The media just can't help themselves. Yesterday on hearing the tragic news of the death of Bob Crow they trotted out the usual headlines about "Union chief dying" and the more salacious media hacks started crawling all over the hospital to find out why he died - as if they cared.

Bob's death is a tragedy for his family, for the RMT union, for all transport unions and for political trade unionism as a whole.

He started working life at 16 on the railways and learnt his trade union skills in fighting irrational management, unsafe working conditions and demanding that the unions stand up and represent members as they're required to do.

Eventually he became general secretary of RMT.

Whenever I travel anywhere in Britain I talk to railway workers and am always touched by the number of them who proudly wear their RMT badge and state their pride in their union membership, and how their general secretary Bob Crow represented them.

Much of the media often portrayed Bob as somehow opposed to the travelling public.

While there were some people who totally opposed the union, blaming any industrial action entirely on Bob, there were a much larger number who recognised why rail workers might be forced to take action and that their safety depends on a properly paid and employed workforce, not a plethora of contractors on zero-hours contracts.

Bob was devoted to campaigning for public ownership of the entire railway system and proper terms and conditions for all staff.

Thus his union recruited contract cleaners, maintenance workers and many others to show the way in which a union's job was to defend its members and advance and improve their conditions. At a time of declining trade union membership the RMT grew, not through mergers but through recruitment.

The RMT also represents maritime and bus workers, and Bob was very adamant about the application of race relations, equality and minimum wage legislation to the maritime industry and was appalled at the treatment of non-European nationals on ships operating in European waters.

Bob was extremely well-read, well-informed and very political, and while he had been in the Communist Party, Socialist Labour Party, Socialist Alliance and in Tusc, I never found him in the least bit sectarian.

In the parliamentary RMT group he worked very closely with MPs on raising rail and trade union issues in Parliament.

Bob understood very well the international free market attacks on working conditions, trade unions and public ownership.

He strongly opposed the European rail directives which virtually imposed privatisation on every EU member state.

He also condemned the putative US trade deal and the effect it would have on workers' conditions on two continents.

I have many memories of Bob. We spoke together at numerous Stop the War events and he was a very strong supporter who was very generous with his time, and remarkably unpushy with his own interests, notably at rallies when there was huge pressure on speakers and timing.

It was an enormous pleasure to travel with him to speak at the international Longshoreman Workers Union in San Francisco in 2007.

Its iconic leader Jack Heyman described Bob as another Harry Bridges and this was met with roars of approval by the assembled members.

Bob was also a committed anti-racist and he brought to his leadership of the RMT strong political principles of socialism, unity, justice and opposition to racism in any form. He even suffered assault and threats because of his opposition to fascist organisations in our society.

The social media is full of commentary about Bob, most of it very respectful.

Even those who fundamentally disagreed with him, such as Tory transport ministers, recognised in Bob that here was someone who stood up for their members and for their principles, and he was very effective as a result of that.

Sympathy must go to his family whom he loved and adored, and also to his wider family in the RMT and all of the members who were often up against it, working in places of danger with managers more interested in financial outcomes than workers' safety. Bob was always on his members' side.

We can remember Bob as someone who always stood up for others and who showed that even in difficult times for the labour movement, union membership can grow.

Thanks, Bob, for you all you did.

Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North