The union shared an office with the WPS on Hill Street,Garnethill. Glasgow. This was essentially a printers ( Poenix Press )
I loved the name.. The office always looked like a tornado had swept through, situated in the back was a library and the computer. Matt had a top of the range printing machine, the party produced the People's Voice paper. However it could not print the membership cards, they had to be printed secretly by the Coop, not that the management knew anything about it. I recall the Herald at the time, running a story regarding Matt and his famous machine, he had applied for a government loan ( there is more than one way to skin a cat ) It's well worth pointing out that some wonderful posters were produced... During the campaign we printed many, one that made the news ,was a Wanted Dead or Alive with Jack Woods gob.. thanks Linda. Matt would work long long hours, he was fastidious, at times working through the night. One of my brothers Stephen worked with Matt. I recall a story from HMP Peterhead, Matt was a class A prisoner for Nine years out of a total of Twelve....I think. He had a job in the prison tailor shop, he soon however ran into difficulties with the Authority, or to be more precise the Authority soon ran into difficulties with him. He believed strongly that the work you produce should contain an Aesthetic value.. in much the same way as a painter stands back, and admires the finished article, he advocated that work was an extension of the individual worker, and the dominance of Quality over Quantity. Anyway they had basically ordered him to produce more at the expense of Quality, he flatly refused to compromise.
Class A prisoners are ordered to strip outside the cell each night, they sleep with the lights full on. When they had reduced his category to Class B they suddenly switch the lights off... Matt recalled that first night as being hellish, he asked for the light to be switched back on.
More to follow..... Isn't life exciting