Robert "Bobby" Lynn and his wife
Dublin Core
Title
Robert "Bobby" Lynn and his wife
Description
"Trawling through my digital shoebox I found this long forgotten photo of my old friend and comrade Robert 'Bobby' Lynn and, on his right, his wife Jean. It was clearly taken in the 'Barras' somewhere shortly before his death in 1996. Robert was immortalised in song by his close friend Matt McGinn, "Bobby Lynn's Shebeen" (an infamous Ross Street venue close to the Saracen's Head pub). Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the blonde lady on the left. This is my obituary for him in the Glasgow Herald:
Robert Lynn, anarchist; born Calton, Glasgow, 1924, died August 16, 1996, Glasgow
ROBERT Lynn has snuffed it. In the heart of Glasgow, the Calton - hundreds of people are genuinely mourning the loss of one of its best-loved sons.
Born in the Calton in the East End of Glasgow in 1924, Robert went on to be educated at St Mungo's Academy. Leaving school at 14 years of age he took up an engineering apprenticeship in the shipyards. As a class-conscious teenager he was swept up in the maelstrom of political activity of the war years in the British shipyard and engineering industries.
In 1943 the strike on Tyneside, which saw Jock Hasten and Roy Tearso imprisoned, quickly spread to the Clyde where many shipyards were brought to a halt. Robert worked in Yarrows as an apprentice and became actively involved in the struggle for better wages and conditions - a battle that had to be fought and refought in ensuing years.
During the Second World War the influential shop stewards' committees were dominated by the Communist Party, but their policy of subordinating the workers' interests to those of Soviet Russia drew a withering fire from anarchists, Trotskyists and non-Communist Party socialists alike. This experience had a profound effect on Robert and it was then he began to nurture the ideas of Bakunin and the industrial strategy of syndicalism.
In the post-war years Robert's influence in shipbuilding became increasingly irritating to both employers and communist-led union officials, so he was ``blacklisted'' with the approval of both sides. Unable to get work he joined the Merchant Navy as an engineering officer and spent some years seeing the world and its peoples. He devoured libraries and enveloped the beliefs of syndicalism and Stirnerism (Max Stirner's ``conscious egoist'').
Returning to Glasgow in the early fifties he threw himself into everything: politics, marriage and trade-union activity. He became an active member of the Glasgow Anarchist Group which consisted of Frank Leach, Jimmy Raeside and Eddie Shaw, who were already well-respected names in anarchist circles.
As the writer and academic anarchist George Woodcock asserted: ``The Glasgow Anarchist Group is the only group in the world where the egocentric philosophies of Max Stirner took root and were given popular expression.'' The anarchists held open workers' forums in Renfrew Street, Glasgow, where anarchists, Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB), nationalists, and Trotskyists regularly debated . . . sometimes physically.
Here, in an open-air arena, ordinary working-class men and women discussed passionately the ideas of Feurbach, Clara Zetkin, Bakunin, Kropotkin and many, many others. Robert Lynn revelled in this - what he called the University of Life.
In the late fifties, with the departure of Leach and Shaw abroad, the Glasgow Anarchist Group disintegrated and the reorganisation was left to Robert. This he did by immersing himself in his local community of the Calton where he and Jean, his constant companion, became well-known, well-respected and well-loved characters.
Robert went back to industry, working at Howden's engineering plant in the South Side of Glasgow where he promoted his ideas of syndicalism and libertarianism. Sadly, thanks to trade union officials who quickly recognised the threat to their power, Robert's views did not meet with any great success.
However, it was the Glasgow Anarchist Group of the early seventies which was to prove the most fruitful for Robert's ideas. There came a massive blossoming of literature and direct action which exploded on the scene. The publication of pamphlets such as Practical Anarchy and Why Vote? all bearing Robert's signature, appeared and were read avidly by many people who, disillusioned with political parties of all shades, were drawn to the ideas of anarchism.
A great number of events were initiated by Robert, especially the now traditional Glasgow Anarchist Summer School which attract libertarian socialists from all over Britain.
