Edwin Marsden (26 April 1913[1] – 30 August 1975) was a British trade unionist and communist activist.
Born in the Openshaw area of Manchester,[2] Marsden trained as a draughtsman but instead became a steel erector.[3]
In 1935, Marsden joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), radicalised in opposition to the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.[4] He also joined the Constructional Engineering Union, serving as a site steward for more than thirty years.[3]
In 1952, Marsden was elected to the executive of the union, representing North West England,[2] and in 1962 he became the union's full-time organiser for the region,[5] also representing the union on the executive of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.[2] Meanwhile, he became increasingly prominent in the CPGB, serving on its Lancashire and Cheshire District Committee,[2] and standing unsuccessfully for the party in the 1963 Manchester Openshaw by-election, and again in the seat in the 1964 and 1966 general elections.[6] In 1968, he was elected to the party's Executive Committee.[2]
Marsden was elected as general secretary of the union in 1968.[3] Three years later it became part of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, albeit remaining largely autonomous, with Marsden continuing as general secretary of the union's new Construction section.[7] This gave Marsden increased prominence in the trade union movement, and he was a prominent figure at meetings of the Trades Union Congress.[2]
Marsden died in 1975, still in office.[3]
References edit
- ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
- ^ a b c d e f Graham Stevenson, "Marsden Eddie", Compendium of Communist Biography
- ^ a b c d Trades Union Congress, "Obituary: Eddie Marsden", Annual Report of the 1975 Trades Union Congress
- ^ New Society, Vol.27, p.120
- ^ Robert Taylor, The Fifth Estate: Britain's Unions in the Seventies, p.83
- ^ F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950–1973
- ^ Exton, Jack; Gill, Colin (1981). The Trade Union Directory. London: Pluto Press. pp. 92–95.