Digby Jacks

Digby Jacks (16 May 1945 – 21 October 2011) was President of the UK's National Union of Students between 1971[1] and 1973 and was subsequently a trade union official for the Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union.[2]

A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain when elected NUS President, he was the second candidate from the left - in this case the Radical Student Alliance, succeeding Jack Straw, also elected on the RSA ticket, to win since the beginning of the Cold War: national student politics having previously been dominated by an anti-Communist alliance.[3]

After his term as NUS president he wrote the book Student Politics and Higher Education (ISBN 0853153264), which examines the broad left's political strategy in student politics.[4] Retiring as a regional officer for the Amicus trade union in 2005, he was a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Hounslow until 2006 and secretary of the lobbying group Alliance for Finance.[5]

He died in October 2011. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Nelson, Robert (10 April 1971). "British student union picks Red chief". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  2. ↑ "Amicus gets amicable". The Guardian (London). 10 May 2003. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
  3. ↑ Sampson, Anthony (1973). The new anatomy of Britain. Stein and Day. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-8128-1583-2.
  4. ↑ "Student Politics and Higher Education". Marxism Today 19: 321. 1975. ISSN 0025-4118.
  5. ↑ Tan Parsons (14 April 2006). "Young and fearless ... | Education | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
  6. ↑ Steel, Peta (22 November 2011). "Digby Jacks, Student leader who took on Thatcher – and won". The Independent (London).