Trade Unions and Home Truths
Jimmy Reid has been paid many tributes since he died last week - many recalling the events from the 'work in' at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders - Jimmy's high point as a union leader.
Shrewd as well as tough - fiercely political but not sectarian - Jimmy was a wonderful speaker with a common touch and sense of humour.
Here's an extract of what Martin Kettle from the Guardian newspaper had to say:
"Reid had the background, the brains, the ability, the vision, the charisma to have been one of the great leftwing political leaders of modern Britain.. In some ways, this is what he actually was, especially in the early 1970s".
Yet for all his impeccable credentials - if Jimmy Reid had managed to jump into a time machine and arrive in the Year 2010 - he would not find a job in the trade union movement we have today.
Why not?
Because he would not be a member of the Labour party - unlike just about every trade union leader in Scotland.
How crazy is that when Scotland is a multi-party democracy - and has been for years?
Shameful as that statement may be - it's an unwritten rule of today's trade unions that its senior officials can only be trusted if they support the Labour party - and no one else.
If you're in the SNP, the Lib Dems, the Greens, Socialists or Tories - you're not 'one of us' - you're 'one of them'.
The unions don't even recruit independent minded people - with no particular party loyalty.
The fact is that the unions are stuffed to the rafters with Labour supporters - which is an impossibility in terms of equal opportunity recruitment - without a hidden hand at work.
A hidden hand that sifts out the 'wrong' people - while delivering the same Labour members and supporters year after year - in virtually every senior position.
Scotland's unions claim to be equal opportunity employers - yet they discriminate against the majority of Scots - because they don't have a single non-Labour figure to their name.
So, how then can they claim to be representative of their members - when all the top jobs are reserved for members of just one particular tribe?
The people who pay tribute today at Jimmy Reid's funeral - will be too polite to say what needs to be said.
The sad truth is that Jimmy Reid wouldn't get a job even as bog standard full-time official in one of Scotland's major public sector unions - unless he changed his party allegiance.
Jimmy's days as a former Communist Party member would have made him a marked man - but his more recent support for the SNP would have been a real 'deal breaker'.
And that's the malaise at the heart of Scotland's trade unions today.
The trade unions don't reflect the diversity of their members - they are one dimensional and full of clones - drawn from just one party and one narrow section of Scottish society.
And until they face up to that home truth - they won't be leading anyone anywhere.
Shrewd as well as tough - fiercely political but not sectarian - Jimmy was a wonderful speaker with a common touch and sense of humour.
Here's an extract of what Martin Kettle from the Guardian newspaper had to say:
"Reid had the background, the brains, the ability, the vision, the charisma to have been one of the great leftwing political leaders of modern Britain.. In some ways, this is what he actually was, especially in the early 1970s".
Yet for all his impeccable credentials - if Jimmy Reid had managed to jump into a time machine and arrive in the Year 2010 - he would not find a job in the trade union movement we have today.
Why not?
Because he would not be a member of the Labour party - unlike just about every trade union leader in Scotland.
How crazy is that when Scotland is a multi-party democracy - and has been for years?
Shameful as that statement may be - it's an unwritten rule of today's trade unions that its senior officials can only be trusted if they support the Labour party - and no one else.
If you're in the SNP, the Lib Dems, the Greens, Socialists or Tories - you're not 'one of us' - you're 'one of them'.
The unions don't even recruit independent minded people - with no particular party loyalty.
The fact is that the unions are stuffed to the rafters with Labour supporters - which is an impossibility in terms of equal opportunity recruitment - without a hidden hand at work.
A hidden hand that sifts out the 'wrong' people - while delivering the same Labour members and supporters year after year - in virtually every senior position.
Scotland's unions claim to be equal opportunity employers - yet they discriminate against the majority of Scots - because they don't have a single non-Labour figure to their name.
So, how then can they claim to be representative of their members - when all the top jobs are reserved for members of just one particular tribe?
The people who pay tribute today at Jimmy Reid's funeral - will be too polite to say what needs to be said.
The sad truth is that Jimmy Reid wouldn't get a job even as bog standard full-time official in one of Scotland's major public sector unions - unless he changed his party allegiance.
Jimmy's days as a former Communist Party member would have made him a marked man - but his more recent support for the SNP would have been a real 'deal breaker'.
And that's the malaise at the heart of Scotland's trade unions today.
The trade unions don't reflect the diversity of their members - they are one dimensional and full of clones - drawn from just one party and one narrow section of Scottish society.
And until they face up to that home truth - they won't be leading anyone anywhere.
