Union boss Mick Lynch is a media star – and Labour has much to learn about why

theguardian.com:

This week, the RMT union leader, Mick Lynch, has done something that no political figure has achieved since Brexit tore the nation apart in 2016. He has united progressive opinion, from the revolutionary left to the liberal centre, in praise of his deft and devastating media interviews – almost all of them in the face of hostile questioning.

In part this is simply because Lynch is a brilliant communicator and strategic thinker, as would be expected of the leader of a union whose cadres have long been noted for their acuity, intelligence and determination. But it is also because millions in Britain find it refreshing to hear a socialist perspective on current events articulated with clarity and conviction. Lynch puts the case for collective action with a precision and a lack of moralism that is both appealing and vanishingly rare. He also points out the harm done to workers and consumers by excess corporate profits: a blindingly obvious point that almost no mainstream commentator makes.

As a media phenomenon, the most immediately striking thing about Lynch is that he seems to subvert some of the more tedious expectations of contemporary political culture. Balding white men of around 60 are no longer expected to espouse radical politics; and if they do, they are absolutely not supposed to do it in an accent that marks them as coming from the southern English working class. But these expectations have always been based on cliches and stereotypes, deliberately cultivated by a political and media class that has marginalised the political left for decades. Many of us, when we hear Lynch talk, don’t hear the voice of a unique new celebrity, but of people that we’ve been talking to and learning from all our lives. We should