By Phil Hearse
I first came into contact with Colin when I arrived at the IMG centre in Upper Street, Islington, at the end of 1979. Colin was then doing a stint in the National Office, working especially with comrades like Brian Grogan, Steve Potter and Dodie Weppler.
Since at that time, I was living in faraway Ealing, I would often repair after work to the Fox pub next door, where Colin and Bob Pennington could invariably be found, sometimes with Bob’s then partner Janet Maguire, but then with a revolving stream of comrades going to the centre, or after their meetings.
Colin later moved to the print shop in the basement, where he often worked the camera in the dark-room, which was a tedious job, especially on production days when the newspaper had to be laid out. Often the ‘technical’ full-timers downstairs were left waiting for copy from the newspaper staff upstairs and the ‘politicals’ on the top floor.
Colin collaborated with his friend, the late David King, in his production of large-format photo books about Trotsky and the Bolshevik Revolution.
Colin was wryly humorous, and his wit was often acerbic, something I experienced as a newspaper editor when production was getting behind. Colin had a very high regard for the late Nick Robin who was print shop manager at the time. After the IMG split in 1985 Nick and Colin were two of the moving forces behind the re-assembly of the print shop as a public concern, called ‘Spencer’s’ after Colin’s party name and located in increasingly trendy Clerkenwell. They continued to lay out International, the first publication of our renamed International Socialist Group. Spencer’s did not, however, survive the onward march of information technology which rendered many of their design and typesetting processes redundant.
Spencer’s also did not survive the tragically early death of Nick Robin, whom Colin was very close to. The two collaborated in making Nick’s coffin.
Colin was one of the stalwart supporters of the central activities of the International Marxist Group. I do not believe the IMG was a ‘failure’. It pioneered a series of theories and practices on the left- support for internationalism, socialist democracy and the struggles of the socially oppressed, that have now become common cause among most radical activists.
Red Mole Rising 