Interview with Joan McMichael
TitleInterview with Joan McMichael
ReferenceTAPE/208B
Date
n.d.
Scope and Content[continued from TAPE/208A]
Joan summarised positions she had held - Communist Councillor for Covent Garden, member (and initiator) of the Children’s Committee of the Communist Party, member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party. She had been very active in the Vietnamese struggle, and had visited the country 4 times altogether. She and been instrumental in the setting up of the British Hospital for Vietnam. One year they invited the Vietnamese Ambassador up to Manchester, and he had visited other Northern towns and cities such as Liverpool, Sheffield, Wigan and St Helens, where there had been great support for the Hospital. In 1964 Joan was in Vietnam for the Tenth anniversary celebrations, at the time when the Tonkin Gulf incident took place. She helped to organise a huge rally in Hyde Park on arriving back in Britain. Jean said that being a member of the Communist Party gave her a foundation of political understanding of events, and a tremendous sense of comradeship with Vietnamese Communists, and Communists in the Soviet Union and all over the world, and being part of a great movement. She had recently (edited and) produced a book - “Health in the Third World – Studies from Vietnam”. One unexpected repercussion was that someone in Guatemala read the book, and promoted the new technique of double septic composting vaults, a form of rural sanitation invented and developed in Vietnam, which was described in the book. She was invited to a conference on rural sanitation in Guatemala to talk about it (although she was not allowed to say that the technique had been developed in Vietnam). The following year Jean was one of two delegates from Liberation who attended the third anniversary celebration of the revolution in Grenada.
There is a Word document which gives a more detailed synopsis of the tape.
[NB: Joan was married to Jack Askins - see TAPE/234, TAPE/456]
Joan summarised positions she had held - Communist Councillor for Covent Garden, member (and initiator) of the Children’s Committee of the Communist Party, member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party. She had been very active in the Vietnamese struggle, and had visited the country 4 times altogether. She and been instrumental in the setting up of the British Hospital for Vietnam. One year they invited the Vietnamese Ambassador up to Manchester, and he had visited other Northern towns and cities such as Liverpool, Sheffield, Wigan and St Helens, where there had been great support for the Hospital. In 1964 Joan was in Vietnam for the Tenth anniversary celebrations, at the time when the Tonkin Gulf incident took place. She helped to organise a huge rally in Hyde Park on arriving back in Britain. Jean said that being a member of the Communist Party gave her a foundation of political understanding of events, and a tremendous sense of comradeship with Vietnamese Communists, and Communists in the Soviet Union and all over the world, and being part of a great movement. She had recently (edited and) produced a book - “Health in the Third World – Studies from Vietnam”. One unexpected repercussion was that someone in Guatemala read the book, and promoted the new technique of double septic composting vaults, a form of rural sanitation invented and developed in Vietnam, which was described in the book. She was invited to a conference on rural sanitation in Guatemala to talk about it (although she was not allowed to say that the technique had been developed in Vietnam). The following year Jean was one of two delegates from Liberation who attended the third anniversary celebration of the revolution in Grenada.
There is a Word document which gives a more detailed synopsis of the tape.
[NB: Joan was married to Jack Askins - see TAPE/234, TAPE/456]
Extent1 cassette tape and 1 digital recording
Physical descriptionDuration: 1 hr. 32 min. (over two tapes)
LanguageEnglish
Archival historyThe views and opinions expressed in the interview(s) are the interviewee’s own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Working Class Movement Library.
The interview may contain attitudes and/or language that some people may find offensive and may contain discussions of events that some people may find distressing.
The interview may contain attitudes and/or language that some people may find offensive and may contain discussions of events that some people may find distressing.
Related object
Persons keywordMcMichael, Joan K, Communist Party of Great Britain, Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam
Conditions governing accessOpen
Levelfile
Normal locationZ (Room 24)