Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Seizing new opportunities to celebrate our history
We must memorialise more of the important events of the workers' movement with real-world events, writes TAM KIRBY, as a new miners’ gala in Fife takes shape

ON Saturday, Fife Trades council held its annual International Brigade memorial event to remember the working-class people who went to Spain to fight fascism.

I smiled the whole day, not just because the turnout exceeded expectations but also because of the number of people there who I met for the first time. We were also so privileged to have Tam Watters, co-author of Our Fathers Fought Franco, speak at our reception after the memorial and the grandson of Tommy Bloomfield, who went to Spain not once, but twice.

Trades councils all over Britain hold similar events — May Day, International Women’s Day, Workers’ Memorial Day and International Brigade events. It is crucial we continue these events.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
BUSY PERIOD: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar speaking at
Voices of Scotland / 14 May 2024
14 May 2024
Trades councils are key to linking up the class struggle at a local level — all unions and union branches must affiliate, writes TAM KIRBY
VOICES OF SCOTLAND / 14 February 2022
14 February 2022
TAM KIRBY argues we can freeze energy bills and the price of essential goods, restore the universal credit uplift and abandon the National Insurance hike — so long as we can build a coalition to tax the rich
Punks for Peace
Voices Of Scotland / 9 February 2021
9 February 2021
TAM KIRBY laments how the auld are held in contempt because we apparently ‘had it so much better’ – when in fact class struggle has been a battle for every generation
Features / 28 October 2020
28 October 2020
TAM KIRBY told the recent online meeting of the Scottish Committee of the Communist Party that the crisis we are in shows no sign of slowing and the government's response has more to do with the protection of finance and corporations than saving lives
Similar stories
TRIBUTE: The Solidarity Park monument in Catalunya
Features / 6 February 2025
6 February 2025
A new campaign in Sunderland aims to build a community-designed monument honouring those who fought for liberty and freedom in Spain, writes ROB MacDONALD, artist and creator of Solidarity Park Catalunya
A unit of the Bulgarian International Brigade, 1937
Features / 25 January 2025
25 January 2025
Anti-fascists from around the world will soon be travelling to Spain to commemorate the International Brigades and walk in the footsteps of the bravest of their generation, writes LYNNE WALSH
Ken Capstick, former vice-chairman of the NUM’s Yorkshire
Features / 20 January 2025
20 January 2025
Remembering KEN CAPSTICK, vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers Yorkshire Area
Women Against Pit Closures strike anniversary event in Durha
Features / 2 November 2024
2 November 2024
Women have been celebrating the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike against pit closures, and there’s more to come writes HEATHER WOOD