By Sarah Finke, head of information and policy, ITF

Richard Flint, who died on 18 April, worked at the ITF for 11 years from 1986. During that time he changed the organisation profoundly and he inspired many people across the world with his huge enthusiasm for solidarity and internationalism.

Richard will always be for us an attractive, kind and slightly dishevelled young man, with a welcoming grin, an acerbic wit and a huge dedication to the ITF’s particular brand of international trade unionism.

Many of us, myself included, owe him much. Richard encouraged others at the ITF to write. He taught us about emerging e-communications – and, in doing so, brought the organisation firmly into the 21st century. It was because of Richard that the ITF can boast of an early web presence. He was convinced before anyone else that information technology would revolutionise our lives, and determined that trade unions would be a part of that revolution.

Richard knew that communications had a huge strategic importance in the trade union movement. A journalist before coming to the ITF, he introduced desktop publishing and worked over-hours to edit and produce leaflets, brochures and magazines, including ITF News. The co-founder of the ITF Seafarers’ Bulletin, which this year goes out to almost a quarter of a million seafarers, Richard never forgot how valuable information is for those fighting for their rights.

“A welcoming grin, an acerbic wit and a huge dedication to the ITF”

Richard was a campaigner, enthusiastically supporting ITF inspectors in their efforts to help crew members all over the world, publishing and distributing their success stories and promoting the unique nature of the flag of convenience campaign to all those he met. He worked intensely on other ITF campaigns also, notably the successful expedition in 1994 to discover the fate of the 44 crew of the Derbyshire, lost off Japan in 1980.

Richard was a true internationalist. Born in London, he lived in Montreal as a student and never lost touch with North American politics. He had spent time as a child in Africa, which left him with a commitment to reflecting the interests of African trade unionists in the output of the ITF. His dedication to international solidarity was total. “For Richard, solidarity was something obvious,” said one Swedish colleague.

Richard was possessed of a fierce intellect. Aware of the ITF’s unique heritage, he put on record its official history, locating historians, managing the publication of their efforts and advocating the importance of Edo Fimmen, the ITF’s inter-war general secretary as the true architect of the modern ITF. The centenary celebrations in 1996 were testament to Richard’s determination that the ITF’s active anti-Nazism in the 1930s would not be forgotten.

By 1997, Richard’s illness was getting worse and at the end of that year he retired from his job as ITF communications secretary. It was a difficult time for him. But he grew into his role as a campaigner for disabled rights. He drove a mean wheelchair. Many of us remember going out for a drink with Richard and trying to keep up with him as he weaved delightedly – and dangerously – all over the pavement.

Richard was bright, beautiful and inspiring and at 47, he died too young. But he made an enduring contribution to the labour movement. He changed the ITF and he touched many people internationally. The email tributes have been flooding in; something he truly would have appreciated.

A special place has been set up on the ITF website for those who knew Richard to leave their thoughts; please visit.