Calton Weavers’ Commemoration
The organisers of this year’s Calton Weavers’ Commemoration have been informed that the Celtic v Rangers game, expected to have been on 31st August, has been rescheduled for Sunday, 1st September with a kick-off time of 12.30pm. This means organisers have had to rearrange the Calton Weavers event; it will now take place on Sunday, 22nd September, at 1pm. The change is to do with a massive increase in vehicle traffic, busy public transport and parking restrictions.
Additional Songwriting Event
Complementary to the event will be some songwriting workshops – to create new and original material to help preserve and celebrate the legacy of the Weavers in a modern, as well as historical, context. In addition to co-writing – at least one – original group song, by the end of the workshop, participants will have the basic tools to continue to explore songwriting on their own. The workshops will be led by Christopher James Sheridan, a member of the Glasgow-Irish folk’n’roll group, The Wakes, and a Masters graduate in Songwriting & Performance, from the University of the West of Scotland. They will take place on three consecutive Sundays, 11th, 18th & 25th August, beginning at 11am and lasting 90 minutes, and will be held at Red Rosa’s, 195 London Road, Glasgow, G1 5BX.
The workshops will function best with 6-12 participants, who should have some degree of musical experience. They will work in small groups and/or individually to create lyrics, but are not required to have previous experience of songwriting, as songwriting techniques will be taught during the sessions, to help participants to become self-sufficient songwriters. Participants who DO have previous songwriting experience can provide other approaches and techniques. To register interest please provide contact details, together with a couple of paragraphs outlining previous experience, to jim.lister@unitetheunion.org
Clarice McNab Shaw
Labour MSP and SLHS committee member, Richard Leonard, has produced a short (three-minute) video about a forgotten figure of Scottish labour history, Clarice McNab Shaw, a tireless campaigner from Leith, who was the first female Labour councillor in Scotland, and who was later elected as Labour MP for Kilmarnock in 1945. Because of serious illness, McNab was never able to participate at all properly in the House of Commons, and she died in October 1946. The video can be viewed at the following locations: on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/h89giJwF4wKwwR7e/?mibextid=WC7FNe; on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9b13ensrCQ/?igsh=YjkybjFtN3pvMG5i; and on X (formerly Twitter) at https://x.com/labourrichard/status/1812751452475170950?s=46&t=AG3ntiBVm… It is also available on the SLHS Youtube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@scottishlabourhistorysocie1326
New film from the Nae Pasaran filmmaker
Felipe Bustos Sierra, the Belgian-Chilean filmmaker, whose Nae Pasaran showed the impact of a 1974 boycott of Chilean Airforce engines by Rolls Royce workers in East Kilbride, has a new film out soon. Everyone to Kenmure Street is about a day of action against the deportation of immigrants living in Glasgow. In 2021, the Home Office restarted its practice of ‘dawn raids’ in Scotland; people whose immigration status is still pending are taken from their homes to detention centres. If they are ‘unrepresented’ within 48 hours, they may be deported. Within moments of arriving, the van is surrounded by residents and activists, spurred by social media callouts. Someone slides under the van to buy time for more people to join, and plans to be developed. As the protest fills the street, a stalemate ensues and the eight-hour stand-off with police forces everyone to consider how far they’re willing to go. The film will be out soon to mark an important piece of recent labour history.
New book on language and labour history
Labour historian John Foster’s latest book, Languages of Class Struggle: Communication and Mass Mobilisation in Britain and Ireland 1842-1972, is a study of five key moments in the history of the British and Irish working class movements. In it, Foster applies some of the key insights of Soviet Marxist thinkers on language to five significant episodes in British working-class history: the 1842 General Strike, the Councils of Action of 1920, the Glasgow and Belfast General Strikes of 1919, and the 1972 UCS work-in on Clydeside. More details at https://redletterspp.com/products/languages-of-class-struggle-communica…