It would be no exaggeration to say that my older brother taught me how to fight.

Forty-odd years later, Dave is now 51 years old. He is a very skilled blue collar worker. His job is still repairing car bodies, which he's done since he started his apprenticeship at 15.

As a teenager he taught me about socialism and when to stand up for what's right, and when and how to fight. Later in life, he had 3 girls and I watched and learnt from him how to be a good dad.

Yesterday he suffered the greatest tragedy any parent can imagine suffering. His daughter had struggled with cancer for the majority of her 24 years and died in the family home last night.

All day yesterday the house was full of his daughter's friends coming to see her. School friends, work friends all came by to see her. David had carried her into her bedroom earlier in the day, like you would a sick child. The last time I spoke to her was on the phone on Christmas Day when she emerged from the bathroom having thrown up the small amount of Christmas dinner she'd eaten. And then again yesterday, her pain so severe, she drifted in and out of consciousness on great waves of pain killers.

I spent some time on the phone with David. It was the middle of the night for him, but the family were all up. The family didn't want to go to bed because no-one wanted to get up the next day with their sister and daughter not in the house.

We spoke about work and the economy too. He mentioned how he'd probably take a couple of weeks off from the non-union auto shop where he works. His voice became angry. He had taken off early from work yesterday and would eventually have to tell the boss that he would be taking time off. He said he could hear his money-grubbing voice ask, 'will this be out of your vacation time?'

Dave mentioned that when he took time off for our mother's funeral last year, on his return to work the boss had asked if Dave wanted his time off taken out of his vacation time. He replied to the boss, "No I fucking don't. You owe me fucking compassionate leave." Compassionate leave is the law in Britain, but one that employers routinely ignore. "I was the first worker at the job to get them to pay the 3-day compassionate leave," Dave told me. He then reflected on his own situation. "If I was rich I wouldn't have to think about keeping my job or how much time off I need. But I'm not."

I have a photo of my older brother on the fridge with his fist in the air with a huge mural of Che in the background. It was from a vacation he once took to Cuba. He is still a socialist.

In a genuine democracy people's needs will come first and the greed of a minority will come last.


RIP Autumn Rooke (9/11/85 -1-27-10)
Always full of courage, humor and love