Edmund Frow (Eddie) 1906-1997: the making of an activist

Ruth Frow, Working Class Movement Library, 168 pages, paperback, £6.00

Born into a farming family, Eddie Frow, on leaving school, obtained an apprenticeship in an engineering firm in Wakefield and later got another job in Salford. Written by his wife, this book describes how, as a member of the AEU engineering union, he became an active shop steward; how he joined the Communist Party in 1924; and his leading role in the Salford Unemployed Workers Movement, for which he was subjected to police violence and was arrested and imprisoned in 1931. Frequently victimised and sacked for activities on the shop floor, he was later elected full-time secretary of the local AEU District Committee.

Throughout his life he was an ardent reader, and spent much time collecting a vast quantity of books and documents relating to the trade union and socialist movement. He and his wife set up a library in the house where they lived and, in the end with the help of the Labour Party, it was established as the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, where the works are in great demand by students and historians all over the country.