An open letter from Jim Sillars, to the Govan shipyard workers. I have been here before, having fought in the 1979 referendum. I stood at the gates of Govan shipyards as George Cunningham, a labour MP, told the men that if they voted yes for an assembly (not a parliament by the way) the government would stop them building warships. I watched the men crumbling under what can only be described as bruital blackmail. We didnt get the assembly - we got thatcher instead. Nothing has changed. Workers on the clyde are being told that if they vote Yes the yard will close and jobs will be gone. In 1979 around 25,000 jobs where involved directly or indirectly in shipbuilding. The vast majority have long gone, cut by those who threatened the workers. When will we ever learn? There are two things I want to say to you about the future on the clyde yards, but before I do let me tell you that I know what it is like to be threatened by redundancy and unemployment twice in my life, and skint a number of times. I know what it is like to have the financial feet kicked from under a family. So, I dont write to you without expeience, unlike some of those in the london coalition government who where born with gold spoons in there mouths, and like *anny alexander think its something to boast about when they officially open a foodbank, as he did in inverness. I want to speak bluntly, if you knuckle under to threats, then you have become like our great great grandparents - owned by your employers. The socialist movement fought to free working class people from that position. You can think like free men and women, but you can not act like free men and women. Is that what being better together has brought us to? You can of course say that thats alright for you to talk about a high principal, but at the bread and butter level, its our jobs at stake, and that is the level I want to talk about in this letter, you will get no flannel from me. There can be no guarantee that royal navy warships will be built on the clyde in an independent Scotland. Maybe, out of spite, the MOD will refuse to give our yards the orders for type 26. It would have to be out of spite for you voting Yes, because there would be no logic in that decision. Bae systems is a uk company. When it gets a contract for warship building, it has not only to decide where the hull is to be built, and the fitting out takes place. Obviously, the more it can source its higher military technology from within the uk the better, lots of jobs in england are at stake here. If bae stystems do not use the yards, and no other is available within their british isles, then it must go foreign. A foreign yard will not want only the hull building, but the other lucrative stuff that goes into a warship, with job losses in englands technology industry. I know, dont tell me, bae sourced its warship technologies from various places as well as england, but what happens down there is always taken into account. The Mod contract for the future shipbuilding is not with a country called Scotland, but with a company whose concern will be its control over the project, and its profitability. If that means building in yards it owns in Scotland, then it would be mad not to use them. The management is asking you to believe it is mad. I dont think they are as daft as a brush. But I want you to turn your mind to other areas of work. Under the waters of the firth of clyde there are huge deposits of oil and gas, we have ben kept ignorant about that. In 1981 the mod instructed the department of energy to forbid any exploration of that resource. In a letter dated 17th sept 1981. It said that under no circumstances were there to be oil rigs in the firth of clyde. It had. To be kept clear to allow the nuclear submarines to navigate those waters safely. With a Yes vote, we get rid of trident and we can explore that new industry under the waters of the clyde. You wont need to be hanging by your job fingertips every year waiting for a london department to give the company an order. That new industry will require oil rigs, supply vessels, on shore and offshore engineering and fabrication, that is long term jobs, not short term nervious periods of anxiety. Glasgow can become an aberdeen of the west. There is by the way something else you dont know about, that you should know about. There are more than 570 oil rigs in the north sea. Many are due for decommissioning, some £10.3bn of decommissioning work will fall due in the next 10yrs. An independent government will ensure that a good chunk of that work comes to the clyde (shetland is already preparing to get its share) given that the uk government has never told you about this, it would seem that they have no intentions of forcing the oil companies to bring the work here. I am not finished on the alternitives to warships. As professor baird, on a paper on shipbuilding, has pointed out - Scotland needs 100 new ferries over the next 10-20yrs. He also pointed out that an independent government will need to build a new costal defence fleet, some 20 vessels. Who do you think will get the order to build them? You (the worker) Signed Jim Sillars.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 16:11:23 +0000