Mick McGahey, vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers addresses a rally, attended by MP Tony Benn, February 14, 1985
MICHAEL McGAHEY, a socialist and miners’ leader who changed the course of history, should be remembered by the parliament he helped win, Labour’s Richard Leonard said today.
Mr McGahey, elected president of the NUM Scottish Area in 1967, is not only fondly remembered for his work to win self-rescuing equipment for British miners and serving as vice-president of his union in the great strike of 1984-85 but for his tireless work to secure a Scottish parliament.
His speech to the STUC in 1968, rejecting bourgeois nationalism of “a classless Scotland” in favour of class solidarity yet insisting that “Scotland is a nation, not a region of Britain” is regarded as a turning point in winning Scottish trade unionism over to devolution.
More than 30 years later, Mr McGahey’s ashes were scattered in the foundations of the Scottish Parliament. Today, Mr Leonard called for a bust to be commissioned in his honour.
He said: “Mick McGahey was a working-class hero. He was a man of integrity and intellect, a socialist and an internationalist.
“It would be more than fitting for our parliament to hold a permanent reminder of his contribution to Scottish history.”
KATE CLARK recalls an occasion when the president of the Scottish National Union of Mineworkers might just have saved a Chilean prisoner’s life
