Jack Dash; Cockney Communist Was ‘King of the Docks’

Jack Dash, 82, the Cockney Communist famous for his role in the strikes that plagued London’s docks. Dash prided himself on being involved in every London dock strike between 1945 and 1970. A colorful figure and gifted orator, he was much in demand on the lecture circuit after his retirement. Dash was raised as an orphan and left school at 14, becoming a builder, a firefighter and then a docker. Inspired by the novels of American author Jack London, he joined the British Communist Party in 1936 and devoted the rest of his working life to protecting the pay and jobs of the dockers. The Transport and General Workers’ Union to which he belonged barred Communists from holding union office, so Dash operated strictly from the soapbox and became known as “unofficial king of the docks.” Although he unswervingly defended the Soviet line, he was a fervent British patriot, always reminding listeners that his country invented the parliamentary system and trade union tradition. Dash retired in 1969 and immediately organized a rent strike at his public housing project. He also painted, sculpted, wrote an autobiography and became a tourist guide, showing visitors around the city he loved. “I’m a . . . London chauvinist,” he would often say. In London on Thursday of undisclosed causes.