NUJ tributes to Charles Harkness
Charles Harkness, who died last month aged 82, was former deputy general secretary of the National Union of Journalists.
In 2018 he was made Member of Honour at the union's delegate meeting in Southport in recognition of his lifetime commitment to trade unionism and journalism.
He was also a noted community activist and in multiple careers, including elected office as a Labour councillor, and pursued his passion for equality and social justice. In recent years he has battled ill health with determination and humour and continued to contribute to community life and journalism.
Charles served as deputy general secretary from 1975 to 1981 having served as a militant NEC member at a time of significant industrial upheaval in the media sector.
He was centrally involved in co-ordinating the national newspaper strike from December 1978 to January 1979, involving 8,000 journalists. The seven-week strike was the biggest stoppage in the NUJ's history.
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, paid tribute to Charles and extended sympathy to his family and friends.
She said:
“Charles Harkness played many important roles in the union. He was an activist, an official, a trustee of our charities, an expert on standing orders, an advisor, but above all a committed member who believed in and lived the values of the NUJ.”
Séamus Dooley, NUJ assistant general secretary, said:
“With the death of Charles Harkness another link has been broken with the union’s history. As a chapel officer he was viewed as a radical left-wing activist and brought to his trade unionism a thirst for change. Charlie, as he was also known, developed close friendships across the union and long after his retirement retained close ties with colleagues.”
Michelle Stanistreet, former general secretary, who worked closely with Charlie in a number of roles, recalled his unique sense of humour.
She said:
“Charlie was an NUJ stalwart, a Member of Honour of the union who served it in varying capacities, including as deputy general secretary and trustee of NUJ Extra, over a lifetime of activism and engagement. His long service on the NUJ's Standing Orders Committee gave him plenty of opportunity to indulge in his trademark dry wit and acerbic asides, summoning the gallows humour that helped make delegate meetings more bearable for those of us at the sharp end. I'll remember him with fondness.”
Jim Boumelha, former president and serving International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) treasurer, recalled Charles' ability as an industrial organiser and negotiator.
He said:
"In his role as deputy general secretary, the union entrusted Charles to negotiate with Robert Maxwell in one of the NUJ’s early battles at Pergamon Press, Oxford. This was long before Maxwell became a newspaper baron and a global publisher. I was father of the chapel at the time and I remember how fiercely Charles stood up to both the bullying and the flattery of Maxwell. Throughout he did not put a foot wrong and stood shoulder to shoulder with us. I will never forget his fighting spirit. Rest in peace."
Donnacha Delong, former president, said:
“I had the pleasure and sometimes frustration of working with Charlie on the Standing Orders Committee, first as an NEC member, then in my role as president and chair of conference and, just before he retired, as a full member of the committee. Charlie was the wellspring of obscure terms and traditions that were central to the committee’s work. Widely new matter was clear, but was a motion narrowly new matter? Was a neologism void for uncertainty of meaning (VUM) because the older members of SOC hadn't heard of it? Was the criticism strong enough to get away with not including an instruction - did the legendary list of strong enough words exist?
“The debates we had as we pored over every word of countless motions from members inspired me to take up the reigns and become a full member of SOC when I stood down from the NEC. Charlie will be missed.”
Lena Calvert, former equality officer and longtime servicing officer, said:
“I’m so sorry to hear about Charles. I’ve known him since the late seventies and got to know him very well as I was his secretary when he was deputy general secretary.
“He was also responsible for provincial newspapers and that was a lively time with various disputes and strikes. He was a generous, thoughtful and kind man. He was quick to anger sometimes but only with those who probably deserved it! At one point I went to take him letters to sign and found him meditating whilst doing a head stand propped against his office wall. ‘Just leave them on my desk,’ came a voice from behind the big table.
“Later we worked on the Standing Orders Committee together and his eye would catch mine when there was a lengthy argument as to whether a motion/amendment was out of order. Despite his health problems, he was always getting involved with union issues or in his local community. RIP Chas.”
Dr John Lister, who worked with Charles for several years on the Standing Orders Committee, said:
“Charlie combined a real talent for teasing out minutiae (not least his extensive concordance linking sections of the DM Report to relevant sections of the agenda), with a naughty sense of humour and a readiness to chat, drink and be sociable. He moved down to Rye while still on SOC and his involvement with the local news down there clearly delighted him, and gave him a new fund of curiosities and stories for the lunch times and post-SOC breaks.
“His sharp mind, his long and varied career and his splendid memory for anecdotes on the people and situations he had encountered made him good company, and his retirement from SOC left a real sense of loss, but there was always the impression he was having a Charlie-style chuckle or two in Rye. He may be gone, but he won't be forgotten.”
Pauline Norris, who also previously served alongside Charles on the committee, said:
“Charles Harkness had a lifelong commitment to the NUJ, holding various positions - from chapel and branch roles to head office official and delegate at conference. Charlie and I first met in the 1970s where, as London branch treasurers, we planned how to influence HQ. His intellect and razor-sharp mind were immediately evident. When the work was done, there were many conversations over a few glasses, whether politics (union, national and international), tales, humour or gossip.
