Subjects of 2.18 include (transcript page numbers given in brackets): McShane’s objections to his treatment in prison whilst awaiting trial in May 1922 (1-2); his trial for alleged seditious speech during an anti-eviction protest (2); detective following him and John Maclean (2-3); events leading up to his trial and acquittal for alleged riot (6-7); campaign in 1931 against ban on meetings on Glasgow Green and at Nelson’s Monument in which radical clergymen called Tramp Preachers took part (8-11); debates on Glasgow Green on subjects such as Darwinism, secularism and Irish history during McShane’s schooldays (12); criticism by radical Liberals and Independent Labour Party members of the secret diplomacy which led to the First World War, as illustrated by the formation of the Union of Democratic Control (13-14); socialists’ disappointment at the failure of the German Democratic Party to avert the war (14); growth of pacifism with introduction of conscription in 1916 (14); disappointment at Robert Blatchford’s support for the war (14).
Subjects of 2.19 include (transcript page numbers given in brackets): discussion in Glasgow of industrial disputes such as the 1913 Dublin strike (1-3); lectures on Christianity and Irish history on Glasgow Green (2, 4); demonstrations on issues such as conscription at Nelson’s Monument (3); unemployment demonstrations on Glasgow Green after First World War (4); ban on meetings there and elsewhere in Glasgow in 1931 and unsuccessful campaign against it (5-6); McShane’s arrest and imprisonment for resisting the eviction of a tenant in 1939 (7-8); repeated targeting of him by the authorities, including his arrest in 1931 on a charge of breach of the peace at a meeting at Queen’s Park Gate (8-10); brutality of Glasgow police (10); arrests in the 1930s of British Communist Party members for spying, for criminal libel in ‘Daily Worker’ articles, and for involvement in agitation (11-14); the party’s excessive support for the Soviet Union, leading, in McShane’s view, to its becoming an obstacle to revolution at the time of the interview (13); unconcerned response of Wal Hannington to several spells of imprisonment (14); examples of unscrupulous behaviour by John McGovern (14-16).
Brand: Pinnacle P90.