Still next Tuesday to know whether money will be paid to us or not.
'But support from other workers locally has been excellent. The busmen sent up groceries and quite a sum of money. They're arranging for us to tour all the depots to raise support. We're going to see if we can arrange speakers at the pits and get financial support there.
*We also had the shop stewards of Albion Motors up today. They've given us money and promised physical and moral support - that means action along the lines of the flying pickets. If there's any threat of evictions, after next Monday's meeting, it'll just be a matter of a phone call and a couple or nundred guys will stamp out of their tactory and that'll be it!"
got to be done about it. As Jimmy Reid said, if one man's unemployed, he's 100 per cent unemployed. That's just the point we're trying to make here - it makes no difference whether it's 2 per cent or 10 per cent - if you're unemployed, it's 100 per cent.
"We'll be sending a delegation on the 26th to the big unemployment demo. This is the most important one - it should be the biggest demonstration London or Parliament has ever seen. The unemployment threat is against everybody and the time to fight is when you're in a job, not when you're on the street corner.' During the interview, a pile of management hriefing charts on the situation were discovered.
the stewards arm-in-arm with Tony Benn, who later promised nationalisation of the yards when Labour was next in government.
Throughout July the fight against redundancies at UCS took the form of previous redundancy struggles. Petitions circulated, signatures were collected, stewards addressed meetings around the country, delegations went to lobby MPs. But in the background, there was the knowledge that the stewards were considering alternative actions to be taken in the event of closure.
MASSIVE SUPPORT On 29 July the Government announced that two of the four UCS yards were to be closed and sold off. The next day the UCS workers seized control of the gates and began the work-in that was to transform the nature of the struggle against redundancies in Britain. Jimmie Reid announced to the press and TV: *This is the first campaign of its kind in trade We are not going to strike. We are not even having a sit-in.. We do not recognise that there should be any redundancies and we are going to work-in.
On 18 August a second demonstration of support was called in Glasgow. Over 70,000 marched, representing virtually every section of the British labour movement. For the first time ever, Labour MPs produced their own banner saying 'Scottish Labour MPs support UCS'. The demonstration was supported by a virtual general strike in the West of Scotland.
The speakers after the march were Raymond Macdonald (Chairman of the Scottish TUC), Robert Fleming (Provost Clydebank), Tony Benn, Vic Feather, Hugh Scanlon, Jimmie Reid, Dan McGarvey (President, Boilermakers' Society), and two leading members of the Scottish National Party, William Ross and Billie Wolfe. Thus the platform represented the traditional labour and trade union organisations of the Scottish workers together with the newly emerging SP.
In the yards the workers of all grades imposed a veto over the declared redundancies
8 abortion/fund drive . red weekly 6 november 1975