Rowland Sheret

6th March 1945 – 30th March 2008  

Rowland Sheret, a life long Socialist, political activist, trade unionist and community campaigner died at his home in Stirling on Sunday 30th March 2008.  Rowland was born in Durham, went to school in Montrose but came to Stirling with his parents in 1961 aged 16 and worked for 35 years in the United Glass factory in Stirling. 

Rowland joined the Labour Party Young Socialist’s then the Labour Party whose Stirling Branches he helped organise. The experience of the Wilson Government and the Vietnam war and voracious reading brought Rowland to Marxism and Trotskyism and he became a seller of Black Dwarf and joined the International Marxist Group and the Fourth International with Tariq Ali around 1970. Rowland was elected to the central committee of the IMG in 1973 and served in the leadership of various political parties and movements over the years - International Socialist Group, Scottish Socialist Movement, Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity to name a few – suffice it to say he remained arguing his political stance throughout his life. He was also an advocate of Scottish Independence and a Socialist Scotland. Some of his earliest writings were around a Scottish Workers Republic and John Maclean.  

At the same time Rowland was involved in Trade Union activities. He established the ACTS union in United Glass and remained a branch official for many years and was also active at a Scottish level within the T&GWU. He also promoted trade union cooperation at a local level, as chair of Stirling and District Trades council and through this vehicle was involved for decades in every industrial dispute and community campaign in central Scotland. Rowland became that rare individual, a political activist and strategist whose experience was firmly grounded in the trade union and community movements. 

In 1973, following the tragic death of a child brought on by council neglect, Rowland was approached in the Raploch where he lived. He had been  mistaken for the local councillor as he wore a suit and gave out leaflets. Rowland launched a campaign to improve housing and amenities in the Raploch. This led to setting up the Raploch Tenants Action Committee which Rowland initially chaired. Housing remained one of Rowland’s deep interests and many credit him with the improvements and extension of council housing in Stirling over the years. Most recently he helped organise and campaign successfully  for a vote against Stirling’s Housing Stock Transfer. Rowland’s efforts were completely selfless and he continued leafleting even when clearly unwell. 

Rowland was fiercely opposed to injustice of all kinds – particularly war and poverty, and forever passionately arguing principles and tactics, but he was also opposed to blind obedience, bureaucracy and opportunism  - woe betide any friend elected to the council if he felt they were selling out.  He never followed the crowd out of blind loyalty – he was by nature an inveterate oppositionist willing to fight for his position against what he viewed as a mistaken leadership. From 1972 till 2006, Rowland was frequently to be found in an opposition tendency in whatever party he was in. In the early ‘70s he and Alan Thornett, then in different parties, were almost alone in the British Labour movement in arguing for a Sliding Scale of Wages during Heath’s 3 day week. 

Rowland was a consistent campaigner for justice in defence of victims of poverty and oppression - Vietnam, Ireland, Chile, Nicaragua all got support – his practical support for Chilean refugees and demand that Pinochet face justice was lifelong. Rowland helped establish the Ecomemoria grove of trees planted in King’s Park to commemorate the victims of the Chilean junta and it is fitting that a bench in his memory will, as he requested be positioned there. 

Rowland in practice thought Globally, but acted locally. His work in the Trades Council, in the T&G and myriad campaigns all developed from deep local links and a belief an individual could improve things. He remained interested in everything, in recent weeks urging his friends to organise conferences on the world economy and write a history of the CIA. Above all Rowland was a compassionate human being, who always tried to help others. He was a loving brother to Linda and uncle to Stephen, Claire and Suzie and their families.

Rowland will live on in our memories, in his writings and by how he influenced us all - A Marxist internationalist fighter against injustice whoi struggled against the stream.