“Many years later on the Standing Orders Committee, I really got to know and appreciate Charlie. During ADMs, which initially lasted for four days, the committee spent every waking hour together. He was a strategic planner. Yes, we all often disagreed and argued vociferously amongst ourselves. He checked order papers with a fine-tooth comb; we put up united fronts with “difficult” tabling bodies and he came up with many ideas to streamline our work.
“He had a tremendous ability to get to the nub of a problem. And he kept track of every item on the agenda and annual report, making sure it was recorded on a chart constructed from a roll of wallpaper. Great man, great times.”
Jacob Ecclestone, former NUJ deputy general secretary, said:
"It’s almost 50 years since I first met Charlie Harkness, though I remember him with real affection. I was a “new boy”, just elected to the National Executive of the NUJ to represent members working in Fleet Street and he was the deputy general secretary. Oddly, I succeeded him in that post when he left at the end of 1980.
“He was a most kind person to work with. He was also unusual in that he had a degree from Cambridge University when he went into journalism in the 1960s. At the time, very few provincial newspaper journalists held degrees.
“The late 60s and early 70s saw a strong growth in trade union membership in Britain generally, and the NUJ was no exception. The setting up of the system of industrial councils stimulated membership activity and the Provincial Newspapers Industrial Council (PNIC) quickly became the largest and liveliest sector of the NUJ. Charlie was one of several north of England journalists who cut their trade union teeth on PNIC. Along with people like Mike Bower (later the northern organiser) and Pete Dodson (Broadcasting Industrial Council), he made an important and lasting contribution to the life and work of the NUJ.”
Sian Jones, as incoming president at the Southport DM, presented at Charles' NUJ Member of Honour award ceremony.
She said:
“Charlie was a stalwart member of my branch, PR and Communications, and was so welcoming when I first got involved with the NUJ. We shared a background of working for unions, including the same union for telecoms workers - albeit a few decades apart! Charlie had a wicked sense of humour and some incredible anecdotes of working in the civil service under various ministers.
“His knowledge, sharp wit and firm trade union values made him a popular branch member. You could always seek out Charlie for a fun natter on union business, politics and current affairs. I'm so grateful to have known him and was privileged to present his NUJ Member of Honour award at NUJ Delegate Meeting in 2018. I'll remember Charlie's twinkle and mischievous smile, his comradeship and support. I offer my condolences to Charlie's family, friends, colleagues and comrades.”
More messages have come in from some of Charles’ former colleagues, including at branch level.
Mick Holder, a former member of the Press & PR Branch, said he knew Charles as being “very serious, loyal and involved with the union” while also having “a dry and often naughty sense of humour,” adding he was “an absolute asset to the union, branch and members in general.”
Barry White, who also knew Charles from the Press and PR Branch, said his trade union experience, which the branch benefitted from, was “second to none,” and “we all feel the loss.”
Tim Gopsil, who previously worked under Charles as a freelance, said he was “always an absolute joy to be with” and that his favourite quality was Charles’ ability to be “properly legit and wickedly subversive at the same time.”
Journalism was written on his heart and in "retirement" he served as editor in chief of a community newspaper, Rye News. He served two terms as editors and worked with an editorial committee of volunteers.
At the Southport conference, where he received his membership of honour from president Tim Dawson, Charles spoke on a motion urging the union to work closely with Cardiff University’s Centre for Media Studies to investigate ways of helping new “hyperlocals” such as Rye News set up because traditional papers were no longer providing adequate coverage of local news and politics. It was a subject he felt passionately about.
In accepting the life membership award, he gave a typically robust speech focusing on declining living conditions, using the opportunity to promote his message rather than basking in the glory of his award – which he absolutely cherished.
He told delegates: “I want you to be angry because the government was telling us earlier this week that there are more people in employment now than in the 1970s - but what sort of employment? The gig economy [living from one delivery to the next]? Zero-hour contracts such as those common in coastal holiday camps here in the north and in the south where I live, where you don’t know whether you can afford the rent from one week to the next? An official living wage less than that calculated by other bodies such as the Living Wage Foundation – and, if your hours are cut, not enough to live on.”
He went on to point out how few journalists were now employed by the large local newspaper groups, and how their pay was little more than the £19,000 he was paid in the 1970s – and how more and more journalists are freelances living on uncertain incomes.
Charles Harkness was an erudite journalist. A graduate of Cambridge University, studying History and Geography, he was a voracious reader and his DM speeches and work from the top table, as a member of Standing Orders Committee, often gave an insight into his learning. In 2024 Charles spoke to Rye News about his battle with cancer and his battles with illness with typical humour and candour (A tale of two Charlies).
Tributes and thanks have been paid to Charles by the community of Rye through the paper he helped found: Thank you Charlie!