Joe Owens 1964 – 2009
Joe Owens 1964 – 2009
Joe Owens was a young 18-year-old miner from Blackburn in West Lothian when he joined Militant (the forerunner of the International Socialists in Scotland and the Socialist Party of England and Wales) in 1983. Joe was a leading figure in Militant in the East of Scotland in the 1980’s – playing a key role at all levels of the organisation. We first met him at a public meeting in Edinburgh in support of the print workers who were on strike against Eddie Shah’s attempts at the Messenger Group in Warrington to smash the print unions. From the first Joe stood out as an outstanding public speaker, full of passion, anger and not a little humour, as well as an incredible depth of knowledge for someone so young. As was to be the case throughout his too short a life, Joe, who was a force of nature, made a huge impact on all those who had the privilege to know him.
Joe, like his father, worked in the Polkemmet colliery in West Lothian where he was elected as the youth delegate for the NUM. When the miners strike began in 1984 he was already a committed Marxist and used all of his abilities to emerge as a leading figure in the year long dispute. I vividly recall Joe Owens speaking in 1984 at the Labour Party Young Socialists summer camp in the Forest Of Dean. Hundreds of young socialists had packed into the marquee to hear the opening rally on the miners strike. Joe Owens was billed to speak as a young miner, perhaps for 5 or 10 minutes, with Ian Isaacs from the South Wales NUM planning to develop the wider political issues of the strike and the strategy to win. Joe, being Joe, spoke for over half and hour covering everything from the strike, to the crisis of British capitalism, the importance of a fighting trade union leadership by the TUC and the need for socialist society. After a prolonged standing ovation, Ian Issacs got up to speak commented; “well after listening to Joe there is really nothing left for me to say.”
Time and again during the strike, whether at mass meetings of miners, fellow socialists or wider public meetings it was possible to hear a pin drop when Joe Owens got up to speak. He was without doubt one of the most outstanding public speakers in the socialist and Marxist movement at the time. But Joe was more than just an orator of real standing. He was as comfortable speaking about the Spanish revolution, the black civil rights movement in the US, or dialectical materialism as he was about the struggle of the miners. He devoured books whether on Marxist theory, literature, history and also poetry – which he had a real passion for. He was also a talented writer. Joe was, in the best sense of the term, a worker intellectual who loved to discuss ideas – but who was also a working class fighter who hated injustice and instinctively supported workers in struggle wherever they were.
Polkemmet colliery was, like so many pits after the strike, shut and Joe moved to Bilston Glen outside Edinburgh. His standing among his fellow miners was shown when he was elected to the highest position in the union as the pit delegate of the NUM at Bilston Glen. At the age of just 22, Joe was one of the youngest ever NUM pit delegates to hold that position. But by 1989 Bilston Glen was also closed, as the mining industry was decimated by Thatcher and the criminals who surrounded her.
The defeat of the miners strike was a setback for the whole working class. The more complicated situation for socialists and Marxists in the 1990’s also affected Joe and he was no longer active in the Marxist movement. Joe left the mining industry after the closure of Bilston Glen and used his skills as a writer to train as a journalist. He worked for a number of newspapers, including the Daily Record, the Herald and the Cork Examiner in Ireland, among others.
He did not cease his active involvement in the trade union movement, nor his belief in socialism. He became the Chair of the Scottish council of the NUJ. Even when he went to Ireland, such was his impact, that he was elected as the Father of Chapel for the NUJ at the Cork Examiner and fought to defend workers terms and conditions. Joe also worked in Inverness, Valencia and, latterly, the Isle of Wight.
In the months before his death he regularly visited the Vestas workers occupation on the Isle of Wight, delivering food parcels which he bought, even though he was without work at the time. He marched in support of the Vestas workers in Cowes in August this year. To the end he always knew which side he was on.
Joe left an impact on all those he met. Universally, his intelligence, humour, passionate belief in fighting injustice, single mindedness and concern for others other than himself are all cited by those whose paths he crossed. The hundreds who attended his funeral were testament to that. In truth the one person he did not seem to regard enough was himself, despite all of his talents and humanity.
Joe Owens has died, aged just 44 years. I have lost a friend whom I will always remember. More important his son, Patrick, has lost his father and it is to him, to Joe’s brothers and sisters, and all those who loved Joe Owens, that these few words are dedicated.
Philip Stott
