Home > Alex Massie

Monday 21 May 2012

Jimmy Reid, 1932-2010

Wednesday, 11th August 2010

If Jimmy Reid, who died overnight aged 78, hadn't existed he might have had to be invented. For 40 years now he has been the image of a certain Scotland. The "dignity of labour" is a much abused phrase that often drips with sentimentality, but you didn't have to share Jimmy Reid's political views to recognise his virtue*. Nor did you need to be there at the time to appreciate, even all these years later, that there was something noble about the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in back in 1971.

The work-in and Reid's famous speech have assumed almost mythic status, representing all that was best about the Scottish, and specifically the west of Scotland's, industrial tradition. Much of it has gone now, of course, and in some respects the UCS dispute was the zenith of this Scotland's image of itself: hard-working, dignified and proud. The famous lines, complete with their presbyterian caution against succumbing to human frailty, are still powerful:

“We are not going to strike. We are not even going to have a sit-in strike. Nobody and nothing will come in and nothing will go out without our permission. And there will be no hooliganism, there will be no vandalism, there will be no bevvying because the world is watching us.”

Reid's life - and his journey from the Communist party to the SNP via Labour - is also a reminder that what you believe is only part of the matter. How you believe and how you conduct yourself in the arena can be just as vital. The means can be as important as the ends and the manner in which Reid and his colleagues defended their interests and the jobs of the 8,000 men employed at UCS was, in its way, magnificent.

So you don't have to be from Jimmy Reid's Scotland to appreciate his record and recognise that he's part of your own Scotland too. As MacDiarmid always reminds us: Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?/ Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliche corner/To a fool who cries "Nothing but heather!"

*The contrast between Reid and a charlatan like Arthur Scargill or a pygmy like Bob Crow is total and entirely in Reid's favour. If nothing else, one wonders how the National Union of Mineworkers might have fared had they been led by men such as Reid and Airlie rather than a demagogue like Scargill.

UPDATE: John McTernan's piece in the Telegraph is excellent.

Filed under: Scotland (499 more articles) , Trade Unions (46 more articles)

Previous Back to Alex Massie Next

Blogs: Martin Bright | Susan Hill | Melanie Phillips | Coffee House | Faith Based

Actions: Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (15)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

russell

August 11th, 2010 5:49pm Report this comment

beautiful piece Alex, that I suspect will be lost on much of your leadership. Jimmy had charisma and humour. He was gallus.

ndm

August 11th, 2010 5:50pm Report this comment

Nice post.

However, I don't know if the lads at UCS produced anything as memorable as the pink Caterpillar created during a work-in there during the Thatcher Era.

Craig Strachan

August 11th, 2010 6:14pm Report this comment

@russell: not sure gallus is the word for Jimmy. George Galloway is gallus.

Jimmy Reid was braw.

russell

August 11th, 2010 6:25pm Report this comment

@ Craig. You may be right. I'm from the East Coast and always thought gallus meant "excellent with connotation of chutzpah and mischief" or some such. Which kind of summed up Jimmy for me. Braw will do though. Only Scotland could have made him.

Craig Strachan

August 11th, 2010 7:44pm Report this comment

russell, despite your East coast provenance you are right about the connotation of gallus. I'm just not sure that Jimmy was all that mischevious.

I think Alex is right to draw attention to the essential virtue of the man, viz his priceless admonition to the strikers that there will be "no bevvying"!

russell

August 11th, 2010 7:56pm Report this comment

@ craig. Indeed "nae bevvying" was classic. Jimmy's consistency compared to my journey from left-wing firebrand to the mushy libertarian middle makes me more than a little sad. My brother knew him well from the short-lived/ill-fated independent Scottish Labour Party of the 1970s. The founding of that was a pretty mischievous act against the Labour big-wigs doon south. :-)

ndm

August 11th, 2010 8:25pm Report this comment

The Scotsman article on his demise reminded me of his "rat race is for rats" quip.

MikeF

August 11th, 2010 9:15pm Report this comment

If you want to know how the National Union of Mineworkers might have fared if it had been led by men like Jimmy Reid, then you only have to remember how it did fare when it was led by Joe Gormley.

Craig Strachan

August 11th, 2010 11:41pm Report this comment

@russell - I met Jimmy on a number of occasions although I couldn't say I knew him well. I do recall him referring dismissively to some then-prominent union worthy as "lumpen", a term I would hear him use more than once. He would argue he used it in its precise, Marxist sense. But I always had a sneaking suspicion that there was as much John Knox as Karl Marx in Jimmy's makeup!

revolution

August 12th, 2010 8:08am Report this comment

Jimmy Reid charismatic all round good guy.
Head and shoulders above Scargill, Crow, Blair, Brown and the rest of the nu labour stooges?
Go on yer way in peace Jimmy.

Ben G

August 12th, 2010 2:39pm Report this comment

Anyone know where you can see a video of his speech? Nothing on YouTube alas.

JohnW

August 13th, 2010 11:49am Report this comment

What a horribly sectarian conclusion to an otherwise worthy obituary of Jimmy Reid. I can appreicate the undoubted qualities of Jimmy Reid without agreeing with the position he took on Arthur Scargill and the epic miners' strike he led. In this Jimmy Reid stood on the wrong side of history. Reid was a great man; Scargill was too; and so is Bob Crow. One thing they share, the connecting thread which links them, is their belief in the right of working people to fight for their rights and to be more than spectators of their own fate.

Alex Massie betrays all the smugness of the middle class intelligentsia in his ability to lionise dead working class heroes while attacking those who are still alive.

David Booth

August 13th, 2010 5:36pm Report this comment

I might not have agreed with Jimmy Reid over certain political issues but I always felt he was a man of integrity with a genuine concern for working people. Unlike a lot of gobshite guttersnipes who currently pollute politics up here in Scotland.

tommyt

August 14th, 2010 10:10am Report this comment

I only met Jimmy Reid twice, both times at an SNP conference. Within five minutes of meetng me we were smoking two of the biggest Cuban cigars I have ever seen and embroiled in a chat about various aspects of global left wing politics (about which we largely but not wholly took differing viewpoints). The next year he stopped me in a corridor and said "Tommy, can't stop but glad I ran into you here have this (producing another huge cigar) we'll maybe catch up later" Sadly we never did.

As to JohnW's point there's no harm in pointing out that some union leaders harm rather than hinder their cause. Though its fair to say that Scargill was operating in a tougher environment than Reid was. There seems to be a penchant in modern TU leaders to deliberately tyr to tick off the public (see the proposed BA strike over xmas, the proposed council workers strike in Scotland the day the Pope is here and the proposed rail strike the day the European Cup final was played in Glasgow)

johnny d

August 17th, 2010 1:48pm Report this comment

Big difference between Scargill and Jimmy - Scargill divided the left with his undemocratic behaviour. Jimmy inspired and united a nation, left and right. Note: UCS work-in had 1 policeman at the gate to maintain social order. How many men ended up in hospital or even dead during Scargill's dispute and battles.

Post comment