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The truth behind speech that saved Clyde yards

He was speaking to several thousand shipyard workers, but Jimmy Reid also knew that he was speaking to the world.

orator: (Clockwise from top) Jimmy Reid makes his famous speech -- 'pretty much off-the-cuff' -- to workers of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders who, according to former colleagues Bob and Isabel Dickie, agreed to Mr Reid's idea of a work-in. Eileen -- with younger sister Shona and Mr Reid -- on a Vietnam demo in Glasgow, and more recently with her father.  BATTLERS: The UCS delegation at Downing Street.
orator: (Clockwise from top) Jimmy Reid makes his famous speech -- 'pretty much off-the-cuff' -- to workers of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders who, according to former colleagues Bob and Isabel Dickie, agreed to Mr Reid's idea of a work-in. Eileen -- with younger sister Shona and Mr Reid -- on a Vietnam demo in Glasgow, and more recently with her father. BATTLERS: The UCS delegation at Downing Street.

“There will be no hooliganism,” he said. “There will be no vandalism. There will be no bevvying because the world is watching us.” And that was it: the beginning of not only a campaign to save thousands of jobs along the Clyde but also a fundamental shift in trade unionism and politics.