 1989 Dawson published a pamphlet entitled A Lesson from the 1970’s: Thatcher’s Rise and Why Labour Must Turn Left in which he argued that the Labour Government’s refusal to press for bold, transformative proposals such as further nationalisation and worker ownership and participation allowed for Thatcher to frame herself as an agent of change in opposition to a meek, vision-less establishment interested in power for power’s sake. He concluded by asserting that in order to win, the Labour’s leadership must “once more water the roots of socialism” not only because it’s the morally correct decision but also because doing so would galvanize the masses brutally beaten down and disenchanted by the Tory assaults on their communities and working class institutions, who have hitherto been uninspired by the rightward moving Labour leadership’s checkered ability to spark a compelling contrast. 

It is rumoured that Tommy has the full text of Labour’s Clause IV tattooed somewhere on his body.