I Was A Teenage Scargillite!
In the 90s I was possibly the only teenager in Scotland listening to Redskins and Billy Bragg, rather than Oasis and Blur. In fact, e xactly 28 years ago this February in 1996, aged 19 years old, I attend a meeting at the T&G Halls in Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon, to listen to Arthur Scargill and the late great Bob Crow from the RMT, launch the Socialist Labour Party in Scotland. Bob Crow talked about attacks made on the working classes, through the anti-trade union laws, which New Labour had condoned by refusing to repeal them, if they won the upcoming General Election. Describing the crappy train service, since the Tories had privatised British Rail, Crow quipped in his quintessential Essex accent, 'Never mind leafs on the track, there's theives on the track!' Meanwhile, the typically passionate Scargill railed against recent change in the Labour Party under Tony Blair's leadership, especially the dropping of clause four. I vividly remember being on my feet...