His death was a blow to his family, his many friends and comrades - and even to his political opponents. He was generous to a fault and although he did not suffer fools gladly he rarely had a bad word to say about anyone - even the worst of us. Robert is survived by Jean and daughters Jean, Joan and Betty"
Stuart Christie, September 2019
Robert Lynn, anarchist; born Calton, Glasgow, 1924, died August 16, 1996, Glasgow
ROBERT Lynn has snuffed it. In the heart of Glasgow, the Calton - hundreds of people are genuinely mourning the loss of one of its best-loved sons.
Born in the Calton in the East End of Glasgow in 1924, Robert went on to be educated at St Mungo's Academy. Leaving school at 14 years of age he took up an engineering apprenticeship in the shipyards. As a class-conscious teenager he was swept up in the maelstrom of political activity of the war years in the British shipyard and engineering industries.
In 1943 the strike on Tyneside, which saw Jock Hasten and Roy Tearso imprisoned, quickly spread to the Clyde where many shipyards were brought to a halt. Robert worked in Yarrows as an apprentice and became actively involved in the struggle for better wages and conditions - a battle that had to be fought and refought in ensuing years.
During the Second World War the influential shop stewards' committees were dominated by the Communist Party, but their policy of subordinating the workers' interests to those of Soviet Russia drew a withering fire from anarchists, Trotskyists and non-Communist Party socialists alike. This experience had a profound effect on Robert and it was then he began to nurture the ideas of Bakunin and the industrial strategy of syndicalism.
In the post-war years Robert's influence in shipbuilding became increasingly irritating to both employers and communist-led union officials, so he was ``blacklisted'' with the approval of both sides. Unable to get work he joined the Merchant Navy as an engineering officer and spent some years seeing the world and its peoples. He devoured libraries and enveloped the beliefs of syndicalism and Stirnerism (Max Stirner's ``conscious egoist'').
Returning to Glasgow in the early fifties he threw himself into everything: politics, marriage and trade-union activity. He became an active member of the Glasgow Anarchist Group which consisted of Frank Leach, Jimmy Raeside and Eddie Shaw, who were already well-respected names in anarchist circles.
As the writer and academic anarchist George Woodcock asserted: ``The Glasgow Anarchist Group is the only group in the world where the egocentric philosophies of Max Stirner took root and were given popular expression.'' The anarchists held open workers' forums in Renfrew Street, Glasgow, where anarchists, Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB), nationalists, and Trotskyists regularly debated . . . sometimes physically.
Here, in an open-air arena, ordinary working-class men and women discussed passionately the ideas of Feurbach, Clara Zetkin, Bakunin, Kropotkin and many, many others. Robert Lynn revelled in this - what he called the University of Life.
In the late fifties, with the departure of Leach and Shaw abroad, the Glasgow Anarchist Group disintegrated and the reorganisation was left to Robert. This he did by immersing himself in his local community of the Calton where he and Jean, his constant companion, became well-known, well-respected and well-loved characters.
Robert went back to industry, working at Howden's engineering plant in the South Side of Glasgow where he promoted his ideas of syndicalism and libertarianism. Sadly, thanks to trade union officials who quickly recognised the threat to their power, Robert's views did not meet with any great success.
However, it was the Glasgow Anarchist Group of the early seventies which was to prove the most fruitful for Robert's ideas. There came a massive blossoming of literature and direct action which exploded on the scene. The publication of pamphlets such as Practical Anarchy and Why Vote? all bearing Robert's signature, appeared and were read avidly by many people who, disillusioned with political parties of all shades, were drawn to the ideas of anarchism.
A great number of events were initiated by Robert, especially the now traditional Glasgow Anarchist Summer School which attract libertarian socialists from all over Britain.
His death was a blow to his family, his many friends and comrades - and even to his political opponents. He was generous to a fault and although he did not suffer fools gladly he rarely had a bad word to say about anyone - even the worst of us. Robert is survived by Jean and daughters Jean, Joan and Betty"
Stuart Christie, September 2019
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Stuart Christie, “Robert "Bobby" Lynn and his wife,” Stuart Christie Memorial Archive, accessed December 26, 2024, https://stuartchristie.maydayrooms.org/items/show/326.