Ethel MacDonald (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Ethel MacDonald (24 February 1909—1 December 1960) was a Glasgow-based Scottish anarchist and activist and, in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, a propagandist on Barcelona Loyalist radio.
Early years
editA native of North Lanarkshire[1][2][note 1], Ethel MacDonald, the fifth of nine children[1], left home at sixteen, joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP)[3] and worked at various jobs. In 1925[2] she met Guy Aldred and, with him, became politically active in the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF). In 1933 she accepted his invitation to work as his secretary,[4] and joined him in the June 1934[5] formation of the United Socialist Movement (USM).
Spanish Civil War
editIn November 1936[6] MacDonald travelled to Barcelona with Guy Aldred's partner, Jenny Patrick, to represent and show the support of the Scottish anarchist movement for the Republican (Loyalist) side in the Spanish Civil War.
Broadcasting for the CNT/FAI
edit| “ | A prominent news editor in Hollywood says that he has received hundreds of letters ... the writers, in all parts of the USA and Canada, enjoyed her announcements and talks from Barcelona radio, not because they agreed with what she said, but because they thought she had the finest radio speaking voice they had ever heard. | ” |
| — Glasgow Herald[7] | ||
In January 1937[8] she began to transmit regular English-language reports on the war on Barcelona's widely-heard Anarchist radio station run by the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) [National Workers Confederation]. Her broadcasts were praised by listeners in Spain and abroad.[7]
Barcelona May Days
edit...
Prisoner-aid and arrests
editIn the crackdown following the events of May 1937 as many as 3,500 anarchists were imprisoned in Catalonia.[9] MacDonald assisted the escape of anarchists wanted by the Communist secret police and smuggled into prison letters and food for fellow anarchists held by regional authorities.[10] Through her activities in helping anarchists escape Spain, she became renowned in the British press as the "Scots Scarlet Pimpernel".[10] Between July and November 1937, she was a national figure in the newspapers, with daily reports and inquiries as to her whereabouts and activities. Eventually she herself was arrested by a faction of the Loyalist forces, but later released. She returned to Glasgow that November, following speaking engagements in France and Amsterdam.[11]
Letter written by George Kopp to Eileen Blair, 8 July 1937, published in "Orwell in Spain": "I have written you two letters c/o Laurence O'Shaughnessy but am not sure the second one reached you because Ethel MacDonald has been arrested and part of the mail she was in charge of had to be destroyed; it is not known if my letter was in that case."[12]
"MacDonald was eventually captured and imprisoned on several occasions, firstly for failing to renew her residence permit, then, just days her release, for 'visiting, harbouring and associating with counter-revolutionary aliens'."[13]
Later years
editAfter her return from Spain, Ethel MacDonald worked closely with Guy Aldred, Jenny Patrick, John Taylor Caldwell and other Glasgow anarchists on a shoestring publishing enterprise, The Strickland Press, which published regular issues of the USM organ, The Word. They continued their activities through World War II and the 1950s peace movement, with MacDonald considered as the unofficial manager, bookkeeper and printer of the Strickland Press.
Ethel MacDonald was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in February 1958 and lost her ability to speak. Within three years she died in Glasgow's Knightswood Hospital at the age of 51.
References
editNotes
edit- ^ Dolan states Motherwell, the Evening Times and Gray state Bellshill.
Footnotes
edit- ^ a b Dolan 2009, p. 7
- ^ a b Gray 2008, p. 168
- ^ Dolan 2009, p. 33
- ^ Dolan 2009, p. 50
- ^ Dolan 2009, p. 47
- ^ Gray 2008, p. 167
- ^ a b Gray 2008, p. 171
- ^ Gray 2008, p. 169
- ^ Dolan 2009, p. 154
- ^ a b Gray 2008, pp. 171–172
- ^ Gray 2008, p. 176
- ^ Orwell 2001, pp. 225–227
- ^ Gray 2008, p. 172
Sources
edit- Caldwell, John Taylor (1988). Come dungeons dark: the life and times of Guy Aldred, Glasgow anarchist. Edinburgh: Luath Press. ISBN 0-946487-19-7.
- Caldwell, John Taylor (1999). With fate conspire: memoirs of a Glasgow seafarer and anarchist. Bradford: Northern Herald. ISBN 0-9523167-1-4.
- Hodgart, Rhona M. Ethel MacDonald: Glasgow Woman Anarchist. Kate Sharpley Library. ISBN 1-873605-28-5.
- Dolan, Chris (2009). An anarchist's story: the life of Ethel MacDonald. Birlinn. ISBN 978-1-84158-685-4.
- Gray, Daniel (2008). Homage to Caledonia. Luath Press. ISBN 978-1-906817-16-9.
- Orwell, George (2001). Peter Davison (ed.). Orwell in Spain. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-141-18516-3.
External links
edit- Biography by John Couzin: "Life story of one of Glasgow's women anarchists that I feel very strongly is worth remembering."
- The Volunteer Ban - speech given by Ethel MacDonald on Radio Barcelona and subsequently published in Regeneración (1937).
- Ethel MacDonald - An Anarchist Story by Mark Littlewood