While there are many academic studies of workers’ resistance and consciousness during the 1970s and 1980s, few accounts relate the personal-political experiences of the activists involved. Tremors of Discontent, however, explores how Mike Richardson’s individual consciousness came to change during that period. It shows how gradually his participation in trade union and left politics broke through his boyhood reserve, intensified by the external political, economic and social circumstances. By following the growth and development of his convictions and beliefs, Mike’s autobiographical account contributes to a greater understanding of how militant social and political views came to be held by thousands of rank-and-file trade unionists in the 1970s and 80s.