Reminiscences of a worker correspondent

<p><span>Roy Jones is a journalist of an unusual kind a real worker correspondent. He became an reporter </span></p><p><span>on the Morning Star after a hard apprenticeship as an itinerant industrial worker as a militant </span></p><p><span>trade unionist working as a pipefitter on industrial sites throughout Britain where the weather </span></p><p><span>was as challenging as the bosses (and bosses' placemen) who made a guaranteed weekly wage </span></p><p><span>an uncertain prospect. </span></p><p></p><p><span>Proud of both his traditional manual skills and his newly acquired craft he was respected by </span></p><p><span>trade union leaders as much as he was trusted by workers on picket lines not least because he </span></p><p><span>brought to his reporting a sharp intelligence combined with a real insight into the daily problems </span></p><p><span>workers face. </span></p><p></p><p><span>These reminiscences arrived at Manifesto Press as a series of witty entertaining insightful and </span></p><p><span>politically perceptive political accounts of his unusual life and work. Some recalled in conversation </span></p><p><span>and recorded by friends and family some culled from his decades of clippings some </span></p><p><span>the product of discussion with his colleagues and comrades. </span></p><p></p><p><span>The finished text bears the marks of its transcription from oral and written accounts and we </span></p><p><span>are indebted to Manifesto Press volunteer Alan Tucker who carried through the first and most </span></p><p><span>rigorous edit. Alan is a former engineer systems analyst and project manager and technical </span></p><p><span>author and the text is the result of his discipline and energy.</span></p>