Archie MacPherson
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Just this morning I was listening to a podcast about Scottish football, where they were interviewing the legendary Scottish football commentator, Archie MacPherson, and he mentioned in passing the SPGB, when talking about his childhood.
He was talking about growing up in Shettleston and he mentioned Shettleston's version of Speakers' Corner, where the CPGB, the SPGB and the ILP would have speakers. (Archie, himself, was from an ILP family.)
Interesting…This be in the 1940s then, maybe early 1950s, who would the main speakers be?But next you'll be telling us that Arthur Montford bought the Socialist Standard from Dick and Vic
John McGovern and Guy Aldred cited. Sadly no mention of the SPGBGame of Two Halveshttps://books.google.co.th/books?id=RCTpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT21&lpg=PT21&dq=archie+macpherson+ilp+politics&source=bl&ots=WydsTgn8Cq&sig=PmYFgmQGFbuysLE0uedT60rgvns&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ4dqlvdraAhWBo48KHX3YALoQ6AEITjAF#v=onepage&q=archie%20macpherson%20ilp%20politics&f=false
alanjjohnstone wrote:John McGovern and Guy Aldred cited. Sadly no mention of the SPGBGame of Two Halveshttps://books.google.co.th/books?id=RCTpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT21&lpg=PT21&dq=archie+macpherson+ilp+politics&source=bl&ots=WydsTgn8Cq&sig=PmYFgmQGFbuysLE0uedT60rgvns&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ4dqlvdraAhWBo48KHX3YALoQ6AEITjAF#v=onepage&q=archie%20macpherson%20ilp%20politics&f=falseI bet I'm the only person on the forum who has actually read that book. I knew from the book that he was from an old ILP family. And, of course, the ILP's McGovern was the MP for Shettleston all through from their disaffiliation from the Labour Party in '32 up until McGovern rejoined the Labour Party at the tail end of the forties. That means that the ILP beat the Labour candidate at the '45 landslide Labour election, so you can understand how deep rooted the support was for the ILP and its candidates in Shettleston, Bridgeton (Maxton's seat) and Camlachie in Glasgow all through the thirties and forties.What I thought was funny about Archie mentioning the SPGB in the podcast was that he intially just gave out the intitials SPGB, and then he made a point of saying the SPGB stood for the Socialist Party of Great Britain.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Interesting…This be in the 1940s then, maybe early 1950s, who would the main speakers be?I'm guessing it would have been the likes of John Higgins, Joe Richmond, Alex Shaw, Tony Mulheron and a few others. Dick Donnelly didn't join the SPGB until the late 50s, and Vic Vanni joined the SPGB in Glasgow in the early 60s.
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