Jim Cattermole

By Roy Grantham

Jim Cattermole belongs to that illustrious group of Labour Party
organisers who served the Party with distinction in the post-war years.
After retirement he created a second career as Director of the Labour
Movement in Europe, which at the age of 90 years he continued to work
for into the new millennium.

Born in Coventry in 1910, Cattermole's parents were active in the ILP
and his father was a delegate to the TUC. He went to school at King
Edward's Grammar School, Camp Hill, Birmingham. He joined the Labour
Party in 1935 and was active at County level and then served on the
West Midlands Region Executive Committee. As a delegate to the 1946
annual conference, chaired by Harold Laski, he moved a motion on pay
for Councillors. In 1945 he was appointed Borough Party Secretary in
Birmingham and led the organisation of the 1945 General Election there,
when the Party won ten out of the thirteen seats in the City. In 1948
he went to London as Assistant Regional Organiser and played an
important part in the 1950 and 1951 General Elections. In 1953 he was
appointed Regional Secretary for the East Midlands, where he remained
until his retirement in 1972. When Harold Wilson called for an inquiry
into the Party's ‘Penny Farthing' election organisation, Cattermole
represented the Party's agents on it. They proposed that the Party
nationally paid the salaries of local agents. No action was taken until
Tony Blair became Leader.

His work in organising by-elections resulted in Harold Nicholson,
Kenneth Robinson, Roy Jenkins, Lena Jeger, Tom Bradley and Joe Ashton
entering Parliament. During his service he was involved in eight
general elections, in which five Labour governments were elected and
twenty-two bye-elections as well as local elections.

In addition to his work as an organiser, Cattermole was active in local
government, serving on Solihull UDC 1945-46 and Nottinghamshire CC
during the 1970s and on the Councils of the University of Nottingham
and the Nottingham Polytechnic. He chaired the East Midlands Regional
Council for Sport which staged the world's first rowing championship.
He was then associated with the creation of the River Trent slalom
course at Holme Pierrepoint, one of the two longest and fastest in the
world.

He married Phylis Taylor in 1935. They were divorced in 1952. He
settled in Nottingham and married Joan Mitchell, professor of Political
Economy at the University. He had three boys and a girl in his
marriages.

He took early retirement in 1972. He had been asked to become Director
of the Labour Committee for Europe under the urbane leadership of
George Thomson MP. Initially his work involved organising visits by
Labour and trade-union members to the organs of the then Community.
Three years later came the referendum, the first major challenge.  A
Labour Campaign for Britain in Europe was launched. Cattermole was
responsible for its organisation and arranged over 200 speaking
engagements and debates at constituency meetings to carry the message
to members. He worked closely with the Trade Union Alliance for Europe,
presided over by Vic Feather, former General-Secretary of the TUC and
David Warburton of the GMB, which destributed 1.3 million leaflets.

In 1982 the Labour Committee for Europe faced its greatest crisis
following the defection of leading members to the SDP. Cattermole set
about restoring leadership and credibility. As an active member of his
union Apex, he secured the support of its President, Denis Howell MP
and the General-Secretary, Roy Grantham, as Chair and Treasurer
respectively. The work of reorganisation was tackled vigorously. The
next year, the Red Rose organisation, led by Arthur Palmer MP and the
former editor of Socialist Commentary, Peter Stephenson joined to form
a new Labour Movement for Europe.

In 1985 A socialist policy for Europe by Geoffrey Harris and Richard
Corbett was published. In 1990, Europe Left was first published,
admirably edited by Anne Symonds. In 1995, Despite the opt-out, setting
out European achievements in spite of the lukewarm attitude of the
Major government was written by Pat Leighton and launched in the House.
Four research groups were established on education, the environment,
EMU and enlargement. Seminars were held and the final documents were
circulated to all constituency Labour Parties in 1996. The following
year Monetary Union written by Lynden Harrison MEP was published and
widely circulated in time for the 1997 General Election.

Cattermole was an organiser par excellence. Through him a number of
significant politicians had their entry to Parliament made easier.
Because of him the Labour Movement for Europe survived to become a
respected element in the Party.

Click here to read the Independent's obituary.