Jarama Valley – battle hymn of the International Brigade
An estimated 50,000 volunteers from fifty-five countries served in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Amongst those who volunteered from Britain was a young Glasgow labourer and Communist Party member, Alex McDade, who became the Political Commissar for his brigade. Almost as soon as Alex arrived,…
Ironing out the politics
Phyllida Lloyd’s Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady seems to have divided opinion amongst film critics and appears to have been met with varying degrees of disapproval across the political spectrum. Some on the right have referred to it as ‘a left-wing fantasy’ while some opponents have described it…
A forgotten class hero
The subject of Labour of Love is Robert Smillie, a pioneering Socialist, miners’ leader and close associate of James Keir Hardie. The book, based on the research of his great-grandson, Blair Smilllie, has been written by Torquil Cowan as a quasi-autobiography, in order to provide the reader with…
