Brown Man Blacklisted by - Poem by Tony Hillier
Swindon’s Community Poet and Activist
Tail-end British Raj boy spins tales of bashing the sting
from scorpions’ tails as practice perhaps for striking
capitalist employers in the production parts where it hurts
Illegally blacklisted, wildcat-flying-picket, Maverick Montaut
our ‘one-out-all-out’ car factory, union convenor, dodged
many bullets including: harsh priests, scorpion stings,
mango tree-tied ant bites, flipping egg grandmother,
anti-nazi league fisticuffs, picket-line scabs,
over-zealous coppers, and party political intrigues
St Patrick’s Catholic Boarding School in boyhood India
gratuitously caned his fingertips, left swollen and still stinging
through endless, daily, pre-breakfast, prayer sessions
Hands-on Derique had hands skinned alive working frozen
rail lines and lucky no leukaemia caught handling test rats;
escaped too, car factory lead poison and snowballs of asbestos
Escape-Artist life continued, visiting left-in-London family with
no helmet or waterproofs on motorbike trips from Swindon
Short working hours won, he logged on to side-hustle fire fuels
Side-hustle earned posh Sunbeam Rapier which, with lost keys
Derique learned that a sixpence piece unlocked his doors and a
nail file the ignition – he also learned what unlocked Employers
Union Convenor, Derique, known as “Monty” walked car factory floor,
pointed to the door, enacted “One out; all out”; workers walked;
concessions won; thirty hour week and top dollar result!
Living Colonial luxury next to slums, back in childhood India
and also being of Anglo-Indian-French-Portuguese-Jewish heritage
Derique became a Socialist and Swindon Councillor and Mayor
Living in Park North showed Monty saw many, avoidable faces of poverty;
as a councillor he combatted them where possible, rarely
taking no for an answer, as Homeline and Stanton Park attest
Kinnock and Blair were not always Monty’s cup of tea
but Poll Taxing, Milk-Snatching Thatcher and cronies were
unthinkable and undrinkable: People before Profit almost always
Although 37 years of Union and Public service stole time from his family,
Derique has 17 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren for whom,
we’re pleased, he’s made time to publish this ”scorpions n’all” memoir.
Swindon’s Community Poet and Activist, Tony Hillier, on the publication of Derique Montaut’s