Victory resonated far beyond our city

LAST week’s column in this approximately chronological history featured the genesis of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders ( UCS) work- in during the summer of 1971 and ended with Jimmy Reid’s famous ‘ discipline’ rallying cry to the workers.

Looking back now more than 50 years later, with the right- wing antiunion governments we have had for most of that time, it seems almost incredible that the UCS work- in not only gained its aim – to force the British Government to keep the yards open and preserve as many jobs as possible – but that they inspired working- class people around the world to take action against the bosses and capitalists who ruled the industries of the day.

As the largest and most famous of the UCS shipyards, before and during the work- in lot of attention focused on John Brown’s yard in Clydebank, builder of the Queens and many other famous ships. But from the outset, UCS was a Glasgowbased operation, and most of the machinations and discussions took place here in the city.

You will recall that UCS was created after the Shipbuilding Industry Act of 1967, piloted through Parliament by Technology Minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn.

The man who renounced his viscountcy to be a Labour MP, plain Tony Benn, came to take a personal interest in the UCS work- in not least because he had persuaded the Wilson Cabinet to back UCS with loans – albeit less than was wanted – prior to their electoral defeat in 1970 by Ted Heath and his Conservatives.

Of the four remaining yards amalgamated into UCS, three were in Glasgow – Fairfield of Govan, Alexander Stephen and Sons of Linthouse, and Charles Connell and Company of Scotstoun, with Yarrow of Scotstoun having left the consortium the previous year.

UCS crashed after Ted Heath’s Government refused a £ 6 million loan to tide the company over to 1972 when cash would come into the company – it had a full order book, new management and new policies with union cooperation and could have survived to 1974. Cash flow simply dried up and in June, Glasgow accountant Robert Smith was appointed as official receiver.

Four men had come to the fore of the shop stewards – Jimmy Reid, above, Sammy Barr, Jimmy Airlie and Sammy Gilmore – and it may have been Barr who suggested the tactics to confront the proposed closures of the yards with the loss of as many as 8500 jobs and many thousands more in the supply chain in Glasgow and elsewhere. I’ve seen estimates that as many as 20,000 jobs would have been lost in and around Glasgow if the yards had closed.

Even before the work- in officially began, there had been a mass demonstration of support and a march through Glasgow. When the shop stewards invited other stewards from many unions to a meeting, more than 1200 turned up and agreed to back the work- in.

Reid and his colleagues made it clear what the work- in meant. They would occupy the shipyards round the clock and no- one and no supplies would enter or leave without their permission. Work on ships would continue, and no- one who wanted to work would be turned away.

The workers took complete control on July 29 and on August 16, the Scottish Trades Union Congress held its first- ever special Congress and backed the work- in and gave Reid a standing ovation when he declared that it was time for the working class to write a charter of rights, including the right to work.

Two days later the biggest demonstration in post- war Scottish history saw 80,000 people march through the city to a rally at Glasgow Green where the call went out for support from working people across Britain. Tony Benn spoke, as did Jack Jones, general secretary of the TUC, but the biggest cheers were reserved for Jimmy Reid and Jimmy Airlie.

That day it is estimated that 200,000 workers across Scotland downed tools in solidarity with the workers of UCS. Donations poured in to help pay the wages of the workers, including one donation of a huge bunch of red roses and a cheque for a four- figure sum from John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono.

It was mostly ordinary workers who contributed to the fund for the workers of UCS. Across Britain and beyond, the insecurity of jobs was deeply felt, and here were working people determined to resist the loss of jobs and the devastation of their communities.

Robert Smith had proposed the closure of two yards and the reduction of the workforce to 2500, and to be fair he put many workers on paid leave for a time, but the workin continued and all the while political pressure was growing on the Government which reacted by getting their friends in the right- wing press to point out that Reid, Fairlie and Barr were members of the Communist Party – as if the workers and their supporters did not know.

During the work- in, there was one extraordinary event which was both unique in the history of this city and its ancient university, and which catapulted the name of Jimmy Reid into the pantheon of modern orators. Next week, I will tell the story of Reid, a working- class man from Govan who became Rector of Glasgow University during the work- in. He is surely one Glaswegian worth a column of his own.

By September, the official Government position was that two yards could be saved at Govan and Scotstoun but John Brown would be closed with immediate effect. Otherwise, all of UCS would close.

The Glasgow workers would not abandon their Clydebank fellows,

Work on ships would continue, and no- one who wanted to work would be turned away

however, and that message was relayed loud and clear to Ted Heath and the Cabinet.

As the year wore on, the Tory Government realised it was on a hiding to nothing and senior Scottish Conservatives and Unionists warned the party would be in huge trouble if nothing was done.

The Home Office was also warned that public order could not be guaranteed in and around Glasgow if the full closures went ahead.

In February 1972, the Government capitulated and agreed that John Brown would be sold – to Marathon of the USA – while Govan Shipbuilders and Scotstoun Marine were created from Fairfield and Connell respectively.

More than 5000 workers kept their jobs and the Government invested £ 35m into the new set- up.

It was a victory for the workers, one that resonated far beyond Glasgow.