A radical haven

West London Trade Union Club celebrated its 25th anniversary on Sunday with a special May Day event.

The Acton-based centre, which began life as a London Co-operative Society hall and was instrumental in raising funds for the miners' strike of 1984 and the Chile Solidarity Campaign, had a free barbecue and showed two films, Sergei Eisenstein's famous The Battleship Potemkin and Brassed Off.

They were followed by a rehearsed reading of The Bespoke Overcoat by Wolf Mankowitz and poetry and folk recitals.

Invited speakers included Transport for London vice-chairman Dave Wetzel.

The club, which was officially opened by Ken Livingstone on May 4 1984, has come a long way since then.

The Acton High Street premises nearly lost out to a local Pentecostal Church, which had taken 70-80 per cent of the available booking spaces in the building, then known as the Co-op Halls.

"The London Co-op was in debt at the time and interest rates were high," says Peter Viggers, one of the three original members who set up the club.

"The church offered to pay £50,000 for the place, but we thought that it would be a pity for it to go outside the labour movement, although it would reduce the debt and pay off the interest."

Viggers, with Ann Pavett and Ivor Moody, all members of the Co-op's London regional board, rallied a few people to raise funds.

As a member of Ealing Trades Council, Viggers was able to get the organisation to launch a financial appeal which raised about £4,000. The Greater London Council then gave the new club a £30,000 grant to refurbish the premises. With a further appeal for funds to trades unions and a brewery loan, the committee decided to buy the building. The Co-op offered it at a £10,000 discounted price of £55,000.

"West London Trades Union Club is the only club in Britain where the condition of membership is based on being a member of a registered trade union," says Viggers.

Those who cannot join unions can become associate members, while the bar and upstairs Joe Sherman Room, which now houses the Acton Community Theatre, are open to the public.

Pavett is another member who was there from the start. Secretary of the club from 1999 until 2006, she has also been involved in some organising capacity over the years, including the role of financial organiser.

When the Co-op management was persuaded not to sell to the Pentecostal church, it was her brief to examine alternative uses. After contacting local labour movement activists, Pavett was advised to approach Ealing Trades Council.

As many pubs at the time refused to let rooms to trade unions, this body agreed to back the establishment of a labour movement centre with a strong trade union base and support Pavett in setting up a steering committee to put the plan into operation.

"Women have always played a leading role on the committee," says Pavett. "The success of the club rests on the 14-member committee, which does most of the work voluntarily, including building and some bar and committee work.

"The bar generates most of the income and, overall, the club has been self-supporting throughout its life. The small lounge bar is cosy and features historical trade union posters and plates. Men and women have equal rights."

Club president Reg Elkins is optimistic. "The club has been very successful, although there had been a downturn," he says. "But, now, there is a regeneration, with lots of improvements to the heating and the hall upstairs and some good left-wing plays as well.

"With the committee run mainly by volunteers, we can become richer and help the trade union movement. Some volunteers have donated to the building fund as well."

Another important milestone was the establishment of the Acton Community Theatre upstairs. In 2002, the committee applied for and received a grant from Action Acton to convert the room into a theatre space.

Much of the inspiration came from Jack O'Connor, a Unity Theatre stalwart and artistic director of Sturdy Beggars Group Theatre, which now stages well-known radical plays there.

Other theatre companies which have performed there include the Oberon Theatre Company and Mark Hyer Productions. There is also a resident film club.

Secretary John Gallagher, who is also a Labour councillor for Ealing's South Acton ward, reckons that the past five years have been more successful than the previous five.

"We have been affected by the smoking ban, but not as much as the pubs in our area," he says. "Our stock take showed that, while most of the pubs were down, we have increased our taking by 7 per cent. We have also made the place more inviting by spending money on repairs and renewals and have also increased the number of social events."

The club's first main public event was a TUC exhibition called Women in Trade Unions, which was in keeping with its aims of promoting equality and understanding between the sexes and the races.

It was agreed that the club would not be a place for party propaganda, since much hard work was down to members of the Labour Party, the Communist Party, the SWP and others. Shortly afterwards, a licensed bar was opened and real ale is now always on tap. Summer barbecues are another regular feature.

A miners' support group, which was formed in 1984, raised £77,000 for the Kent miners' part in the strike against the Thatcher government's planned shutdowns.

From 1999 to 2001, the club collected more than £2,000 in money, medical equipment and computers for Cuba.

You can visit the West London Trade Union Club at 33-35 High Street, London W3. For information, telephone: (020) 8992-4557.