Why bolshie?: Class, Marxism and activism

This article follows on from my ‘Autobiography of a bolshie dismissed’ (FORUM 67,1) which detailed my various job dismissals and being ‘moved on’, my political and trade union activism, and my attempts at being a critical, Marxist, educator. In this article, I seek to describe, explain and theorise my ‘bolshiness’ and socialist/Marxist activism. I locate this ‘professional’/job-related autobiography of dismissal to my working-class background, to my specific tough East End upbringing, and to my life trajectory as a political, and sometimes elected, activist in teacher trade unions and in the Labour Party till 2004, and since then in Marxist parties and united front formations. I attempt, briefly, to set out the impact of this lifetime of activism within the classroom and within academia, the school/university. Here I search for effects on colleagues, pedagogy/curriculum, union and union activism, and impacts on students. What impact did it all have? And, in particular, what impacts did the dismissals have on students, teacher colleagues and comrades, trade union comrades and on me?