[3] His first political speech was in the run-up to the 1918 general election, in support of Fred Shaw, the unsuccessful British Socialist Party candidate for Greenock.
[5][6] Geddes became the chair of the Greenock Unemployed Workers' Committee and was nominated by them to stand at the 1922 general election.
[8] At the 1924 general election, Geddes was again adopted by the local trades council, but this time ran against an official Labour Party candidate, a member of the ILP.
[3] Geddes visited the Soviet Union in 1925, where he viewed the Red Army on the Polish border, and received a banner from the Samara Cavalry Division as a gift, which he presented to the CPGB.
[3] His daughter, Effie, became a leading figure in the CPGB's "British Pioneers" children's movement.