ANNIVERSARIES are odd things.  

Last weekend our paper commemorated 100 years since the death of Lenin, and on January 31 we noted the passing of the 4th  anniversary of British exit from the EU — welcomed and wailed over on social media — and Glasgow’s Battle of George Square in 1919, where workers across the city rallied to demand the Lord Provost intervene in their fight for a 40-hour working week.  

The passing of 105 years hasn’t damped the enthusiasm for folk to project onto the event — not least swapping the red flag for the saltire in some pictures — as if the reality of working people taking their lives into their own hands wasn’t enough somehow. 

Another anniversary was commemorated brilliantly, if a little late. 

Last St Andrew’s day marked 100 years since the death of John Maclean, as genuine a working-class hero as ever there was, and responsible for lighting the flame of socialism in countless thousands during his short life. 

The Scottish left rallied in their droves at the city’s concert hall to listen to an evening of song and spoken word celebrating his life and example, moving one concert-goer to joke “if a bomb went off, 70 per cent of the Scottish left would be wiped out.” But they would not have been the only ones. 

A condescension of government MSPs were also in attendance — I even tripped over a couple — fresh from promoting a budget to put what was left of Scottish local services to the sword. Their fixed grins as the rest of the audience joined the likes of Karine Polwart, Dick Gaughan and Arthur Johnson in the Internationale, the Red Flag, or Freedom Come All Ye was tragic and comic in equal measure. 

Scotland, or at least its political class, is a world-beater in self-delusion. Forget any political connection or attempts to follow his example in life and in politics, simply having grown up within a few days’ walk of John MacLean’s stomping grounds is enough to claim him and his legacy — Scotland’s flag is deepest blue, after all. 

On the subject of flags, another anniversary rang closer to home. One year ago, around 200 refugees were placed in the Glasgow Muthu River Hotel — confusingly not in Glasgow at all, but in Erskine.  

The first I became aware of it was on Facebook, where a post informed me they were “200 fighting-age men,” an obvious rehash of the “they’re coming for our jobs and women” trope the far right are so keen to fantasise about. 

People fall for it though, and there was soon a protest outside the hotel every weekend aimed not only at intimidating the refugees, but terrifying the locals into believing that rapists, paedophiles and murderers were now in their midst. 

This action by the fascists at Patriotic Alternative was swiftly met with a response from the local Paisley and District Trades Council. 

 Working alongside comrades in Stand Up to Racism and the Young Communist League, church groups and trade unionists from across the river in Clydebank, the trades council met the challenge. 

The nature of the protests changed over that year. Thanks to concerted organising in the area, and leafleting to counter fascist propaganda, the numbers standing with Patriotic Alternative soon fell to a hard core as locals who had been taken in began to realise who they were standing with. 

By the height of the summer, the solidarity demonstration had morphed into a weekly celebration as the hotel’s residents felt safer to come out and join in. 

We soon realised that nothing wound the fascists up more than the sight of us enjoying ourselves — refugee and local alike.  

Good music, good grub and a weekly football competition for the Morning Star Solidarity Cup soon drowned out the forlorn wailings from the other camp. 

Faced with falling support, and an internal split — Homeland had broken away from Patriotic Alternative by this time — they replaced the missing bodies with an ever-growing array of flags covered in racist epithets, and regular visit from a passing fascist with a penchant for blowing a horn — what he termed his “spiritual weapon” — in an increasingly desperate attempt to ward off Marxism. 

That a fascist would put his faith in superstition to counter material reality is of course not much of a surprise, but oh how we laughed! 

It hasn’t all been laughs of course. Police Scotland attended every week until December. 

Highlights included refugee supporters being told that calling someone a “fascist” was a hate crime, attempts to remove an “Erskine welcomes refugees” banner while leaving flags such as “We need to talk about white genocide” untouched, and comrade Keith Stoddart of this parish having to explain (at considerable length) to an officer what the Nuremberg trials were — confirmation, if any were needed of the truth outgoing Chief Constable Iain Livingstone admission that “Police Scotland is institutionally racist and discriminatory.”

When police did withdraw their presence in December, it predictably ended in fascists attacking solidarity campaigners, leading to one being punched and kicked and another having his walking stick stolen as he came to her aid. 

That day the fascists ran away as the Young Communist League arrived, but despite film footage of the incident being available and the perpetrators still attending the site, no action has been taken. 

It’s easy to pick on the police, but the after the fascists themselves, the people I reserve real anger for are the politicians — local and national — who have been invisible over this last year. 

At a local level, Renfrewshire Council, left in the lurch by the Home Office, have attempted to support refugees, but in a year only two councillors — Labour group leader Ian MacMillan, and the SNP’s John McNaughtan — have bothered to turn up, and the council leader, the SNP’s Iain Nicolson — who represents Erskine — remains missing in action and openly hostile to Paisley TUC. 

At national level, the local SNP MSP Natalie Don and MP Gavin Newlands both profess support, but cite safety concerns and Police Scotland advice for not attending any of the 50 protests. 

While I understand MPs and MSPs must be more aware of personal safety than ever, it is truly astounding that there does not appear to have been any pushback from either on the idea that the police force they preside over has essentially told them they cannot safely visit their constituency.  

Scotland 2024. Where fascists, known to the police to pose a threat to public safety, are left to their own devices and politicians run for the hills where they can continue to lead the world in rhetoric and liberal waffle. 

When I look back on that brilliant John Maclean concert, I think of the array of socialist talent on that stage and their earnest desire to promote the story, to entertain and to inspire a generation of much-needed revolutionaries. 

When I scanned the room, it was abuzz with enthusiasm from an audience riddled with those battling every day for decent homes, decent wages, and freedom from fear refugee and resident alike, here, in the now, and that is where the hope is. 

In the darkness, my eyes were drawn to the Scottish government ministers in the good seats, their satisfied faces lit up in the reflected glow of a revolutionary, a leader, and ultimately a martyr, and I wondered what they were thinking. 

Maybe it was the old toast, “here’s tae us; wha’s like us? Gey few, and they’re a’ deid”? In their dreams. 

Maybe one of them will turn up for the anniversary of today’s battles in Erskine on Sunday?  

In my dreams... but you should.