![[Freelance]](../gif/fl3H.png)
Marc Wadsworth receives NUJ Gold Badge
‘Always active, always striving’
Marc Wadsworth: "I put in a lot of years!"
“I’VE WON a few awards over the years," Marc Wadsworth wryly told fellow NUJ London Freelance Branch members at our monthly meeting on 10 July. "It sounds like a bit of a cheesy cliché, but this is actually the best one."
Marc's award of the NUJ Gold Badge, for his "exceptional contribution to the NUJ over many years", had been announced at the union's Delegate Meeting in the spring. Rank-and-file LFB members, however, wanted to witness Marc accept the accolade at a Branch meeting where they could join in with the congratulations.
Leading the tributes and presenting the award (symbolically, at it was over Zoom) was Labour MP and ex-BBC TV news reporter, Clive Lewis.
The event drew record attendance figures for an LFB meeting.
We republish Clive Lewis MP's presentation tribute to Marc below, in full.
Clive Lewis MP: "You're always active. You're always striving. And you're always looking forward for the next campaign."
I wish we could have done this in person because I would have liked that but it's lovely to see you. It's like a bit of This is Your Life kind of music is required.
Marc, I've known you since you first came up to me when I was an activist in NUS for Black Students. And you came to tell me: "You haven't been around for very long, have you? But I can tell you the history of the Black Student movement and what's been going on. And you need to listen to me because if you don't listen to me, then you're going to have a lot of problems."
Well, it's never stopped. I've never stopped listening to you... and I've never stopped having problems. I'm not sure whether they're connected in any way...
I've known you for a long time you've been a comrade for a long time. I've got a great deal of respect for you.
You sometimes bang on my door very loudly. But you know what? My aunt had an expression, which is that "The squeaky wheel is the wheel that gets the oil." Well, you've had a lot of my oil.
And that's good, though. Because you deserve that oil. You deserve that attention. Because you're always busy. You're always active. You're always striving. And you're always looking forward for the next campaign.
The next way that you can educate people, the next documentary that you're going to do, the next campaign you're going to set up... You are a natural activist, Marc, looking through your background, your history. And I'm going to talk to the rest of the members here who may not be aware of Marc's background: it's a very impressive background.
This is a well-deserved award, for someone who hasn't just been a member for a long time: they've been an activist and trade unionist. And they've been fighting for members of the NUJ for a long time, in a variety of ways.
I'm just going to talk a little bit about Marc's background. Marc's known nationally as a campaigner against racism. As I said, I first met him in the Black Students campaign.
He's a lifelong trade unionist with a track record at every level of the NUJ. He joined the union in 1973 as an indentured reporter on the Surrey Daily Advertiser in Guilford.
And early on, he had a really tough story, we're told, as a 19-year-old being one of the first on the horrific scene of the IRA Guildford bombings in October 1974. And, moving to the Surrey Herald group of weeklies, he took part in the great provincial newspaper strike of 1978-79.
He started doing shifts on the national papers, including the Daily Mirror where he got to know celebrated reporters such as Paul Foot and John Pilger (whom I believe was going to make the presentation tonight - but isn't able to be with us because he's unwell; I am a stand-in and I'm quite happy with that).
He landed the job at BBC Radio London as a reporter on its iconic Black Londoners nightly programme. And in 1981 he went to work as a TV researcher, then a reporter, at Thames Television - at the time the biggest ITV station. This is where he cut his teeth as the NUJ Father of Chapel and chair of the Joint Shop Stewards' Committee - representing around 2500 staff.
Now, I can't even begin to think about what representing 2500 staff is like; that is a massive responsibility. I, as a Chapel Father, was responsible for perhaps 100 or so people. For 2500 people... that is on a scale that I can barely imagine. That was a very powerful position. And Marc was someone who stood up for his members.
And when those unions came out against the Conservative government, based on their attacks on Thames Television for its documentary Death on the Rock - about those four unarmed IRA activists gunned down by the SAS - he led the charge in defending his members.
