In 1970, a group of young radicals in Edinburgh met the veteran revolutionary worker Jim Charleson and presciently recorded his memories of life in Scotland, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, North America and Australasia. Born in Leith, Charleson had laboured on railways, docks and ships throughout the world, and gave an enthralling vernacular Scots account of strikes and political disputes from the unusual perspective of a dissident rank-and-file worker.
Charleson's memories are significant not only because of his repeated rebellions and consistent international principles, but also because he contested the prevailing tendencies of white labourism in the trade union movement and the increasing Stalinism of the interwar radical left. In mid-1920s Cape Town, he joined the international seafarers' strike and supported local Black workers. In late-1920s New York, he played an important part in the Maritime Workers Industrial Union and the early Trotskyist Left Opposition. In 1930s Ukraine, he experienced life under Soviet rule first-hand, before returning to Leith, where he played a significant role in several small Trotskyist groups. Charleson died in 1972, but his memoirs offer compelling insights into former working-class dreams of world revolution.