<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <allpages gapcontinue="Scottish_Anarchism" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="15" ns="0" title="Rita Milton">
        <revisions>
          <rev contentformat="text/x-wiki" contentmodel="wikitext" xml:space="preserve">'''Rita Milton, 1924–2011.'''

== Glasgow Born ==

Rita Milton, who has died aged 87, is remembered in Glasgow and London as a delightful anarchist with a brilliant sense of humour. She is still celebrated for her 1952 performance in a debate with the Marriage Guidance Council. Now called Relate, this is a well-intentioned group whose advisers help with relationships of all sorts. But in the debate with Rita, it was represented by a pair of censorious bigots, unashamed in their hatred of sex (outside marriage) and of “these people” who advocated freedom. Rita defeated them with a hilarious display of apparent misunderstanding, responding to their abuse with phoney innocent remarks like, “I thought a tart was something ye ate”.

Rita was born in Kelvinside, a middle-class district in Glasgow, on 31st. May 1924. She had three older brothers, one of whom fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil war, when he was 18. She went to school in Brodick on the Isle of Arran, delivered messages in Brodick, on a boys bike, at the age of 14, and was a shop assistant at 17, before being conscripted into the Women's Land Army.

== Glasgow and London Anarchists ==

In 1945 she met the Glasgow anarchists, and acted for a time as chairman of Sunday evening meetings addressed by Frank leech, Jimmy Raeside, and Eddie Shaw, with audiences of hundreds (there was no television in those days, and Glasgow pubs did not open on Sundays). In 1946 she moved to London and met Philip Sansom, an editor of War Commentary for Anarchism, which shortly afterwards reverted to its earlier name Freedom. At the time of her encounter with the Marriage Guidance people, she was Philip's companion, working with him at Express Printers, which was owned by Freedom Press. She was employed by two of Express Printers' commercial customers, as editor of Sewing Machine Times and production editor of The Journal of Sex education.

== Malatesta Club ==

In 1954 she was a founder member of the Malatesta Club, and it was there that she and Philip met Hew Warburg, an anarchist who had made a fortune supplying palettes for forklift trucks, made of otherwise useless scrap timber. The three shared a house for a short time, then Philip moved out to leave the field clear for Hew, a healthy and useful arrangement which would have appalled Rita's old antagonists. Rita and Hew married when their son, John Warburg was fifteen years old, enabling Rita to enjoy all the perquisites and privileges of a legally married widow, after Hew died in 1983.

== A Stroke ==

Later her health declined, but she remained a subscriber and donor to Freedom, in touch with her old friends, whom she entertained with frequent parties. Recently she suffered a stroke, which robbed her of the ability to read and made her tired of life. Resolute to the end, she hastened here death by refusing to eat. She died on December 17th. 2011.

This information was taken from an obituary published in [https://freedomnews.org.uk/ Freedom] Volume 73 February 2012.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20140722114306/http://www.gcu.ac.uk:80/radicalglasgow/ The book Radical Glasgow]

[http://radicalglasgow.me.uk Radical Glasgow website]</rev>
        </revisions>
      </page>
      <page pageid="13" ns="0" title="Robert (Bobby) Lynn">
        <revisions>
          <rev contentformat="text/x-wiki" contentmodel="wikitext" xml:space="preserve">'''Robert (Bobby) Lynn, 1924–1996'''

== Calton Born ==

''The Wee Man is Dead!'' Robert Lynn has snuffed it. In the heart of Glasgow ndash; the Calton &amp;ndash; hundreds of people are genuinely mourning the loss of one of its best loved sons. Born in the Calton in 1924 Robert cherubic-faced, curly haired small and dapper, generous and non-judgemental he was educated at St. Mungo's Academy. Leaving school at 14 years of age he took up an engineering apprenticeship in the Yarrows Shipyard on Clydeside. Already possessing an awareness of class consciousness he was swept up in the maelstrom of political activity which was occurring during the war years in British industry, mining, shipyard and engineering. Alaways disaffected by the Communist Party members' policy of subordinating workers' interests to those of Stalin's foreign policy, he looked elsewher for his ideas.

== Stirner-based Anarchism ==

Bobby began to explore the ideas of anarchist thinkers, among them Max Stirner (1806-56). Authoritarian socialist states justified themselves by advocating that only the state can bring about and guarantee the freedom of the people. Stirner however, argued that freedom was not an abstract end in itself. Freedom was simply the means to the real end of being in control over one's own actions. Stirner's “The Ego and His own” is a powerful critique of what he called “fixed ideas”, be they religious, rational, nationalist or idealogical. For Stirner all “ideas” needed to be treated simply as that-”ideas”- working hypotheses rather than ideologies. Ideologies always make hypocrites of us by denying our real, complex selves in the name of “fixed ideas”. In opposition to statism, both capitalist and communist, Stirner appeared to suggest a union of “egoists”, a sort of anarchist federalism. However, like most anarchists he was opposed to providing a blueprint for society. That was precisely what he was fighting against. Peter Kopotkin defined it thus: “It is impossible to legislate for the future. All we can do is to guess, vaguely, its essential tendencies and clear the road for it.” Robert Lynn interpreted this “union of egoists” literally as a workers' union, a way of organising freely within industry.

== First Strike and Blacklist ==

In 1943 the strike on Tyneside, which saw Jock Haston and Roy Tearso imprisoned, quickly spread to the Clyde where many shipyards were brought to a halt. Robert working as an apprentice in Yarrows became actively involved in the struggle to better the wages and conditions of his colleagues - a battle that had to be fought and refought in ensuing years. During the second world war the Communist Party dominated the influential shop stewards' committees but their policy of subordinating the workers' interests to those of Soviet Russia drew a withering fire from anarchists, Trotskyists and non-Communist Party socialists alike. This experience had a profound effect on Robert and it was then he began to nurture the beliefs of Bakunin and the industrial strategy of syndicalism. In the post-war years Robert's influence in shipbuilding became increasingly irritating to both employers and communist-led union officials, he was eventually &quot;blacklisted&quot; with the approval of both. Unable to get work he then joined the Merchant Navy as an engineering officer and spent some years seeing the world and its peoples. During this period he devoured libraries.

==The Glasgow Anarchist Group ==

Returning to Glasgow in the early fifties he threw himself into everything; politics, marriage and trade union activity. He became an active member of the Glasgow Anarchist Group which consisted of Frank Leach, Jimmy Raeside and Eddie Shaw, who were already well-respected names in anarchist circles. As George Woodcock expressed: The Glasgow Anarchist Group is the only group in the world where the egocentric philosophies of Max Stirner took root and were given popular expression. The anarchists held an open workers forum in Renfrew Street, Glasgow where anarchists, Socialist Party of great Britain. (SPGB), nationalists and Trotskyists debated - sometimes physically. In an open air arena ordinary working class men and women discussed passionately the ideas of Feurbuch, Clara Zetkin, Bakunin, Kropotkin and many, many others. Robert Lynn revelled in this, what he called the University of Life. In the late fifties, with the death of Leach and the departure of Raeside and Shaw abroad, the Glasgow Anarchist Group disintegrated and the task of reorganisation was left to Robert. This he did by immersing himself in his local community of the Calton. He and Jean, his constant companion, became well-known, well-respected and to many, well-loved characters. Robert again went back to industry and worked at Howden's engineering plant in the south side of Glasgow. There he promoted his ideas of syndicalism and libertarianism. Sadly, thanks to trade union officials who immediately recognised the threat to their power, Robert's views did not meet with any great success. However it was the Glasgow Anarchist Group of the early seventies which was to prove the most fruitful for Robert's ideas. There became a massive blossoming of literature and direct action which exploded on the scene. The publication of booklets such as Practical Anarchy and Why Vote?, all bearing Robert's signature, appeared and were avidly read by many people who, being disillusioned with political parties of all shades, were becoming attracted to the ideas of anarchism. A great number of events were initiated by Robert especially the Glasgow Anarchist Summer School which is now becoming a tradition that attracts libertarian socialists from all over Britain. For a considerable time Robert (Bobby) Lynn held regular meetings of the Glasgow Anarchist group at 4 Ross Street Calton Glasgow. A “single-end” derelict ground floor flat just off the Gallowgate near the Barrows. His death on August 16th, was a blow to his family, his many friends and comrades, and even also to his political opponents. He was generous to a fault and although he did not suffer fools gladly he rarely had a bad word to say about anyone, even the worst of us. Robert is survived by Jean and daughters Jean, Joan and Betty.

== Sources ==

This material was lifted from [https://libcom.org/library/the-wee-man-is-dead-an-obituary-of-robert-lynn Libcom].

[https://www.akpress.org/grannymademeananarchist.html Granny made me an anachist] By Stuart Christie. 

----

Posted by John Couzin

[https://web.archive.org/web/20140722114306/http://www.gcu.ac.uk:80/radicalglasgow/ The book Radical Glasgow]

[http://radicalglasgow.me.uk Radical Glasgow website]</rev>
        </revisions>
      </page>
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>