Ultimately, the government won the day. They didn't allow Thames Television to carry on, and closed it down. Many of his members lost their jobs. Marc lost his as well. He was there on the front line with his colleagues, with his members whom he represented.
And I think you had a hard time after that, Marc. It was tough to find work. I'm not going to say you were blacklisted, but something very close to that, for your political activism - and maybe you were.
You then went through a period working as a freelance. You did various bits of work for the NUJ. You worked on the NUJ Race Relations Working Party [and managed to get it turned into the union's Black Members' Council]. You took up the issue of the Black Section [caucus for African, Caribbean and Asian members] inside the Labour Party. And you have been a political activist across a very, very wide variety of issues.
You've also written a book on the first black MPs in this place. You are someone who is still making documentaries. You've made one recently for the BBC.
You are someone who has been on the front line, Marc: someone who has been a genuine comrade to so many people. You've really put yourself on the line for people. And I think the NUJ should be proud to have you and proud to have your service for all of these decades.
So thank you very much for all you've done, comrade. And thank you for all you're going to do.
I'm sure your best years are in front of you.
Accepting the award - and trying his best to show everyone the certificate and the label pin badge itself despite the anarchic machinations of his webcam's autofocus - Marc harked back to his early days in journalism.
"I was on the front line - literally. A baptism of fire. The Guilford bombings... The Horse & Groom and The Seven Stars pubs. I was the first reporter on the scene. And you know, if anybody was going to quit journalism and say that they're not cut out for this kind of lifestyle, that was my moment. But I stuck with it.
"And then, four years later, I was on the picket line for the provincial newspapers' strike. Bloody hell, it was cold. It was winter. We had braziers and we warmed our hands, and members of the public showed their support by bringing us food."
So was he a union activist right from the start?
"Back in the day, we had something called the 'closed shop'. In order to get a job, you had to belong to a union. So I willingly joined the NUJ. I became a Father of the Chapel, as Clive mentioned, and represented members, and was a part of the strike at ITV.
"Then the ACTT, our sister union, the technicians' union [since merged into the BECTU section of Prospect], went on strike. And then TV-AM: some of you will remember the battle we had when Margaret Thatcher and her government attacked this highly unionised sector of industry. And Wapping [dispute with Murdoch] after that."
Marc accepted that media and other unions have experienced setbacks; but they have also had successes in their defence of members - in the face of attacks on the BBC, against provincial journalism, and against journalism nationally in terms of jobs. He spoke of his pride in being a member of London Freelance Branch and serving twice with Jenny Vaughan on NUJ's National Executive Committee.
He recalled difficulties he had experienced in the Labour Party - from which he was suspended in 2016 and wrongly expelled in 2018. "Clive Lewis was one of only three MPs who stuck their necks out and supported me during that awful time, in which I was hung out to dry and went through a terrible trial by media. But we've fought through all of that, and we've succeeded."
Another cause worth fighting for, said Marc, was that of Julian Assange, whose family he befriended while sharing a house with them during last year's Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Marc ended by toasting the Branch - with prosecco, no less - for its support for such causes as citizen journalism, the Educational Trust and the Liberation Movement. "The LFB has always been in the corner in the fight for justice and has supported campaigns that I have attempted to further, including the Justice for Stephen Lawrence campaign, where I was able to introduce Doreen and Neville Lawrence to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu."
Opening the floor for further tributes, Branch chair Tim Gopsill recalled working as an NUJ official with Marc during "heavy times" of anti-racist campaigning, stressing that Marc was always "a decent, positive, constructive person to work with". Branch Vice-chair Deborah Hobson described Marc as "A great mentor... a great motivator, always pushing me to achieve more and to excel. He's been a tough taskmaster but we've done some really great work together."
Clive Lewis MP rounded up the accolades by pointing out the high attendance for the event and sending this parting shot: "I hope you wear that badge with pride!"