We see it as a sign of the vitality and energy of the Scottish left that not one but two major conferences are being held on the same upcoming Saturday, 18th November. (We’re not attracted to the alternative explanation, that this is an unfortunate clash which betrays a lack of co-ordination and collaborative planning which should ideally be avoided in future … though we know of quite a few people would have liked to go to both events …).
Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms is the venue for The Break Up of Britain? which looks at a range of issues in Scottish, UK and European politics, and incorporates a salute to Tom Nairn, the important Scottish radical thinker who died earlier this year. We’ve previously highlighted this event, and understand that there are just a few tickets left: if you’d like to be there, please book soon by clicking here.
Glasgow sees the Scottish Labour History Society holding a conference at UNITE’s offices to mark the passing of one hundred years since the death of the remarkable socialist leader John Maclean (1879-1923): it will be opened by the Glasgow City Councillor and Baillie Roza Salih.
A range of authors and activists will explore and discuss Maclean’s life and work, the causes he fought for, and his impact on popular culture. There are sessions on Maclean as a socialist educator, his relationship to Irish republicanism, and his links to the Russian revolution. A closing session to be addressed by David Howell and Ewan Gibbs considers his relevance today.
The event will be enlivened by actor Billy Mack re-enacting John Maclean’s speech from the dock, which Maclean delivered at Edinburgh’s High Court after being arrested for sedition in 1918, and will close with a rendition of the John Maclean March, in which the singer Arthur Johnstone will be accompanied by Andy Clark, who is not only the author of an excellent 2022 book about Scottish women’s factory occupations in the early 1980s,Fighting Deindustrialisation, but is also a pipe major.
Published 30 October 2023.