GARY MORTON, who has died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage, made the transition from trade union organiser to employment law barrister without compromising his deeply held socialist convictions or his trade union outlook.

Already militant by instinct and inclination he joined the Communist Party as a student in the late ’60s.

In the course of his energetic leadership of direct action and sit-in tactics he made the transition from what Alan Hunt described as “polytechnic poujadism” to a systematic revolutionary politics.

This inevitably brought about a clash with college authorities at Kingston and his premature departure but, indomitable as ever, Morton was to be found at the centre of agitation at Regent Street, Bristol and later, studying for an MA in industrial relations at Warwick.

The basis of Morton’s approach was the conviction, pioneered by the Communist Party student committee, that revolutionary politics among a growing and an increasingly proletarianised student population could not be reduced to “ideological work” conducted on the principle that only a minority of the privileged could be won to Marxism but rather that, in the struggle for their rights and for a democratic education system, students in their majority could be won to an alliance with the working-class movement.

He extended this analysis to the growth of a similarly proletarianised middle strata and thus it was almost inevitable that Morton would work for the trade union movement.

He was among a talented group of young organisers recruited by white-collar union the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs.

Here he was paired with some formidable comrades who broadened his approach.

It was a testament to his indomitable spirit that he was sent to organise in the fledgling oil industry in Aberdeen.

From this came a collaboration with Peter Smith and an important contribution to the first Red Book on Scotland.

In 1977 Morton became the magazine and book organiser of the National Union of Journalists.

To this work he brought his customary enormous industry and a commitment to working closely with his members to confront the biggest employers.

The two battles with Robert Maxwell’s empire, first at Pergamon Press and then at BPC, displayed an exemplary grasp of tactics and a keen realism.

It was during the occupation at BPC that Morton met Jenny Golden who became his wife and mother of Jack.

Zoe, his daughter from an earlier marriage to Judy Cotter, his son Jack and Jenny’s daughter Kate and her family are a devoted tribe among whom Morton was a much-loved and frequently mocked chieftain.

In the ’80s Morton took over the provincial newspaper sector for the NUJ. Here his tenacity, application and attention to detail were invaluable in the battles with rapacious employers who attempted to simultaneously introduce the new technology and dismantle the NUJ’s newsroom organisations.

Morton’s comradeship with the best militants in print — forged in the Communist Party and an earlier spell as a print worker — and his sense of class unity strengthened his conviction that the interests of journalists were shared with print workers.

The end of working-class power in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union brought Morton’s realism to the fore.

In particular, he was an unsentimental and unswerving partisan for working-class state power with an especially deep admiration for the anti-fascism of the German Democratic Republic and for its socialist achievements and for the class basis of its judicial system.

He saw the law as a site for class struggle and although his transition from trade union organiser to barrister carried challenges to his political approach, his dedication to his new craft was exemplary and is reflected in his body of reported cases and in the gratitude of his clients.

Morton brought to his work as a lawyer and legal academic an unsparingly critical approach to Labour’s failure to repeal the Tory anti-trade union and anti-working-class laws that it had opposed when out of government.  

His criticism of trade union leaders who failed to press the Labour leadership was no less unsparing.

His grasp of these issues is reflected in a closely argued series of articles and in his many interventions in political debate.

Morton would eventually, if reluctantly, give way to superior arguments but never let an error of fact slip by.

He read law reports and the Financial Times and the Morning Star with equal attention to detail, keeping a comprehensive file of cuttings.

Over the last decade he bore the many amused responses to his repeated fact-packed but doom-laden prognostications on the imminent crisis of the capitalist financial system with great humour and was rewarded with a belated recognition that his predictions were accurate.

His brother Nigel died two years ago. His mother lives still. He is mourned by Jenny, formerly a militant member of the NUJ and latterly a UCU trade union officer, Zoe and Jack and his wider family, comrades and friends.

Above all, Morton had the gift of friendship and maintained a wide range of comrades and friends from his long and varied career who hold his memory in affection and will remember his many talents and great personality.