International Brigade Memorial Trust
Members of the Scottish Parliament are supporting a motion paying tribute to the anti-fascists in Aberdeen who 90 years ago on 25 September 1935 closed down a meeting organised by the British Union of Fascists in the city’s Music Hall (pictured).
Among the leaders of the action was Bob Cooney, who later joined the International Brigades in Spain and became a political commissar in the British Battalion. His account of the event, which saw hundreds of anti-fascists disrupt and break up the BUF public meeting, appears in his autobiography ‘Proud Journey: A Spanish Civil War Memoir’.
Tabled by Mercedes Villalba, Labour MSP for North East Scotland, the motion in the Edinburgh parliament ‘commends the work of the friends and supporters of the International Brigade Memorial Trust and of the Aberdeen Trades Union Council in marking this anniversary and in continuing what it sees as challenging fascism, nationalism and racism today’.
Among signatories of the Holyrood motion are MSPs Karen Adam, Alasdair Allan, Bill Kidd, Fulton MacGregor, Stuart McMillan, Kevin Stewart and Humza Yousaf of the Scottish National Party and Labour’s Paul Sweeney.
The full text is:
That the Parliament recognises that 25 September 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of what it considers was the defeat of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) by people and workers of Aberdeen, when, it believes, their direct action drove the BUF out of the Granite City; understands that the fascist rally at Aberdeen Music Hall on 25 September 1935 was disrupted by over 360 residents, led by socialists, communists and trade unionists, who stopped the BUF Director of Policy from speaking and forced the BUF to abandon the meeting; pays tribute to the people of Aberdeen who, it believes, through direct action, and clearly, peacefully and democratically, prevented the fascists from spreading hate and division; stands in solidarity with all those targeted by racist and fascist speech and actions, and in unity with people from all backgrounds, nations and faiths, and commends the work of the Friends and Supporters of the International Brigade Memorial Trust and of the Aberdeen Trades Union Council in marking this anniversary and in continuing what it sees as challenging fascism, nationalism and racism today.
