The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

May 1954 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 95 His calm is the calm of achievement. When he became general secretary of the Association of Cine-Technicians in 1935, a doldrums year, there were eight members. Now there are 7,000. Trade union build-up is a trick he learned from his father, the late Herbert Henry Elvin, 1938 chairman of the T.U.C. He wears with filial piety the superb gold watch given to father by the National Union of Clerks in 1909. He and his wife and two young children, as well as his mother, now nearing 80, live in the " semi " at Leigh-on-Sea, originally named Bonvenu, which father built and paid for in weekly instalments out of a meagre salary in the 'twenties. " H. H." used to take George and his two brothers to occasional Socialist rallies and would let them sit up and listen to the talk when Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden, Arthur Henderson, George Lansbury and other Socialist bigwigs of the day came to Bonvenu as guests. " But," recalls Elvin, " father never put any pressure on us. His idea was that we should be left to form our own political opinions." "What if you had all turned out Tories?" I asked. " If that had happened the atmosphere would have been wrong." " You have a boy of eleven, David. What if he grows up to be a Tory?" " I shall consider I have failed as a father." One point on which Elvin did break away was religion. Father was a Baptist lay preacher. Elvin is a sceptic more or less. When asked what substitute Socialism has found for the Christian ethic which inspired many of its pioneers, he talks fluently for three minutes without giving a reply. Although obviously born to the trade union purple he dallied with capitalism before embracing his true vocation. On leaving school he became a stockbroker's office boy in the City. After he had been there a year the General Strike was declared. The stockbroker circularised his staff, asking them to volunteer as tram drivers. Elvin was the only one who refused. " My father was on the T.U.C. general council at the time and helping to run the General Strike," he recalls. " I wasn't going to blackleg against father." Nevertheless, he meant to get on in life. He qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries with lasting relish, and for a time toured the South with a Ford and trailerlibrary as a " glorified commercial traveller," selling books for Ernest Benn. Since then he has unsuccessfully contested three Parliamentary elections on the Socialist ticket with the aid of the Elvin Clan. Father spoke for him. So did mother, who is an old suffragette, his wife Peggy, his father-in-law and brother Lionel, all seasoned electioneers. At the 1951 election even David, then nine, gave a hand. When David goes with his father to see Southend United, he shout " Up with the Blues " and — if the opposing colours warrant it — " Down with the Reds." At 1951 meetings he went into reverse, shouting " Down with the Blues and up with the Reds." Just what shade is Elvin Red? " I have been called everything," he says, " from Right Wing Fascist to Left Wing Deviationist. I say to hell with what anybody calls me. I accept the Marxist interpretation of economics and society. But also I believe in the social democratic way of life. I want a Socialist State within the British interpretation of Socialism." This reads like a sidekick at Russia. But the Elvins are deeply Russophil. Harold, younger brother of G.H., cycled from London to Leningrad in 1936 for the fun of it. Father Elvin led a trade union delegation to Russia during his T.U.C. chairmanship. G.H. did the same thing a couple of years ago, after obtaining permission from the Socialist Party. Elvin admits that Russia's state-controlled unions do other things besides running welfare departments and negotiating bonuses. He heard of fines imposed for deliberate absenteeism and deliberately bad work. " But," he argues, " these are less severe than the penalties imposed here. In this country a man is fired and perhaps can't get another job. That's much worse than a fine." What would happen to a Russian worker who cut production by banning overtime and " working to rule " as the British cine-technicians did? I doubt if Elvin has a comforting answer to that one. " What Kind of a Red is George Elvin " is reprinted by permission of the " Evening Standard." The photo at the head of the article, showing George Elvin, Bill Allan and A.C.T. President Anthony Asqnith, is by still photographer Cyril Stanborough, A.I.B.P., F.R.P.S., and was taken at the gathering of A.C.T. old-timers reported on pages 97-103.