Tam McFall was an outstanding fighter for the working class, a deeply committed socialist and internationalist, a great supporter of the journal, The Socialist Correspondent, and a fine advocate for peace and many progressive causes. Tam's passing is a great loss to the working-class movement.

He was born and brought up in Parkhead, a poor working-class neighbourhood in the east end of Glasgow and he experienced difficult times in the immediate post-war period. The east end of Glasgow was an area where you had to stand up for yourself, often physically, and as the saying goes, “you had to watch your back”. He was best pals with Thomas Watson, they were known as the “Two T’s”, and they got into many scrapes with them ending up in borstal.

Tam later met Jessie Bradley and soon they were married. They moved into their first place together in Bridgeton, also in the east end, and Jessie helped stabilise his life. Tam found steady employment, labouring on building sites for Glasgow City Council and with the arrival of their daughter, Liz, Tam’s responsibilities grew. Two other children, Charles and Thomas, followed.

Tam learned to use every bad experience he had had in his young life as a lesson. That, along with his extensive reading led him to the Communist Party and into becoming a working-class leader.

I was introduced to Tam in the mid-1970s by Willie Kennedy, a close friend and comrade of mine, who was a leading shop steward in the steel industry before its closure and then Convenor of shop stewards at the Albion Motor Works in Glasgow. He and Tam were the leading members of the Shettleston branch of the Communist Party.

I used to speak at the Shettleston branch and got to know, and work with, several of the comrades very well. These included Jim Smith, who died at a young age of asbestosis caused by his work as a lagger/pipe fitter working with red lead. His family, after a fight, managed to get asbestosis as the cause of his death on his death certificate. Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to any compensation. Another comrade still with us is Pat McDonagh, who worked closely with Tam in many industrial struggles and who became the key organiser of numerous cultural events in Glasgow’s east end as part of the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s 1990 Sechaba Conference and Festival: Cultural resistance against apartheid.

Tam and I worked together on many issues for over forty years. We used to meet regularly after work when we would discuss the political situation, actions that should be taken and what we could personally do. Tam understood very well that the root problem facing the working class was capitalism and from that basic understanding he embarked on a life of learning and struggle. He regularly attended political education schools. Although he had not benefited much from formal education, he took to these education schools and contributed much to the discussions through his life experience and his book-reading.

His political understanding grew and this deepened his attributes as a leader. He was held in great esteem by his fellow workers and became Convenor of shop stewards in Glasgow Council’s Direct Labour Organisation (DLO). He was principled, a tough negotiator and fought tirelessly in defence of his fellow workers’ rights and struggles for better wages and conditions.

During the miner’s strike of 1985-86 Tam did a phenomenal amount of work. This included fund-raising, joining picket lines, providing food for miner’s families and speaking at many meetings in their support. His class consciousness meant that he understood that the struggle of the miners and their communities was an important struggle for the whole working class. He also understood that it was a political struggle with the capitalist state led by Prime Minister Thatcher who mobilised the whole apparatus of the capitalist state machine to defeat the miners.

Tam also worked in the community and was instrumental in making many positive things happen including the Rock for Jobs event featuring the band, Scheme, one of whose band members was John Smith, brother of Jim Smith who, as mentioned earlier, had died of asbestosis. Scheme’s music and lyrics were strongly influenced by Tam. Scheme also played to sell-out concerts in the Kelvin Hall and Apollo, large venues in Glasgow, in aid of the miners. Tam took part in the Peoples March for Jobs in 1981 and was one of the platform speakers when it reached London.

He was extremely active in his working-class community over the years including leading the campaign for Kinship Carers’ rights. Tam and Jessie had taken on the full-time care of their son Thomas’ daughter, as Thomas had a drug addiction, an unfortunately all too common problem in working-class communities, especially in Glasgow. Tam got involved with a group of grandparents, who were not receiving any financial support from the state. As Tam’s daughter, Liz, commented, “Some of these grandparents were living in poverty due to raising several kids but whilst my parents didn’t have the same financial pressures, Dad, being Dad, created and led a committee of these grandparents to campaign on the issue. It was a long, tough journey, but they were persistent and finally won the financial support which these families deserved.” The campaign which led to a change in legislation helped thousands of kinship carers and their families.

Tam was also a great internationalist. He understood that the struggle of the working class in Britain is linked to the struggles of the working class world-wide. This led to him reading and studying more. However, it wasn’t just reading that deepened Tam’s understanding of the world as he also travelled extensively and for lengthy periods. These trips included driving his family on long holidays throughout Europe. This was possible because Tam saved up his holiday entitlement and Jessie worked as a catering manager in a school, so she only worked during term-time. One year Tam decided that the best rehabilitation programme for his son, who suffered from drug addiction, was for him and Thomas to travel to India and explore it for six weeks. When they returned Thomas was drug-free but, unfortunately, this was short lived.

