AN AUTHOR has told how he was inspired to write his book by historic events that happened to workers in Clydebank.

Richie Venton from Glasgow, finished his book ‘Break the Chains’ earlier this month and it is launching on December 17.

In the book he analyses and critiques the exploitation of labour, poverty pay and trade unions in a socialist theory backdrop.

Venton’s work makes the case for a £10 minimum wage, a maximum wage, shorter working week and empowering trade unions.

He said: “The particular case of the downfall of the shipbuilding industry in Clydebank stuck in my head when writing Break the Chains. So many skilled workers hung out to dry by the establishment, lives and communities destroyed.

“I have advocated the yards along the Clyde should have been used to help reverse the stampede towards low-skilled, low-paid, insecure jobs since the destruction of heavy industry and manufacturing in towns like Clydebank.”

Shipbuilding, among other subjects, is something the author hits out at in Break the Chains and he argues  the industry could have been saved, and still can, by the building of ferries on the Clydeside.

An excerpt reads: “Why should workers and their families depend on war and destruction to hold onto a job and earn a crust? Why remain at the mercy of the military-industrial complex, which has meant decades of job insecurity, closures and chronic under-investment? Why not convert the yards into centres of peaceful, socially useful products?”

Venton himself is well-known for his decades of political and community activism, and told how he was the full-time organiser of the Militant Labour Party that took control of Liverpool City Council in the '80s to resist £60m cuts from the government.

He emigrated to Liverpool in the '80s, and then to Glasgow in the '90s where he pioneered Scottish Militant Labour, before it evolved into the Scottish Socialist Alliance, and then the Scottish Socialist Party. A founding member of the Scottish Socialist Party, he was the west of Scotland organiser in the campaign that saw six of the party’s members become MSPs in 2003.

A trade unionist, the father-of-three has won awards for his workplace organising in a major retail outlet in Renfrewshire.

The author is also a member of the local SSP branch, Glasgow North West and Clydebank SSP.

Richie, explaining why he wrote the book, said: “The cruel exploitation of working people that I witness daily is central to my socialist beliefs. Poverty pay, insecure jobs and ruthless repression of the unions are pivotal to the wealth transfusion to the rich from the rest of us that we’ve witnessed since the 1980s. 

“I wrote it to answer the doubters and critics with hard facts and arguments that would help equip those willing to fight for decent living conditions for the working class majority. To answer lies and myths used to divide and defeat workers as the 1 per cent pile up their profits. To expose modern capitalism to the eyes of people new to the trade union and socialist movement, as well as veterans of struggle.”

A launch event will take place in tonight Bacchus Cafe Bar, Glassford St, Glasgow at 7.30pm. Tickets can be reserved for free at: www.eventbrite.co.uk. 

Copies will be available from tonight onwards at the online shop at www.scottishsocialistparty.org.