Shipbuilders exhibition
Published 15 Sep 2011 09:30
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RED CLYDESIDER: Jimmy Reid was instrumental in the work-in
Clydebank Library has a great exhibition of the UCS (Upper Clyde Shipbuilders) work-in on show now.
These were the days in 1971, before Clydebank was overrun with ruling class yes men.
The government and the bosses were planning to knife the workers in the back and close down all the shipyards on the CLyde.
For the best part of two hundred years the government and the bosses had made vast fortunes out of the labours of the working class.
Now they were going to take the loot and use it to exploit other workers elsewhere for even bigger profits.
But Jimmy Reid and his merry men in the unions were ready for them.
They took the shipyards off the government and the bosses and organised a work in.
Once they told the whole world what was going on the support flooded in.
In the end the government and the bosses were made to think again and the shipyards were saved.
That's why there are still some shipyards left on the Clyde - because of Jimmy Reid and the unions.
The workers united will never be defeated.
This is the great spirit of the working class which lives on and has been inherited by all Bankies today.
The spirit of the just cause that's feared by the bad and loved by the good.
Go down to Clydebank Library and find out more of those great days when the whole world was watching Clydebank.
James Graham, Parkhall
This letter appeared in Clydebank Post 14 Sep 11
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