UNITED IN THE ANTI-FASCIST FIGHT

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2020 :: RMTnews 22 The 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in May was, like everything else, overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis. Commemorations marking Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945 were largely muted in Britain and elsewhere due to Covid-19 and, amid the lockdown, the UK’s public holiday on May 8 this year sadly passed unnoticed by many. Yet through this gloom, a ray of sunshine emerged thanks to the online detective work of retired RMT regional organiser Peter Skelly, a well-known figure in our union. Inspired by the anniversary, Peter uncovered a long- forgotten pamphlet authored at the height of World War Two by J. H. Potts, president of the National Union of Railwaymen, the predecessor of today’s RMT. In 1942, after finishing his term of office as national president, the NUR sent Potts to the Soviet Union, Britain’s wartime ally, to report on the situation there. Potts travelled in deep midwinter on one of the legendary Arctic Convoys, British merchant navy ships which broke the fascist stranglehold preventing military and other essential supplies reaching the USSR. “During the night we not only ran into heavy seas, we also got amongst the ice fields,” he wrote. “The terrific noise of the ships breaking their way through is such that that any sleep is out of the question.” Naturally his ship faced a greater menace than mere ice. Potts continued: “We got clear of it by morning, and had our first scare from enemy surface craft. The convoy changed direction and by nightfall we had completely evaded them.” Having arrived safely Potts undertook a three month tour of Russia, travelling a staggering 10,000 miles and addressing countless meetings of rail workers along the way. On his voyage Potts reached as far as Novosibirsk in deepest Siberia – a city far closer to Mongolia than to Moscow. Famously, some 27 million Soviet citizens lost their lives in the war against Hitler. To this day, across all the republics of the former USSR, their sacrifice is solemnly marked every May with millions taking to the streets in mass rallies, many carrying photographs of relatives killed during the conflict. “Wherever I went in the Soviet Union it became clear and unmistakable that here were people with only one thought – T H E D E F E AT O F F A S C I S M - 7 5 Y E A R S UNITED IN THE ANTI-FASCIST FIGHT Chris Kasrils recounts the remarkable journey of NUR president J H Potts through the Soviet Union at the height of World War Two