Tribute to Jimmy Reid
Post categories: Behind the Scenes, Radio Scotland
|06:00 UK time, Thursday, 19 August 2010
Radio Scotland pays tribute to one of Scotland's national heroes 'The best MP Scotland never had'. Scotland Live is offering full coverage of the funeral ceremony, in Govan available from 1315 on MW.
Senior Broadcast Journalist, David Holmes, producer of the 2002 documentary Fighting and Winning: The Work-In at UCS, a programme which Jimmy features heavily in, shares his memories of making the programme and learning about the man.
When my colleague Stephen Low approached me in 2000 about making a radio documentary commemorating the 30th anniversary of the work-in at the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders I didn't know what he was talking about...
I had been just a toddler growing up in Zimbabwe when the men of the Clyde took on the British Government for 15 months between 1971 and 1972, and won.
It may have been historic, but it had all passed me by... Now I was to learn.
And so began a journey of discovery that began with a tour of Govan and the old yards and ended with our programme: "Fighting and Winning" first broadcast in 2002.
In the process I got to know in a limited way some of the shop stewards who'd led that fight: Davy Torrance, Sammy Barr, Jimmy Cloughley, Bob Dickie and of course Jimmy Reid.
Eight years on, and it was Stephen who phoned me to say Jimmy Reid had passed away on Wednesday last week...
I was left with a strange feeling. Here was a man I'd never met but had known in a strangely intimate way who was now dead.
You see I knew Jimmy Reid - shipbuilder, Communist councillor, working class agitator, shop steward, leader of men - through his voice and only his voice.
In the course of making "Fighting and Winning" I'd spent hours - including an entire night as our deadline approached - with his voice: actuality of his speeches and interviews during the work-in; and our own fresh interviews from him.
His was a gruff and rumbling voice. I remembered the way he paused ponderously between sentences and even words of an older man reminiscing. It left me hanging on, waiting for more.
And I remember the younger man's fire, passion and turn of phrase: "...no amateur yachtsman..." to denigrate Edward Heath, the Prime Minister he defied.
And then there was his laughter - low and infectious.
Listening back to the original programme it's easy to see how Reid had the impact he had.
He was articulate and humorous. And his demagogy, if one may call it that, was inspiring.
His fellow shop stewards called it "electrifying": "We're not going on strike. We're not even having a sit-in strike. We're taking over the yards because we refuse to accept that faceless men or any group of men in Whitehall or anywhere else can take decisions that devastate our livelihoods with impunity. They're not on!"
No wonder so many men put their faith in him and endured in their quest. As Jimmy Cloughley told us: "[They] caught the nation and caught the temperament of the country at the time."
But how to remember Jimmy Reid? By what he said or what he did?
For me for it can only be his words. They're all I know of him.
I still smile every time I hear his famous line: "And there'll be no hooliganism. There will be no vandalism. There will be no bevvying..." For many people that's all they remember of Jimmy Reid.
Those words seem to sum him up: a Clydesider who jousted with statesmen; an orator who was still very much a man of the people; a man from Govan. Yet Jimmy told us: "I wish they would show other aspects, there were other things I was saying."
Other things indeed!
At the start of the work-in he said: "They have got the fight of their lives in their hands... This bunch of political hatchet men that are masquerading as a government; that can take anti-human and uncivilised decisions of this nature are going to be confronted with a fight that quite frankly I don't think any amateur yachtsman has got the imagination to conceive of. He's going to have that fight. It's slaughter for the Clydeside."
And a fight it was. A fight he and his colleagues won. For as he said, "We don't just build boats on the Clyde, we build men."
Comment number 1.
At 06:14 19th Aug 2010, loan23 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 2.
At 15:38 19th Aug 2010, hogline wrote:If anyone ever had any doubt about the wisdom of allocating more than 2 hours of BBC Scotland output to the coverage of Jimmy Reid's funeral service at Govan Parish church they just must have been convinced that the decision was more than vindicated - personally in a lifetime of listening to BBC radio Scotland it was the most interesting,informative and amusing broadcast I have ever had the pleasure and privilege to listen to.
My 25 year old son had never heard of Jimmy Reid and I said to him just before the programme started to listen in - normally, as you would expect he pays little or no attention to such advice but shortly after the broadcast started he passed through the room and I could almost immediately see his ears prick up. Eventually he sat down and listened to the very end, he was enthralled and I am sure what he heard will change his own outlook on life in a positive way.
Like many young people today he is unemployed and daily he suffers the disappointment and disillusionment of writing off for jobs and in 99% of cases not even getting an acknowledgement of his application, which I know he has probably put at least 4 or so hours into. It's a depressing scenario and one I am sure with which Jimmy would be familiar with as he met others in similar situations.
Listening to what Jimmy Reid achieved after leaving school at 14 has without doubt given my son new hope and inspiration. So even on the day of his funeral Jimmy Reid's legacy lives on. He had during his lifetime touched so many lives in a positive way and he would no doubt be pleased to learn that one more has been added to that ever growing list.
Jimmy Reid; will we ever see his like again? I doubt it very much. Thank you Jimmy and thank you BBC for your decision to broadcast such an inspirational and momentous event.
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Comment number 3.
At 15:49 19th Aug 2010, Next goal will be crucial wrote:I am old enough to remember the UCS occupation but for me, like so many others, the significance of those days has paled somewhat. How humbling then to be able to take time today to recall the greatness of the man. He, in my opinion, embodied all that is good in the qualities of being Scottish.
How ironic that Jimmy should be laid to rest on the eve of the anniversary of the release of the so called Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds. Another fine embodiment of those Scottish qualities.
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Comment number 4.
At 21:44 19th Aug 2010, jwdsnapper wrote:Now more than ever - we need men like Jimmy - This country is going to be overrun by unscrupulous employers - the unions have to get their act together - and quick.
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Comment number 5.
At 00:02 20th Aug 2010, madmacfraeclydebank wrote:As an eight year old at the time of the UCS work in the graffiti on the walls of Drumry Station taught me how to spell Communist
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Comment number 6.
At 13:36 20th Aug 2010, Joan Taylor wrote:I was only a youngster at the time of the work-in at Clydebank, but I remember seeing Jimmy Reid on TV and was captivated then and there with this man of the people. A man of principles, compassion and commitment. He was instrumental in sparking my interest in politics and for that I will always remember him. Scotland should be proud of this man and what he stood for. Pity there don't seem many of his ilk these days. Unions are powerless, a lot of American and Japanese companies don't allow unions. Pity, as without them, the ordinary worker is alone and powerless. I agree with the comment by jwdsnapper. Strength in numbers, together we stand, divided we fall.
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