{"id":19376,"date":"2019-10-25T15:18:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T14:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19376"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:55:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:55:05","slug":"jimmy-reid-clyde-built-man-book-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19376","title":{"rendered":"A giant of our movement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite general secretary Len McCluskey spoke on Friday (October 25) at the launch of a new biography of renowned Scottish trade unionist and politician Jimmy Reid, entitled Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-built Man.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dozens of people attended, including many of Reid’s family and trade union colleagues, at today’s launch in Glasgow. The following comment is an edited version of Len McCluskey’s speech:<\/p>\n

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Jimmy was a giant of our movement.<\/p>\n

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He was the definition of a working class hero.<\/p>\n

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As a young shop steward on the Liverpool Docks, I remember Jimmy coming to address us during the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work-in.<\/p>\n

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He lifted our spirits for our own struggles, by his words and his example. And I vividly remember the image of this passionate advocate, with that wonderful accent, making the hair on my neck stand up.<\/p>\n

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Through his radical thinking; his strength in the conduct of industrial battles and his political analysis of Britain during his lifetime; Jimmy Reid displayed his dearly held principles of equality, dignity, humanity and social justice.<\/p>\n

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He believed that a better society could be achieved if people were willing to fight for it. It is a belief I have always shared.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy said \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the time of the UCS work-in \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are taking over the yards because we refuse to accept that faceless men can make these decisions\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few years back I was extremely proud to give the annual address held by the Jimmy Reid Foundation, established to promote and continue the radical thinking Jimmy was famous for.<\/p>\n

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I announced then that I would make available the text of Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s famous Rectoral Address to Glasgow University to every Unite member \u00e2\u20ac\u201c encouraging all of our activists to read it and learn from it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His lecture was compared at the time to the Gettysburg Address.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an appeal for us all to let our common humanity \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not self-advancement – determine our world.\u00c2\u00a0 As you will know he said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are not rats\u00e2\u20ac\u0165. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA rat race is for rats. We are not rats\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also railed against the permissive society \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not the permissiveness of Oz magazine that had forced a few to clutch their pearls back then, but of a society that `permitted\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 over one million to be unemployed.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy would have been horrified I am sure had he lived to see the grotesque scandal of food bank dependency now upon the sixth richest country on the planet.<\/p>\n

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I remember what a profound affect reading those words had on me as young trade unionist. They expressed the anger I felt at the condition of the working class; and at the contempt in which we were held by the boss class and the elites that ran Britain then as they do today.<\/p>\n

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His was a politics of passionate engagement, of principles, and of hard graft; and it was a politics close to the people.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy was forged in a culture which shaped many of the finest working class leaders in Scotland, from John Maclean to Mary Barbour to Mick McGahey.<\/p>\n

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When I delivered that Jimmy Reid lecture, talk of a looming election was in the air.<\/p>\n

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Back then, Labour was led by Ed Miliband, and the question was could he dispatch Cameron and his coalition?<\/p>\n

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Ed lost that election, of course, and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

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[Incidentally, what, I wonder, would Jimmy have made of Boris Johnson, the ex-Etonian, who regards the country as his to inherit, now running the UK thanks to the votes of handfuls of Home Counties Tories?<\/p>\n

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The prime minister is the living, breathing case for the social reform that Jimmy called for all his life.\u00c2\u00a0 He embodies the irresponsibility of his class.\u00c2\u00a0 His rise to the highest office in the land is an insult to us all \u00e2\u20ac\u201c let it supercharge our thirst for change.]<\/p>\n

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The call I made that evening in Govan was for Labour to renew its compact with its members and unions.<\/p>\n

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It did so.<\/p>\n

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As a consequence, and with the promise of party that would be people-powered, Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ranks swelled.\u00c2\u00a0 The party is now the biggest in Europe.<\/p>\n

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For the past four years, Labour has been led by Jeremy Corbyn.\u00c2\u00a0 One of Corbyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first acts as leader was to end any notion that Labour would indulge austerity.\u00c2\u00a0 It became a firmly anti-austerity party, both in Scotland and at Westminster.<\/p>\n

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Clarity and a return to core values had been restored.<\/p>\n

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I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to think that Jimmy would recognise Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s programme of today as something that he could happily back with its radical commitments on public ownership and really tackling inequality.<\/p>\n

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Labour has not just turned its back on the neo-liberal dogmas which dominated the Blair-Brown years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it has pledged to transform our country and to govern for the many.<\/p>\n

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But as delighted and grateful as I would be to see a Corbyn Labour government in no 10, and a Leonard administration in Holyrood, even then there would be no cause for us to put our feet up.<\/p>\n

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As Jimmy knew all too well, unions are the main \u00e2\u20ac\u201c indeed the only \u00e2\u20ac\u201c force able to balance the otherwise uncontrolled power of the employer who, whether they are good or bad, can only ultimately be driven by the principle of profit maximisation.<\/p>\n

