Guy Aldred's "The Word".

       Spirit of Revolt is still busy trying to bring alive Glasgow/Clydeside non-party political grass-roots history. The latest addition to our ever growing collections is four bound volumes of Guy Aldred's, The Word, probably one of the largest collections in Scotland. Thanks to co-operation with The Sparrow's Nest, you can now read fourteen issues of The Word on line, we will have more on line later. Twelve from the 1939/45 war years and a couple from later on. They make fascinating reading, a lot of anti war material, conscientious objectors' trials and a variety of subjects covered from the perspective of one of Glasgow's better known lifelong anarchists. Just click on HERE, scroll down and enjoy.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The World Needs The Full Potential Of All Its Peopele.

      March 8th. International Women's Day, a day when we honour the achievements of women across the world, a day when the other half of the world's population should rise up, join women, and once and for all, end the domination of one half of the species by the other. Women's fight for full equality can only exist because those rights are refused by men. There is no grounds for any law, natural or otherwise, that states one half of the species shouldn't have the same rights and opportunities as the other.

      We are all born as children, it is unacceptable that we should structure our society so that one half of those children will not have the right to develop to their full potential. Any institution that furthers or defends this inequality of opportunity must be destroyed, be it religious or political.

     By seeing that every human on this planet has equal rights to develop to their full potential, will release an explosion of creativity that will enhance the quality of life across the globe. We as a species, cheat ourselves and humanity, if we deny half our population the right to add their full worth to our combined effort to build that better world. There can be no better world when half its population is denied equality.

     I thought it fitting that on this day, International Women's Day to post a cutting from an old copy of The Word, held in the Spirit of Revolt Archive. We all should honour and respect those who stand up in the face of the state, in time of war, and say, "I am are a conscientious objector". However we tend to think of them as men, this case, from WWII, is the UK's first women conscientious objector.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

To Slaughter The Image Of God.

       As a life long atheist, I'm always troubled by those who believe in a God, creator of all things, and then go out wearing a uniform and kill their God's creation. To me it seems a total contradiction of all they believe in. However, I also believe that people who base their lives on a foundation of irrationality, will go on to do irrational things.

      I came across this poem while reading an old copy of Guy Aldred's The Word, Volume iv, No.7 February 1943, on The Sparrow's Nest site, and decided to put it on the blog, aimed at those who somehow, can tie together, their love of God, and the need to kill his creation.

I slaughtered a man, a brother,

    In the wild, wild fight at Mons.

I see yet his eyes of horror,

    I hear yet his cries and groans.

We met on the edge of the trenches,

    Where murder, in crimson, rode.

When swish went my blade to his stomach.

   I'd slaughtered the Image of God.

We'd never in anger quarrelled.

     We never had met before.

But someone had dreamt of conquest,

     and we had to buy it with gore.

Perhaps he'd a wife and children,

    Through whose hopes and dreams he strode,

With the pride of a king in his empire,

     An heroic Image of God.

And I asked myself the question,

     As I saw in his glazing eyes:

“Am I my brothers keeper?”

      Till the sod I trod on cries:

“You made his wife a widow,

       Made desolate her abode,

Your thrust made his children orphans,

      You slaughtered the Image of God.”

The cold, cold stars keep blinking,

      And the winds make moaning sighs.

Men worship me as hero, and laud me to the skies.

     But I keep on thinking dully, till my heart gets like a clod,

Of the thrust I made in the trenches

    That slaughtered the Image of God.

James C. Welsh.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Who Was Peter McKellar?

    I believe that we should never forget those comrades who stood against authority when it was at its harshest and most repressive. Reading through an old copy of The Word, on the Sparrow's Nest site, I came upon the case of Peter McKellar. The article starts with:-- 

     Our comrade Peter McKellar of 38 South Annadale Street, Glasgow, will have been court-martialled for the second time before these lines are printed.
     Then aged 22, a glazier by trade, he registered as a conscientious objector on December, 26, 1939. His case was heard on April 23, 1940, by the Glasgow Tribunal, consisting of Sir A. C. Black, K.C., Sir Robert Bruce, J.P.. L.L.D., and Mr. (now Sir) R. Bryce Walker, C.B.E., etc.
    McKellar told the Tribunal that his father was killed in the great war. He would not butcher nor yet be butchered. It was enough that this had happened to his father. The Tribunal sympathised with him. He replied that he wanted justice as an anti-militarist, not sympathy. --------

      Who was Peter McKellar, is there anybody out there who can throw some light on this comrade and man of principle. We should remember our own, record their life, they are part of our history, the history of the ordinary man and woman of our communities.  So if you have any wee bit of info, no matter how little a detail, please share it with ann arky, so that we can try to put his page in its rightful place in our history.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk