Mary Barbour ‘stars’ in Gala Concert

This is the original release that led to the story re the Gala concert appearing in The Herald recently - here, and also in Pat's Guide to the West End, here. Thanks to both. The tickets are now on sale from the Concert Halls box office - see link below.

A major Gala Concert has been announced to raise funds to create the statue of 1915 Rent Strike leader, and political activist, Mary Barbour.


The concert, which is scheduled for 21 February in Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket, will feature some of Scotland’s leading performers in a great night of entertainment, song and music. Names are to be announced in the New Year.
 

Maria Fyfe

Maria Fyfe, Chair of the Remember Mary Barbour Association said. “We’ve planned this major concert to celebrate Mary’s life and work. It is part of our continuing campaign to create an appropriate tribute to one of Glasgow’s greatest heroes. Following the unveiling of the five statue maquettes, we are busy circulating them, ensuring as many people as possible get the chance to have their say. They’ll be on show at the concert.

“We have been fundraising for just over a year now and are more than halfway to our target of £110,000. So we’ve asked Fairpley to put together this concert. It will be simultaneously a major method of raising the funds to fill the gap, a huge public display of support for this project and, of course, a great night out!”

Mary Barbour led the successful rent strike of 1915 and went on to play a leading role in the labour movement as a Glasgow Councillor and energetic social reformer. Following an extensive campaign to have her contribution recognised, five sculptors were shortlisted to create a statue of her to be placed in her community of Govan. So far each has created a maquette of a proposed statue . These were unveiled in November and are being toured across Glasgow from then until February. See them on the Facebook page here.

Details of the Gala Concert are as follows

Remember Mary Barbour – Gala Concert , Sunday 21 February, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 7.30pm, Tickets: £25, from the Glasgow Concert Halls box office. http://www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/Pages/home.aspx#  0141 353 8000. For further information  - www. remembermarybarbour.com/ and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RememberMaryBarbour/

 

Mrs Barbour’s Army – 100 years on!

As we approach November 17 – the centenary of the day the court case against 18 Glasgow women on Rent Strike was dropped – it is probably not surprising that the amount of references to Mary Barbour, and in particular the proposed statue to commemorate the activist, campaigner and politician, are likely to increase dramatically.

Mary Barbour

The Scottish Morning Star ‘Our Class, Our Culture’ series of events starts the feature tomorrow (3 November) – with a talk by Maria Fyfe on Rent Strikes and Red Clydeside. The former Labour MP for Maryhill is now Chair of the Remember Mary Barbour Association and will no doubt be keen to bring everyone up to speed on the status of the statue project as well as bringing out some of the important advances that Mary contributed. This is at the STUC centre at 7.00pm. Details here.

Hopefully the woefully small number of prominent women marked by  statues in Glasgow (three at the last count) will soon be increased!

The AJ Taudevin play, Mrs Barber’s Daughters, first performed at A

Mrs Barbour's Daughters. Photo - Leslie Black

Play, a Pie and a Pint, at Oran Mor in 2014, has a fresh outing at the Tron this week. From the 4 -7 Nov this short play, incorporating worker, protest and popular songs from the last 100 years, will update the history and point to lessons for today.  7.45pm each night – details here.

And watch out on the 17 itself, for the latest steps in the statue saga!

Rent strikers' centenary marks MayDay celebrations

100 years after the success of the Glasgow Rent strikers' in changing the law, their struggles are taking centre stage amongst the range of events announced around this year's MayDay celebrations. 

The First World War women's fight against the exploitative attempts by private landlords to hike up rents came to an end after court cases against 18 rent strikers were abandoned in 1915 and the law was changed by the enactment of the Rent Restriction Act. Glasgow Film Theatre is marking the centenary by showing the 1984 film on the struggle - Red Skirts on Clydeside - on Saturday 2 May. The film will be introduced by Maria Fyfe, former MP for Maryhill and chair of the Remember Mary Barbour Association. Maria said. "As we look forward to a tangible memorial for the rent strikers with a statue of Mary Barbour, it is good to be able to say how much we have managed to move the recognition fight on since the film was made."

In addition, a walk organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD), will

Rent Strike demo

visit the old court were the case was due to be heard, the prison in which many women were held and sites of many of the demonstrations and rallies. 'Women, the War and the Rent strikes' will take place on Saturday 25 April. Chris Bartter, Chair of GFoMD said "The women involved in the rent strikes were often also involved in the peace campaigns and before that in the struggles for women's suffrage. Their lives are an example to today's activists, and it makes a good walk!"

The two events are just part of the programme launched to mark the International Workers' Festival in Glasgow and around. Other events include a Clarion Cycle Club ride out and a Love Music, Hate Racism Gig - both on May 1 - afternoon and evening respectively. The now-famous Great MayDay Cabaret will again be in Oran Mor on the 4 May - this year it stars Tommy Sands - and a short tour of John and Willy Maley's play - From The Calton to Catalonia - starts on the 1 May in the Calton starring, well-known Scottish actor, Gary Lewis. The full programme is available from the Friends of MayDay website - may1st.org.uk.

