Mick McGahey

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Michael McGahey (May 29, 1925 – January 30, 1999) was a Scottish miners' leader and life-long Communist, with a distinctive gravelly voice. He described himself as "a product of my class and my movement".

[edit] Early life

His father, John McGahey, was working in the mines at Shotts , North Lanarkshire when Mick was born. John was a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and took an active part in the General Strike of 1926. Perhaps because of this, the family had to move to Cambuslang in search of work, and it was here that Mick went to school.

He started at 14 in Gateside Colliery, and continued to work underground for the next 25 years. He followed his father into the Communist Party and the National Union of Mineworkers, remaining a member of both, the Party until its dissolution in 1990 and the Union all his life. He was an implacable defender of both, on the one hand supporting the 1956 invasion of Hungary, (seeing the then Soviet Union as a beacon of hope for humanity), on the other refusing to condemn alleged intimidatory tactics during later NUM strikes.

[edit] Trade Unionist and Communist

He became chairman of the local branch of his union when he was only eighteen and thereafter progressed through its echelons, though never quite reaching the national presidency. He was elected to the Scottish Executive of the NUM in 1958, becoming president of the Scottish area in 1967. He was regarded as a highly competent operator but his strongly militant line was opposed by others in the Union. He was defeated in the 1971 elections for National President by Joe Gormley. McGahey was, however, elected National Vice-President of the NUM in 1972. He made similar progress in the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), being elected to its Executive in 1971. He remained a member until the CPGB dissolved in 1991 and then joined its successor in Scotland, the Communist Party of Scotland.

He was regarded by those close to him as warm and companionable, and by the conference journalists he opened up to as an entertaining conversationalist. Some on the employers’ side with whom he had worked felt that he could often be pragmatic. These qualities (and a love of poetry) were hidden from the wider public by his rasping voice - the product of 25 years underground and a lifetime smoking - coupled with an enduring Lanarkshire accent and a pugnacious oratorical style.

He came to the attention of the public during the Miners Strikes of 1972 and 1974. He later claimed these were purely industrial disputes, made political by the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath. Nevertheless, he took a characteristically militant line, opposing some of the democratic processes of the Union President, Gormley, accusing him of “ballotisis” and swearing he would not be “constitutionalised” out of a national strike. Gormley, it was later claimed, postponed his own retirement until 1981, by which time McGahey was over 55, too old by union rules to stand for President. He played only a supportive role to the later NUM President Arthur Scargill during the historic 1984-1985 miners' strike against Margaret Thatcher's Government's policies towards the mining industry.

[edit] Memorials

The Memorial to Mick McGahey in Cambuslang

He married Catherine Young in 1954 with whom he had two daughters and a son. A significant memorial, in the form of mine workings, stands to him at the east end of Cambuslang Main Street and there have been calls in the Scottish Parliament for a more national memorial.

On 28 April 2006, in Bonnyrigg , ex-UNISON General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe unveiled a memorial to mark the 10th Anniversary of McGahey's address to the Midlothian TUC Worker's Memorial Day event in George V Park. McGahey’s son was present.

Bickerstaffe described McGahey as a "working class hero" who never lost touch with his roots and socialist values. He listed some of McGahey's sayings which were just as relevant today. "We are a movement not a monument", he quoted as a reminder of the need to continue to move and to fight on, and finished by saying "We know the reasons why Michael never became NUM President, but whether he had stayed as a steward or a delegate he would still have had a major impact on the movement".