Cadre

Chapter three examines Reid’s elevation in the Party. When he finished his national service, Reid became a full-time officer of the YCL which entailed a move from Govan to London. From the provincial working-class culture of Govan he found himself rubbing shoulders with the metropolitan elite which include Michael Foot, Claude Cockburn, James Cameron and others. The first test of his commitment to the party came with the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. The event provoked high profile resignations of some leading Marxist historians, such as EP Thompson and Christopher Hill, but was not enough to shake Reid’s belief in the party and its leadership; indeed, it strengthened it. The chapter also deals with Reid’s domestic life in London as he married in 1958 and became a father soon after. A full-time official’s salary was too meagre to raise a family forcing Reid to resigned his post and return to Glasgow.