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Permit me to repeat some of what I said back in 2015:<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur history shows that trade unionism is the main bulwark of democracy.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOf gender and racial equality. Of peace. Of anti-fascism. Of proper welfare provision.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn fact \u00e2\u20ac\u201c of almost everything that marks civilisation out from barbarism.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dispute for a moment the part played by others, from other classes, in many of these achievements. But history tells us only an organised working class has achieved the strength to impose them on the powerful.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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This union has been striving to emulate Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s undying belief in the skills of our class.\u00c2\u00a0 Over in Fife, I know that Pat and his team have been working tirelessly to pull in new contracts, to stop the Canadian owners putting work out to companies outside of Scotland so signing the death warrant for the yards.<\/p>\n

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There is a first class workforce there.\u00c2\u00a0 They deserve a future.\u00c2\u00a0 And the prize could be immense \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thousands of decent, skilled jobs, here in Scotland.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy was not just a leader of men and women, he was a visionary.\u00c2\u00a0 Years before a Brexit referendum had even crossed David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind and his savage austerity had wearied our communities, Jimmy foretold what happens when our institutions of government, society and business fail us: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAlienation is the precise and correctly applied word for describing the major social problem in Britain today\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is the cry of men who feel themselves the victims of blind economic forces beyond their control. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the frustration of ordinary people excluded from the processes of decision making. The feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Would that our politicians had Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skill \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the will \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to grasp that when ordinary people feel disempowered, living lives controlled by forces above and beyond them, then this frustration compresses and it must find an outlet.<\/p>\n

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The structures of power and wealth in this country uphold privilege and feed alienation.\u00c2\u00a0 They must change.<\/p>\n

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And that is where trade unions come in. Of all the myriad organisations thrown up by our society, we have the greatest numbers, the deepest roots and, when we get it right, the clearest sense of purpose. Above all, we speak for those who are otherwise voiceless.<\/p>\n

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Yes, we need to change. The industrial world is not as it was when Jimmy Reid, Jimmy Airlie and Sammy Barr led that inspiring work-in at UCS.<\/p>\n

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Five million workers in this country have no rights \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not to sick pay when ill, nor holiday pay when on leave \u00e2\u20ac\u201c because they live a hand-to-mouth existence when they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether they will get a shift that week let alone a pay cheque.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy, I am sure, would recognise in this maltreated workforce the curse of tally man of the docks and despair of its return.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This now is our challenge, to draw inspiration from Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lead, to instil his hope and optimism \u00e2\u20ac\u201c his fight – in our movement today.<\/p>\n

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Have faith that our ideas are winning. The failures of neo-liberalism, of the unrestrained market, are now evident. Austerity has been exposed for what it is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a political project intended to redistribute wealth and assets away from our class to the ever-greedy few.<\/p>\n

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From reversing climate change to averting a bad Tory Brexit, the challenges before our movement make Everest look like a munro.<\/p>\n

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But we are the working class \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the sons and daughters, admirers and heirs of Jimmy Reid – and we are invincible.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy devoted his life to social justice and freedom, with trade unionism at its heart. It falls to us to carry that vision forward.<\/p>\n

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I would like to thanks Alan and Bob, the authors, for bringing the wonder that is Jimmy to a whole new audience.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope that Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family enjoy some well-deserved pride in the man that they love.<\/p>\n

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I know that Jimmy will forever have a place in the hearts of his beloved Glasgow, but I would like to think that this book will share his achievements and political thinking with a younger generation, the generation who never knew the great docks of the Clyde and see only stylish flats where once sat ships fit to sail the world.<\/p>\n

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Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legacy of that world-admired work-in at UCS is literally written into the fabric of this building.\u00c2\u00a0 The mural on the 3rd floor here includes Jimmy Reid, Jimmy Airlie and Tony Benn leading the UCS march through Glasgow offering daily inspiration to all who pass by.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And the image of Jimmy speaking at UCS is also on our Unite Scotland banner – displayed just outside the conference room.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy continues to march with Unite when that banner takes to the street.<\/p>\n

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I am not sure I could ever share Jimmy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love of Jane Austen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing or his passion for English cricket but his bravery, thinking and fundamental humanity are inspirations to us all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A trade union leader full of compassion; a towering figure whose life will continue to inspire long into the future \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Jimmy Reid, we will forever salute you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Copies of the new book Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-built man can be purchased here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey spoke on Friday (October 25) at the launch of a new biography of renowned Scottish trade unionist and politician Jimmy Reid, entitled Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-built Man.   Dozens of people attended, including many of Reid’s family and trade union colleagues, at today’s launch in Glasgow. The following comment is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Unite GS Len McCluskey gives speech at Jimmy Reid book launch","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24886,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19376\/revisions\/24886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}