Tam’s reading and political education, enhanced by his travels, led to him and Jessie becoming involved in many international issues. One example of Tam’s internationalist commitment that I remember very well was when the United States bombed Libya in 1986. Tam and I met and agreed that something needed to be done urgently. Many organisations are slow to respond partly because decisions need to go through committees which takes time.

So, we agreed that, given my position as Vice-Chair of the Scottish Council of Liberation (formerly the Movement for Colonial Freedom), I was in a good position to initiate the calling of a demonstration in protest. I quickly consulted with the other officers of Liberation, and with their agreement contacted various organisations including CND, trade unions, the Indian Workers Association and the Pakistani Peoples Party in Glasgow to inform them about the proposed demonstration and sought their support.

Tam and I then worked together to organise the demonstration with Tam getting trade unions and shop stewards committees to attend and organising posters, banners and stewards whilst I worked to get the other organisations to mobilise their supporters and provide speakers. I also liaised with the police, who were not happy about the demonstration being called at such short notice. The demonstration assembled a few days later in Blythswood Square and marched to a rally in Glasgow’s City Halls. It was a fantastic demo and the rally was addressed by a wide range of speakers from an array of different organisations. From the platform it was great to see the City Halls filled to capacity with several thousand people attending. This showed the strength of feeling, especially since it had been called at such short notice. The opposition to the bombing of Libya had resonated with the feelings of masses of people.

I had been a bit sceptical that we could do this successfully at such short notice but Tam, in his inimitable way, insisted that we should do it as it was necessary and that we could make it happen. This kind of determination was another outstanding attribute of Tam.

Tam and Jessie were activists in the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) and led the AAM's Glasgow East Group when I was Chair of the AAM’s Scottish Committee. The boycott of apartheid South Africa included activities such as local groups picketing shops stocking Apartheid South African foods. Other activities included organising solidarity events with the African National Congress. The AAM Glasgow East Group held a very successful Burns Supper in solidarity with the struggle of the people of South Africa at which I delivered the Toast to the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns. Burns Suppers involve a great deal of work – hiring a hall, arranging speakers for the various items, getting an attendance and then preparing the haggis, neeps and tatties and other food. The success of the event was largely due to the work of Tam and Jessie as was obvious on the night.

Memorably, Jessie was one of the 25 Mandela Marchers (one for each year of Nelson Mandela’s incarceration at that point in 1988) who marched to London from Glasgow after a demonstration and rally in Glasgow Green, addressed by African National Congress leader O.R. Tambo, calling for the release of Nelson Mandela. The marchers, including Jessie, were on stage at the 30,000 strong rally in Glasgow Green, after which they set off to walk to London. One month later the marchers were greeted on-stage at the rally in Hyde Park attended by some 250,000 people. Jessie was an unassuming woman, but she was a dedicated activist for good causes at the same time as working and being a mother and bringing up a family. It would not have been easy.

It was a wonderful day for us when Nelson Mandela, having spent 27 years in prison, came to Glasgow on 9 October 1993 to receive the Freedoms of 9 UK cities and a huge rally was held in George Square to greet him. The following year Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa bringing apartheid, ‘that crime against humanity’, to an end.

I am only sorry that Tam and Jessie, who died in 2024, will not be there to see the unveiling of Nelson Mandela’s statue in Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow, organised by the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation on 9 October this year, the anniversary of Mandela’s visit to the city.

Tam as a member of the Communist Party (CPGB) was firmly opposed to the reformist policies and actions of the Eurocommunists and opportunists who led the Party. These people were eventually successful in dissolving the Communist Party in 1990. On a wider scale, Tam and I agreed that the defeat of the Soviet Union would lead to a more dangerous world and, unfortunately, so it has proved. With the dissolution of the Communist Party and the defeat of the Soviet Union Tam did not abandon his socialist principles but continued to work politically including supporting the journals, Straight Left, and later, The Socialist Correspondent.

Shortly before his death I talked to Tam and, although he was very ill and largely bed-ridden, he was concerned about the increasing dangers of war. Our conversation took place during the Israeli genocide in Gaza but prior to the latest US/Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon. Tam talked scathingly about Britain’s complicity in Israeli war crimes but he also talked positively about the world-wide opposition to US imperialism.

Tam was a great family man and so it was good that he managed to join his large extended family including his daughter, Liz, and son, Charles as well as his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren for dinner on Xmas Day 2025 before passing away next day.