1. Michael McGahey was a Scottish miners' leader and communist.
22 Facts About Mick McGahey
1. 2.
Mick McGahey had a distinctive gravelly voice, and described himself as "a product of my class and my movement".
3.
The family moved to Cambuslang in search of work, and it was here that Mick McGahey went to school.
4.
Mick McGahey started work at age 14 at the Gateside Colliery, and continued to work as a miner for the next 25 years.
5.
Mick McGahey followed his father into the Communist Party and the National Union of Mineworkers, remaining a member of both the Communist Party, until its dissolution in 1990, and the NUM, all his life.
6.
Mick McGahey became chairman of the local branch of his union when he was only eighteen and thereafter progressed through its echelons, though never quite reaching the national presidency.
7.
Mick McGahey was elected to the Scottish Executive of the NUM in 1958, becoming president of the Scottish area in 1967.
8.
Mick McGahey was regarded as a highly competent operator but his strongly militant line was opposed by others in the Union.
9.
Mick McGahey was defeated in the 1971 elections for National President by Joe Gormley.
10.
Mick McGahey was elected National Vice-president of the NUM in 1972.
11.
Mick McGahey made similar progress in the Communist Party of Great Britain, being elected to its Executive in 1971.
12.
Mick McGahey remained a member until the CPGB dissolved in 1991 and then joined its successor in Scotland, the Communist Party of Scotland.
13.
Mick McGahey came to the attention of the public during the miners strikes of 1972 and 1974.
14.
Mick McGahey later claimed these were purely industrial disputes, made political by Prime Minister, Edward Heath.
15.
Gormley, it was later claimed, postponed his own retirement until 1981, by which time Mick McGahey was over 55, too old by union rules to stand for president.
16.
Mick McGahey opposed the holding of a national ballot and favoured letting regions make their own decisions on whether to strike.
17.
Mick McGahey saw the appointment of Ian MacGregor as chair of the National Coal Board as a "declaration of war".
18.
James Cowan, then deputy chairman of the NCB, claims that Mick McGahey warned him to retire in 1983 and protect his health, as he feared that a "bloody" strike was inevitable with the appointment of Ian MacGregor and that there would be conflict between different regions in the NUM.
19.
Mick McGahey expressed regret on the use of violent picketing in Nottinghamshire and the divisions that this caused amongst mineworkers, saying:.
20.
Mick McGahey continuously insisted that the NUM find a way to reconcile with the Union of Democratic Mineworkers.
21.
Mick McGahey married Catherine Young in 1954 with whom he had two daughters and a son.
22.
Mick McGahey listed some of McGahey's sayings which were just as relevant today.