Obituaries: John Mulvey, former left-wing leader of Lothian Regional Council


John Mulvey died on 5 January in the care home where he had lived for almost four years. He had led Lothian Region for eight years, a period marked by political conflict.
John was born in Edinburgh in 1944. After his mum died when he was five, he lived with his Auntie Martha in Loganlea. His dad was a miner forced to retire after losing a leg, but who family legend had it was also involved in illegal activities as part of the struggle for Irish liberation.
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Hide AdJohn was a keen Scout as a boy, and it was scouting that gave him a taste for travel, a taste that never left him as he and his wife Lami backpacked around the world, but with a particular love for Latin America. John always felt that Latin America was the great hope for the future, a place where there was still a popular desire for a different economic system.
The desire to travel is what led to him heading off to kibbutz in 1965, and it was there he met Lami, who would quickly become the love of his life. Lami moved from Canada to Scotland in 1966 and they married in 1967 and became increasingly involved in left-wing politics, both national and international. They bought a flat in Easter Road, around the corner from the Hibs club. John and Lami would go on the have two sons, Laughlin and Gareth, the former who died tragically in 1986.
John completed a Community Education degree, first at Moray House in Edinburgh and then a postgrad in York in 1974. On returning to Edinburgh, he co-founded a community development organisation called Twin, which developed a reputation as a radical, democratic and inclusive experiment in community development.
John was selected to be Labour Councillor for Wester Hailes for the 1978 election, and he became one of six councillors who took a principled “no-cuts” stance in 1980, referred to as the Gang of Six by the media, and a “a caucus of militant Marxists” by future Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind. They argued for a planned socialist economy starting at the local level.
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Hide AdJohn saw the importance of local government, not as a stepping stone to parliament or a place to grift, but as an important source of power that could make the lives of working-class people better. This meant, for example, trying to ensure that schools in working-class areas got their ‘share’ of new teachers, and at a time when 40 per cent of people in Lothian did not have access to a car, ensuring that a publicly owned bus company provided subsidised fares. The Labour Group, on threat of personal imprisonment, split and subsequently lost their majority at the 1982 elections.
After this election, though, John was elected leader of the Labour Group and signified a major move to the left of the council as they fought against Thatcherite cuts. The Scotsman newspaper described John as the most radical left-wing council leader in British political history and predicted that he would last only a few months. It was eight years later that he resigned over the poll tax.
John had an ability to appeal to working-class communities by both convincing them of the need for socialism, but also by listening to them, not in the form of focus groups that became popular in New Labour, but in their own communities about their own concerns. Community and tenants’ groups became absolutely central to both how policies were made, but also to how attacks were resisted. John was active in support of the miners, and indeed throughout his adult life for any group of workers on strike.
International politics was also key. On one occasion there was a physical fight on the roof of the City Chambers as Tory councillors tried to stop the erection of an ANC flag, Mandela still at this point seen by the Tories as a terrorist.
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Hide AdThe victory at the 1986 elections was marked by the left turn of the council leadership. This wasn’t just a response to an unpopular Thatcher government, or indeed to a Tory-led local authority who were cutting services, though these things undoubtedly helped. What it said goes against the grain of current understanding of political behaviour, the idea that you can only win from the mythical centre. In 1986, and following Edinburgh in 1984, Labour won from the left. They got what would now be referred to as “the left behind” to come out and vote, and vote for a radical fighting council. At this time one newspaper referred to him as “the left-wing intellectual with the common touch”. While not blind at all to racism and sexism, class was for him the most significant division in society, and so the economic system that produces class oppression had to be dismantled. This was the principle that led John’s politics throughout, and it’s what led to him leaving a Labour Party he’d been a member of since the 1970s, but that had been entirely captured by the right. However, it was the poll tax that pushed John to leave electoral politics.
He was committed to a mass non-payment campaign and felt the Labour Party was too passive on this major political issue. Rather than leading the fight against it, they, John felt, passively let others fight. He also felt that it was untenable for a non-payer like him to be part of a council chasing people up for payment, and so he announced his decision to step down. He also became, we think, the first person in Scotland to have his bank account frozen for non-payment.
After electoral politics John spent the rest of his working life in organisations trying to fight poverty. This was also what led him to supporting Scottish independence. It was the chance to do things differently that was the drive, that and wanting a better place for his beloved grandkids to grow up in. Being a grandfather was one of the joys of John’s life and he wanted them to grow up in a society that had the possibility of change.
His other passion was Hibs, and he was a season ticket holder for around 40 years. He spoke at the Hands Off Hibs rally when the owner of Hearts tried to take Hibs over, and when that fight was eventually won, he was asked to be the fans’ rep on the board, which he never really enjoyed. He was much happier standing, or latterly sitting, with his mates. Nevertheless, his first game on the board was at Celtic Park, and when Celtic scored to go one up a small group of fans, his son included, started singing “Mulvey must go”, much to the confusion of many around them. There were numerous trips abroad to watch Hibs and he was there in 2016 when Hibs finally won the Scottish cup after a 114-year wait.
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Hide AdJohn didn’t worry much about his own future, and on getting his dementia diagnosis he said that there was not much point worrying about something you could do nothing about. Thankfully for those who loved him he took that calmness into this difficult stage of his life. He will be hugely missed by his wife of over 50-years Lami, his son Gareth, daughter-in-law Julia and his beloved grandkids Rudy, Angus and Jeanie as well as the many many people whose lives he touched.
Obituaries
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