Obituary: Ian Williamson (2018)

Obituary from the November 2018 issue of the Socialist Standard

We have also learned of the death in September of Ian Williamson in Inverness where he hailed from. He joined the Party in 1966 after hearing outdoor speakers in Glasgow. Like many others he moved to London, where he worked as a barman – as he did when later he moved to Japan. His experiences there led him to write ‘The Kilt and the Kimono: Japan Through the Eyes of A Scot’, published in 1987. Basically a book on Japanese life and culture, it also put the socialist case, looking forward to a time when the world ‘will be rid of a system in which a minority class own the means of wealth production and distribution, and give way to a system in which all that is on and in the earth will be the common property of all mankind irrespective of race, colour or creed.’