By a Socialist Alternative member
In the saddest of news, we heard on Thursday 3 October that Warwick Roberts has passed away. Warwick was a trade unionist, a class fighter, and a generous and kind-hearted human being. Most of all, he was an irreconcilable revolutionary who hated the Tories and Blairites with every fibre of his soul, and believed profoundly in the struggle for a socialist revolution.
Warwick was a rail guard on Merseyrail, which is not a particularly well-paid job. In this as much else, Warwick was motivated far more by helping working-class people than he ever was by earning more money.
In 2017, a titanic struggle began to prevent the Labour-run Merseyside transport authority from removing the guards from the trains. They said this was about modernisation, but of course what it was really about was the profits of the train companies.
On Merseyside, Warwick played an increasingly important role throughout the dispute. His pride in being a member of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union was equalled only by his determination that it and the other unions needed to fight back with both fists when the politicians and employers attacked.
We were campaigning in the shopping centres and streets to ‘keep the guard’, renationalise rail, and to pile the pressure on to the right-wing Labour councillors whose wretched cowardice and self-interest drove them to implement every Tory policy to the last letter.
In mid-2017 we received an application to join, which said something like “I support you because you support me”. This was a little cryptic, because it didn’t mention the RMT, and we scratched our heads at the time trying to work out who or why this might be. I contacted the applicant to meet, and that is how I first met Warwick.
Warwick at the time was not a union rep, but obviously should have been, standing head and shoulders above some others who were. Warwick’s raw working-class honesty and determination made an impression on me from the start, as he did with so many comrades and workmates.
The strikes began in July of that year, continuing on and off for a very long time. Merseyrail guards showed their determination with big picket lines, huge public support, organised defence of RMT reps and members who were victimised by the bosses, and won solidarity from the Aslef train drivers’ union.
Yet while Labour (and their rail industry chums) were determined to get rid of the guards, the RMT national leadership evidently had no idea what to do at all. Strikes were called in an uncoordinated, ill-prepared way. Like the strike wave in 2022-23, the union leaders could ride a wave of anger but had no plan, no strategy, and no willingness to listen to rank-and-file workers who did.
Huge pressure had to be exerted to demand a coordinated strategy of rolling strike action, joined up around the country and prepared properly with a serious campaign to mobilise the whole membership. In this struggle, Warwick was a central figure locally, and even nationally, when he travelled down to London to address the union leadership.
All the way through this struggle, Warwick led the way in resisting the worst of what the employers tried to sneak through, seeking always the best possible deal for the workers he represented and the working class more widely.
Warwick was not only a trade unionist, but a revolutionary socialist who took these ideas immensely seriously. He wore the political badge of Marxism and Trotskyism with pride. He loathed the Stalinists and others who distorted the real ideas of socialism and Marxism, and was endlessly determined to convince others of our ideas, campaigning on the streets as well as in the workplace, as well as at the ballot box when he stood in the local elections.
Warwick was also a very humble man. I remember him being struck dumb with awe as he got to meet his greatest hero, Tony Mulhearn, and get a signed copy of Liverpool: A City That Dared to Fight, which chronicled the struggle of Militant and the Liverpool City Council at that time against Thatcher. That book remained one of Warwick’s most prized possessions.
Politics aside, Warwick could be a natural comedian. He was a wonderful man, a devoted revolutionary, a real workers’ militant, and the world is a poorer place without him.
I know what Warwick would have said if he was still with us now. He would have said “that’s really bad”. But reflecting his commitment to the struggle of the working class, he would follow it by saying “well we’ll just have to carry on fighting without him won’t we?”
And though we miss him, we will do just that. Rest in power comrade.
