Corbyn call for green industrial revolution at cross-party rally

Activists addressed following the Ready For Renewal march in Kirkcaldy

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for a “green industrial revolution” during a cross-party rally demanding the delivery of high-quality jobs in Fife’s renewables sector.

Mr Corbyn, on his second visit to the region in just over two weeks, addressed activists after the Ready For Renewal march in Kirkcaldy on Saturday which was organised by the Fife Trades Council with the support of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).

The event was arranged in response to the many challenges facing the region such as the loss of jobs at furniture makers Havelock, pay disputes at drinks giant Diageo and a lack of work at the BiFab yards in Methil and Burntisland.

The latter issue has particularly focused the minds after it was revealed French-owned electric utility company EDF plans to ship work fabricating wind turbine jackets to Indonesia, instead of building them in Fife yards just 10 miles from the site of the proposed wind farm hosting the wind turbines.

“It really is not credible to say that it’s the right thing to do, to build facilities that will be used for the generation of electricity on wind farms in the near vicinity of – almost in sight of – the coast and you are dragging the manufactured parts to make these wind turbines 8,000 miles by sea with steel that’s probably come from 10,000 miles away,” Mr Corbyn said.

“As a party we are working very hard on the principles of what I call a green industrial revolution.”

He said: “I’m here to demand that there be local investment, investment in the skill level we already have, but also in future that procurement policy is based on the socio-economic needs of communities not based on a very strange interpretation of EU law and EU directives.”

Mr Corbyn added his belief that there needed to be a proper industrial strategy put in place to avoid situations like that experienced by BiFab in recent years.

“Should we have an election and move into government in the very near future, we will put in a national investment bank for the UK and we will properly fund – through the Barnett Formula – an investment bank in Scotland, because the skill levels and the industrial heritage that’s there doesn’t have to be a museum piece in the country.”

Figures from across the political spectrum took part, including SNP MP Peter Grant, SNP co-leader of Fife Council David Alexander, Labour MSP Claire Baker, Green MSP Mark Ruskell and Annette Drylie and Tam Kirby from the Fife Trades Council.

Trade unions and workers called on EDF, but also on energy giants Red Rock and SSE, who have won contracts for large wind farms on Scotland’s east coast, to provide meaningful renewable contracts for the yards.

Grahame Smith, general secretary of the STUC, said: “Renewable energy is one of the key ways we can stop the tide of climate change, and with the yards lying empty and the wind turbines sitting off the coast of Fife, it only makes sense to have the work carried out locally.

“There are workers standing ready to help deliver this work. Fife needs a real industrial strategy that will create the thousands of renewable jobs that have been promised over the years.

“We urge companies like EDF, SSE and Havelock to do the right thing and create jobs that will be good for the environment, good for workers and good for the local economy.”

The skill levels and the industrial heritage that’s there doesn’t have to be a museum piece. JEREMY CORBYN

Picture: Kenny Smith. Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists after the Ready For Renewal march in Kirkcaldy on Saturday.