My husband, Graham Trickey, a journalist and campaigner, who has died aged 73 of mesothelioma, was a quiet person who was often the motor behind, and sometimes the leader of, political and environmental campaigns.
He first became active in student politics in the 1960s at Newport College of Art, and later joined the Communist party. In 1976, Graham took a job with the CP daily newspaper the Morning Star, and he soon became chief subeditor; he was a skilled production journalist. But rifts within the party were deepening: the leadership and most members had opposed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and turned towards “eurocommunism”; the Star, however, had become the centre of a faction hostile to democratic socialism. Graham’s determination in the ensuing events was well regarded. Along with other colleagues, he resigned from the newspaper in 1985.
