Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Unfinished business
WILL PODMORE explores new biography that appeared without the involvement of Mick Lynch himself 
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch joins the RMT picket line outside Newcastle Central station July 22, 2023

Mick Lynch: the making of a working-class hero
Gregor Gall, Manchester University Press, £20

GREGOR GALL is Visiting Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Leeds and author of Bob Crow: socialist, leader, fighter (2017) among other books. This is a useful biography of Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. It is also a study of the relationship between trade union struggles and the struggle for socialism.

It should be said at the start that the RMT did not authorise this book, as Gall acknowledges in an appendix: “On August 23 2022, Lynch was approached to be interviewed for the writing of this book... the response on September 2 was that ‘he is not interested in participating in this project’.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Members of trade unions shout slogans during a nationwide strike to protest an interim trade deal with the United States, saying the agreement undermines the interests of farmers, small businesses and workers in New Delhi, India, February 12, 2026
Workers' Rights / 25 February 2026
25 February 2026

The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’

Alex Gordon
Anti-arms / 23 May 2025
23 May 2025

RMT’s former president ALEX GORDON explains why his union supports defence diversification and a just transition for workers in regions dependent on military contracts, and calls on readers to join CND’s demo against nuclear-armed submarines on June 7
 

People take part in a protest organised by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) opposite Downing Street, London, over the proposed closure of railway station ticket offices, August 31, 2023
Features / 3 May 2025
3 May 2025

This May Day we reaffirm our commitment to working people and our class and to get trade unionism back on the front foot, says EDDIE DEMPSEY