Owen Booker

Owen Booker (4 June 1190 - 14 December 1241) was an Ardunan songwriter, labour activist and revolutionary. He was a founding member of the United Labour Front and played a leading role in the power struggles that preceded the Ardunan Revolution. He was shot by strikebreakers at a workers' encampment during a strike in 1241.

Biography

Early Life

Booker was born in the mining town of Ashwick, in the province of Cairena. His mother, Meriel Booker, was a textile worker, while his father Marcus Booker was a coal miner. He had a modest childhood, and had an interest in music and poetry from an early age.
Marcus Booker died in a mining accident when Owen was 7 years old, so the young Booker was partially raised by other workers in his community. By 13, Booker was working part-time on the mines himself. His co-workers were impressed by his singing, and appreciated the boost to morale. This led Booker to try his hand at singing in the local taverns, but he never made enough money to quit mining.

Political Activism in Marseton

With the economic downturn of the early 1210's severely affecting the western provinces, Booker joined a large wave of migrant workers in moving to the larger cities in Marseton in search of work. Booker first worked as a miner, and then a steel miller in Caerun. It was around this time that Booker met a young Jack Lennon, who was a university student at the Royal Academy, and the two quickly formed a friendship that would last for the rest of Booker's life.
Booker and Lennon initially agitated for the Co-operative Steelworker Society, a local industrial union in the Ironward district of Caerun, writing frequently for The Caerun Miller, the union's newspaper. A steelworker himself, Booker participated in union hall meetings, wherein he wrote some of his first labour anthems.

Volunteering in Sorano

During the political upheavals of 1217, a revolt in Dulara left the national guard in disarray, which allowed a group of anarchists to occupy the inner region of Sorano and set up a communally-owned autonomous zone named the Free Territory of Sorano. Their numbers quickly swelled with volunteers from several Heartland countries, who formed the Regional Defense Brigades.
Booker and Lennon joined these brigades along with a few close friends, sneaking over the border to defend the Free Territory against local army regiments. For the better part of a year, they participated in guerrilla warfare against incursions by the Dularan military. Outside of combat, they worked in the collective farms and factories to produce equipment for future engagements. Booker was especially proficient in factory work when compared to Sorano's mostly peasant population, and he became a respected member of the industrial councils despite his young age.
However, while the Free Territory's borders held fast for the summer and fall of 1217, they were blockaded by the military, and were unable to acquire resources through trade, which slowly starved the Regional Defense Brigades of supplies through the winter. By the spring of 1218, the defense councils were severely under supplied, and the Dularan army had re-organized after dealing with the revolts along the coast. In a swift offensive, the defensive lines of Sorano fell to the advancing troops, and the anarchist experiment came to a bloody end. Booker and Lennon managed to escape the repression that followed the Free Territory's defeat, aided by local farmers who were smuggling Defense Brigade members out of the country inside bags of produce.
According to those close to him, Booker never let himself be discouraged from the defeat of the Free Territory, and was thankful for the experience he gained. He was quoted as saying: "The experiences that land gifted me, I will pass on forward, so that one day the Black Flag might once again fly over Old Sorano".

Working with the ULF

Back in Ardun, Booker continued to work within the trade unionist movement. The skills he acquired in Sorano were quickly put to good use, as economic conditions deteriorated and labour action became more directly confrontational.
Booker participated in the 1224 General Labour Congress, and echoed Jack Lennon's calls for a militant revolutionary organization to spearhead the syndicalist movement. The end of this congress saw the re-structuring of the GLC into the United Labout Front, and Booker was brought on as an operator and member of the Union Council. 
Many of Booker's songs became common in labour circles, and were printed into the Ulfie's Red Book, so they could be more easily distributed to other artists throughout Ardun.

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Galt

Date of Birth

4 June 1190

Life

6890 6941 51 years old

Birthplace

Ashwick

Aligned Organization

United Labour Front