Synopsis

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. The interview concerns the role of the Trade Union in politics and Greendale’s desire for a socialist system. Greendale discusses the distrust he faces from the dock workers as the chairman of the Union and adds that the media contributes to exacerbating this relationship by publishing incendiary news. While the Trade Union primarily engages in defensive policy for its members and ex-members, the work of the organisation has expanded to advocate within the political sphere for the future of labour systems within the country. Greendale talks about disarmament, the education system, a positive technological advancement and the possibility of leisure for everyone. 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."