This Is No Utopia Transcript (Scotland: A Scottish History Podcast)
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MICHAEL PARK: It is 2020. Black Lives Matter.
Scotland - A Scottish History Podcast
Episode 26 - This Is No Utopia
It is 2020 and gangs of racists masquerading as patriots and the protectors of Scotland’s heritage have been on the streets targeting people, people who believe that the violation of the rights and even lives of people of colour in this country and beyond is wrong, people who believe that asylum seekers in this country we are often so proud of deserve to be housed with respect.
They have claimed themselves to be counter-protestors, anti-antifascist, anti-anti-racist.
There are words for these things already. If you’re anti-antifa, you’re a fascist. If you’re anti-anti-racism, you’re a racist.
The time has come to look at ourselves and ask whether ‘not being racist’ is enough. The time to be actively anti-racist came long ago and not enough of us heeded the call.
This is Scotland. A podcast about history and where we made it. I’m Michael Park.
In our pilot episode and again in episode 14 we told you about the so-called Battle of George Square. In that episode we portrayed that struggle as the noble fight of workers for fairer hours, better wages and respect.
This isn’t an in-depth history show as you’ve probably worked out by now but by generalising the weeks leading up to the riot in George Square I missed something important.
I hope this is a chance to put that right.
It is 1919. The people of the British Empire have been fighting for… something… on multiple fronts in horrifying conditions with the full horror of mechanised war being rained down upon try them from every possible angle.
In Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific citizens of the British Empire of all races, creeds, religions and beliefs have stood shoulder to shoulder to defend a system that was designed in many cases to subdue the very people it now expected to take up arms in its defence.
Many of those people have come back to the British Isles, the motherland of the Empire seeking a fresh start and the promise of work.
It is eight days before violence erupts in George Square and there are two lines forming in the yard of the Mercantile Marine office on Glasgow’s James Watt Street.
There were a group of white sailors and a smaller group of black sailors who were predominantly from Sierra Leone, part of the massive Empire. Both groups have equal status as citizens of this Empire, at least legally speaking. The British Nationality Act which moved to marginalise the subjects of the empire wasn’t introduced until 1948.
All of these workers were British subjects.
But the echoes are the same. Union leaders who are remembered for their positive role in the introduction of the 40 hour work week - Manny Shinwell, Willie Gallagher - have been stoking tension with a ‘british jobs for british people’ rhetoric.
The speeches were challenged in the left wing press but the line rang true. The idea that people of colour were coming in and undercutting wages in order to get work was used to incite workers against each other.
Unions did their part to exacerbate this by campaigning for the introduction of a colour bar on black and chinese sailors to limit their membership, limit their wages and ultimately, stop them being employed on British ships at all.
Just hours after Shinwell has given a speech in this very yard, tensions boil over and a pitched battle breaks out with the crowd of white sailors vastly outnumbering the group of some 30 colonial sailors.
The group retreated to their accommodation down the street in the hope of gaining shelter. The frenzied crowd hurled bricks and bottles at the boarding house while in a desperate attempt to disperse the crowd, the sailors fired revolvers into the ground from the windows.
The police soon arrived and found that two people were suffering stab wounds, one black sailor and one white, while another member of the crowd had suffered a bullet wound thought to have been from a ricochet.
The braying crowd was dispersed and the two injured white people were taken to hospital. The injured black sailor, Thomas Carlin, was taken along with his 30 colleagues into protective custody.
They were immediately taken in front of magistrates and charged with riot and weapons offences. The peculiarity that these 30 black men who had fled from a racist attack were immediately put in front of a judge while there were no arrests from the attackers on the other side was not lost on their lawyer David Cook who noted it as ‘peculiar’ in his defence of the men.
101 years have passed and people still take to the streets to attack the rights of people of colour in this country... this country that we white people often try to kid ourselves is a utopia of freedom and acceptance.
Racism is a poison. We can do better. We must do better.
CREDITS
You’ve been listening to Scotland, it was written and produced by me, Michael Park and is a production of Be Quiet Media.
This episode draws significantly from the work of Zandra Yeaman and Lou Dear for the Coaliiton of Racial Equality and Rights. Support their work at CRER.SCOT.
The music for every episode of Scotland is by the human substitution cipher, Mitch Bain, you can check out more of his work by heading over to Facebook and searching for Mitch Bain music.
Jamie Mowat does stunning illustrations for us which you can see in our episode art. See more and buy prints at tidlin - t i d l i n - .com.
Scotland is supported by Chris Lingwood and listeners like you on Patreon. Get involved and chuck us a couple of bucks at: patreon.com/scotlandhistorypodcast
You can find out more about the show on our website, thisisscotland.co and on twitter, facebook and instagram by searching Scotland - Scottish History Podcast.
Thanks for listening, we’ll see you next time.