A Slice of the Cake
digital file Colour Sound 1982 24:40
Summary: The film is composed of an interview in 1982 between Labour MP Pat Duffy and
Walter Greendale, a member of the general council of the TUC and the Lay elected Chairperson of the Transport & General Workers Union – the largest Trade Union in Europe.
Title number: 22978
LSA ID: LSA/30201
Description: The colour film begins within a living room with Walter Greendale and Pat Duffy sat perpendicular to each other. Greendale speaks about the dock workers’ distrust for trade union leaders, as they do not work together everyday. Duffy asks if the Media is part of the reason for such distrust, to which Greendale replies that the Press publishes what makes money within a capitalist system and critiques the Press for its responsibility to accountability and honesty within the public sphere.
Greendale, a self-proclaimed socialist, talks about the Trade Union’s role protecting its members and ex-members, ‘not just fighting from a rear-guard position’ but advocating for what is wanted in a country by the working people. The interview then cuts to the docks, with Greendale sat with the whirring of the boats and machinery behind him. He comments on the possibility of creating new job opportunities through re-routing funds from arms towards infrastructure and the possibility of a techno-utopia where people will no longer have to work once machines are developed. He critiques the education system, where ‘you have to learn to obey’, and comments on how young people should be taught to lead. Finally he says, ‘The cake has got bigger, but we still haven’t received a larger slice of it. What made me a socialist was my experience working in the navy and living on a ship. One third of the ship was allocated to one single man, another third to 200 people, and another third to 600 people. It’s no good building a bigger ship if you have the same ratio. If we gotta use the idea of a national cake, there has to be more shared out.’
Credits: Terry Flaxton (Filmmaker); Joel Cayford (Producer)
Cast: Pat Duffy (Labour MP),
Walter Greendale (Chairperson of the Transport & General Workers Union )
Keywords: Socialism; trade union; labour laws
Locations: East London
Related
Comments