The 4th Annual Jim McVicar Memorial Lecture will mark the 40th anniversary of the year-long miners’ strike of 1984/5. The event will take place at Townhead Village Hall, Glasgow G4 0PL, at 1pm on Sunday 23 February 2025.
We are delighted to have, as one of two speakers, a frontline National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) striker from that momentous showdown between the working class and Maggie Thatcher’s brutal capitalist state.
Alex Shanks worked in Monktonhall pit, Midlothian, and played a leading role in the strike. Alex will give first-hand memories and observations from the most important strike of modern times. He will reflect on what lessons he and his fellow-strikers drew from their harsh experiences.
Alex will be joined on the platform by Richie Venton, the SSP’s national trade union organiser, a veteran trade unionist and socialist who at the time of the miners’ strike was the regional organiser of the socialists on Merseyside who led the mass movement which defeated Thatcher’s government in 1984. During Covid, Richie was victimised and sacked by a multinational for standing up for workers’ lives and wages.
In memory of principled socialist fighter, Jim McVicar
This is the 4th in the annual series of lectures organised in honour of former Scottish Socialist Party national treasurer, Jim McVicar, who was at the heart of building solidarity with striking miners in Glasgow’s East End, where he was also elected as a socialist councillor and went on to battle against Thatcher’s hated poll tax, against water privatisation, cuts by the Labour council, and many other struggles of workers and their communities. Jim died tragically young during Covid.
Defeat of the NUM shapes our lives today
The 1984/5 miners’ strike is widely recognised as a major turning point in modern history. The defeat of the miners and their communities not only left devastation in the pit villages and towns but also set back the struggles of subsequent movements of workers for a greater share of the wealth produced by the working class. It has helped the ruling capitalist class carry out a vast wealth transfusion to the rich from the rest of us.
Come along – book your tickets today!
This event is public, open to all, and is an opportunity to hear first-hand accounts of the historic, heroic struggle by miners, Women Against Pit Closures, and their supporters.
It’s an occasion to reflect on what that year teaches us for the struggles we face today, against a Labour government hellbent on putting profit before people, with all the horrific consequences for workers, their families, young people, pensioners, and the environment.
Get your tickets today – venue capacity limited!
Tickets are FREE – but we encourage A DONATION that you can afford, to help cover the costs of organising this important commemoration of both the miners’ strike and principled socialist fighter, Jim McVicar.