IN MY new book Northern ReSisters: Conversations with Radical Women, I ask the question: what does it mean to be an activist? 

One of the reasons I wanted to write the book is because over the last few years I have been exasperated at the way in which writers, comedians and actors have been promoted to starring roles in campaigns to the detriment of working-class activists. 

It is almost as if the left has forgotten that campaigns are won by people who risk everything, including their jobs, their families and even their lives for their belief in a cause or campaign to make this a better world to live in.

I have always been an activist — at university, at work, in my community and in my neighbourhood. 

My parents were Irish working class and, like many immigrants, were proud of their history, culture and class. 

History and politics were part of my growing up.

Like Morecambe and Wise on a Saturday night, it was always part of the mood music of our home. 

Writer Jim Allen described the life of the Irish community as that of a “clenched fist.” 

The men in my family were hardened — at least on the outside — building workers and dockers who understood class politics. They were members of their trade unions and supported strike action. 

The women in my family were just as tough, but for them life in England meant a degree of freedom, jobs and independence — until they got married and had children of course.

Starting work in the early 1980s, I learnt from older trade union activists about the importance of solidarity, collective action and, most importantly, compassion for those not as lucky as me.

In this book I talk to nine other women who have taken a similar path in life but did not always start from the same background. These include Betty Tebbs, now aged 97, who has a whole lifetime of political activity in her trade union and the peace movement. Like many women and men of her generation, she was working in a factory from an early age. “At the age of 14 years I experienced first-hand the double exploitation of women in industry and it seemed quite right for me to work to change this situation.”

Linda Clair comes from a Jewish communist background and her father was one of her biggest influences. “He first joined the Young Communists at 14, he wanted to fight in the Spanish civil war but was too young.” 

Clair followed in his footsteps and started, at the age of 13 years, a local Youth CND branch. She had to leave school at 15 because her parents needed her wage, but later on in life she achieved a degree and a professional job. Her political activity has had to fit in with caring for her children but that has not stopped her being active in women’s campaigns, the Communist Party and in recent years playing a leading role in Manchester Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. Looking back, she comments: “My father taught me that for things to change you have to go out and make things happen.”

Among the most important and dynamic campaigns recently have been those that have sprung into action to save the NHS. Karen Reissman, a nurse, shop steward, long-time member of the SWP and member of the Unison executive, has been central to the campaign in Greater Manchester. She has been victimised for her trade union activity and, for her, it is not just about being a trade unionist but of being a political trade unionist.

In 2007 she was sacked by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust after she spoke out against cuts and privatisation. Over 700 workers at the trust struck for 14 days in Reissman’s defence while 150 community mental health workers took several weeks of all-out strike action to demand that she be reinstated in her job. She won her case but did not get her job back. Blacklisted by local health trusts, she eventually got a job at Bolton working back in mental health. 

Today she is leading the Save Bolton Health Services campaign, one of the most dynamic in north-west England.

Although worried about her own future as a health worker, Reissman’s politics give her hope for the future. “I have always tried to fight back and I don’t see any other way of getting a better world unless we do so.” 

My book is not a nostalgic trip down memory lane for former activists because the nine women I have interviewed are still active in their trade union or other organisations. They are an inspiration to a new generation of activists for whom life is not so straightforward. 

In the concluding sections I look at the particular situation of young people and the problems of benefit sanctions, massive student debts and living an insecure lifestyle. Single parents such as Charlotte Hughes are struggling to hold on to the basics of decent and affordable housing, jobs and services. In Tameside she has played a leading role in the local anti-cuts campaign, joining older activists who are passing on their experience to a new generation of campaigners. Hughes is clear about what needs to happen.

“This country is not going to get any better unless people stand up for their rights.” She blogs every week about her experiences at The Poor Side of Life.

In 2015 we can be hopeful for the future when we see the unity of older and younger women in campaigns as diverse as the NHS and anti-fracking.

The lives of my northern sisters are an example of how change comes from below and is dependent on united collective action.

• Northern ReSisters: conversations with radical women is published on today and costs £5.95. It will not be sold on Amazon but is available from News From Nowhere, Liverpool. For more details on how to buy it, please visit maryquaileclub.wordpress.com.