Tickets for the GFT film go on sale on 23 April at £5 from http://www.glasgowfilm.org/ Signing up for the walk costs £7.50, contact Chris Bartter on 07715 583 729.

 

Tickets for both The (Third) Great Mayday Cabaret and the May 3 performance of From the Calton to Catalonia are available from Oran Mor (over the bar) or via their website - http://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/ (booking fee). Tickets for other performances of From the Calton to Catalonia see the FairPley website at http://www.fairpley.com/

Gary Lewis and Tommy Sands lead Glasgow's MayDay festivities.

--> MayDay festivals have been celebrated since pre-Christian times. Earliest celebrations marked the beginning of summer and linked to many pagan festivals including the Gaelic Beltane. In 1891 MayDay was formally adopted as International Workers Day – primarily to mark the anniversary of the 1886 Chicago Haymarket Massacre, when four strikers were killed when police opened fire on a demonstration after a bomb was thrown. 

Despite the gravity of this event, and maybe because of earlier festival links, the celebratory side of International Workers’ Day is longstanding and international, especially in Glasgow. The story of labour in the west of Scotland is peppered with cultural input – choirs from the Orpheus to the Eurydice, theatre from the Glasgow Workers’ Theatre to 7:84 and Wildcat, Glasgow Trades Council even once ran a film society! This is the background to the increasing range of activities now being organised in the city by a range of TU, campaigning and labour organisations.

The now hugely successful Great MayDay Cabaret, organised by Glasgow Friends of MayDay (GFoMD), celebrates its third anniversary at Oran Mor on the Mayday Monday (4) evening. This year’s headliner is celebrated Irish singer and peace activist , Tommy Sands. Also performing are poet Elvis McGonagall, actress Juliet Cadzow, comedians Bruce Morton and Susie McCabe, and singers Arthur Johnstone and Siobhan Miller. Dave Anderson comperes.


In addition, Glasgow-based film actor Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot, Gangs of New York) stars in a specially commissioned rehearsed reading of John and Willy Maley’s play – From the Calton to Catalonia – republished last year by Calton Books. This play about their father’s experiences in the International Brigades launches, appropriately enough, in the Calton, then goes on a small tour during the period including Irvine’s Harbour Arts centre (2) and Oran Mor (3).

Chris Bartter, Chair of Glasgow Friends of Mayday said “This year’s celebrations have moved up a gear. Many more organisations and people are planning events and we are delighted that we’re able to add a theatre performance to the already successful Cabaret.”

Trade Union Councils throughout Scotland continue to organise MayDay marches and rallies on the Mayday Weekend (Sat and Sun 2/3 May). Plans and speakers are still being finalised.

An interesting project run by Glasgow Museums and Glasgow University plans to get trade union and campaign banners out of museum storage and into local communities, where people with a connection to the struggle will tell their story. One is scheduled in Glasgow’s Castlemilk on the afternoon of May 1 with banners from the local Anti-Poll Tax Union, and the Tailors’ and Garment Workers’ Union. Similar events are planned in Barmulloch and Govan later.

Love Music, Hate Racism have organised a gig in Glasgow’s Stereo on the evening of May 1 and are also showing the film, The Clash: Westway to the World on Sunday 10 May at the CCA.

Other film showings, include the third in a series of film showings at the CCA organised by a local GMB Branch. Linking International Workers’ Memorial Day (28 April) with MayDay, they are showing Ken Loach’s The Navigators on April 30.

A new MayDay tradition of walks through Glasgow’s heritage continues, with the Friends of MayDay organising a Women, War and Rent Strike walk on Saturday April 25. And the Glasgow Women’s Library has one of its Women of the Merchant City walks two weeks later (9 May).

Of course established venues often have relevant events – most obviously The Tron’s Mayfesto festival – an important part of which will be Rites, a powerful NToS and Scottish Refugee Council-backed piece by Cora Bissett on female genital mutilation. David MacLennan’s legacy– A Play, a Pie and a Pint- also serves up The War hasn’t Started Yet – a view from modern Russia from May 4–9.

Amongst a number of talks and discussions, the ever-interesting Morning Star Our Class, Our Culture series has an intriguing presentation by John Quinn of Glasgow School of Art – Portraying the Heroes of Red Clydeside in the STUC on 5 May. 

The festival events in Glasgow take place in the weeks before and after the MayDay weekend (this year Sat 2 – Mon 4) and are organised by a wide variety of trade union, cultural and campaigning bodies.

Tickets for both The (Third) Great Mayday Cabaret (4 May) and From the Calton to Catalonia on the 3 May are available from Oran Mor (over the bar) or via their website - http://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/ (booking fee).

(Currently the OM website is being revamped, so tickets for the cabaret on line are available from ticketweb here - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/great-may-day-cabaret-tickets/163277. And the OM performance of From the Calton to Catalonia, here - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/from-the-calton-to-catalonia-tickets/167595).

The full 2015 programme is due to be published early in April. It will be available on http://may1st.org.uk as well as Oran Mor, the STUC, trade unions and other outlets.