Biography

Roger McKenzie is the International Editor of the Morning Star. Prior to that he was the parliamentary reporter for the paper. His journalism can also be read at his substack here  – Red Star Dispatch as well as People’s World and People’s Dispatch.

He is also the host of Red Star Talks with Roger McKenzie podcast.
Roger is the author of African Uhuru: The fight for African freedom in the rise of the Global South and The Rebirth of the African Phoenix – A view from Babylon (both by Manifesto Press).

Roger has a long history of activity within the labour and trade union movement and is well known internationally as a leading anti racist campaigner and trade union organiser. He is a founding member of the Global African Workers Institute.

Before joining the Morning Star Roger worked for 11 years as an assistant general secretary of Unison – Britain’s largest trade union – with responsibility for organising, recruitment and education programmes for members and activists. He was also a member of the TUC General Council and the Unionlearn board.

Prior to that Roger was the West Midlands regional secretary of Unison and before that the Midlands regional secretary of the Trades Union Congress. He was the first black trade unionist to hold any of the posts mentioned within Unison.

He also worked for the Public and Commercial Services Union as its Race Equality Officer and its predecessor unions the National Union of Civil and Public Servants and the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union as a national education and negotiator.
Roger has a Masters Degree in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management and is a graduate of the prestigious Harvard University Trade Union Programme.

Roger is currently the vice chair of War on Want and is lead British activist for the international bodies the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Global African Workers Institute.

Roger was a former chair of the Bernie Grant Trust.

He was a former chair of the Labour Party Black Sections and co-chair of the Anti Racism Alliance and a former Labour Councillor in the London Borough of Islington.
Roger is a member of the National Union of Journalists where he is a member of the National Executive Committee, co-chair of the National Black Members Council and deputy chair of chapel at the Morning Star.