Subjects of 1.27 include (transcript page numbers given in brackets): McShane’s work for the Communist Party whilst working in Mansfield after leaving Glasgow in 1923, including arguing with Liberals, arranging a visit by Tom Mann and helping Arthur Cooke to be elected general secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain (1-4); short spells living in St Mary Cray in Kent and Hounslow in Middlesex, followed by move to Leicester (4-5); ineffective communist party in Leicester and impact of General Strike there (5-7); radical tradition in Leicester (7); getting a job building mechanical shovels for the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation (7); giving a speech for the Stalinist communist party in Vancouver, and high unemployment there (9); working in Yukon, including danger from bears, ditch-digging and dredging operations to serve gold mines, move to Bear Creek to mend dredgers, good living conditions and high wages there, good food, rail journey from Vancouver, via Skagway in Alaska and Dead Man’s Gulch to White Horse, horse sleigh journey from there to Dawson City (9-12); return to Vancouver and visit to Scottish communist Alan Campbell in prison there for allegedly leading a mutiny at sea (13-14).
Subjects of 1.28 include (transcript page numbers given in brackets): Scottish communist Alan Campbell (1-2); resuming political activity on return to Glasgow from Canada in January 1930, including campaigning for the unemployed and encountering strong Stalinism of the Scottish party (6); becoming national chairman of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement and being compelled against his will to lead a delegation to the Soviet Union in 1931 (6-7); impressions on visits to Leningrad, the Kremlin, a Russian village church, the Crimea and Jewish weavers in Kiev (7-11); denial by Kalinin of the existence of labour camps in the Soviet Union (12); McShane’s enthusiasm for the Moscow May Day parade (misplaced in retrospect) (12); Russian Jewish refugees in Glasgow (13); McShane’s frustration with the rigid Stalinism of former Lenin School students like Ted Willis and Jack Cole who came to Glasgow (13-14).
Brand: BASF C90.