Jimmy Reid

James Reid (9 July 1932 – 10 August 2010) was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow.

His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in between June 1971 and October 1972 attracted international recognition.

There was a series of fundraising events, and foreign unions, celebrities such as John Lennon and Billy Connolly, and members of the public provided donations.

Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.

"[8]In the general election in February 1974 Reid stood for the Communist Party in Central Dunbartonshire, which was dominated by the town of Clydebank, against the sitting Labour member Hugh McCartney.

[citation needed] One Catholic priest gave a sermon advising his parishioners to vote only for candidates whose beliefs were consistent with Christian principles.

He was Labour candidate in Dundee East in 1979, but lost to Gordon Wilson, then the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

[3] Writing in the aftermath of the election, Anthony Finlay stated in The Glasgow Herald that it was "only because the Labour Party was foolish enough to pick Jimmy Reid", that Wilson held the seat when all but one of the 10 other SNP MPs was defeated.

In 1985 he wrote and presented a series of documentaries entitled Reid About the USSR, for which his previous status within the Communist Party gave him unprecedented access.

In his newspaper column Reid argued that the working miners could not properly be referred to as strikebreakers, as no national ballot had been held and no local ballot had passed a resolution to strike: "A scab is someone who participates in a vote in which the majority are for taking strike action and then refuses to honour the decision.

The cortege passed the BAE Systems Surface Ships yard in Govan, one of the shipyards saved after the collapse of UCS, where hundreds of workers had gathered outside in tribute.

[17] As of March 2023[update], Joani Reid is also the Scottish Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for East Kilbride and Strathaven in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.

[18] The Jimmy Reid Foundation, a left-wing think tank and advocacy group, was established in his memory by the Editorial Board of the Scottish Left Review.