Jimmy Reid
Jimmy Reid was probably the greatest political orator of late twentieth-century Britain. He was at the forefront of the major turning points in the history of industrial relations and politics in Britain. His story is an epic one; from a poverty-stricken background in Govan, Glasgow, he became a communist at a young age, leading a national strike of engineering apprentices while only twenty, before being pitch into the national limelight as the leading spokesperson for the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-In in 1971-2. Disillusioned with communism he left the Party for Labour and the centre-left before leaving them disenchanted with New Labour to join the Scottish National Party. His political journey from Communism, to Labourism, and ultimately to Nationalism (a political life in three acts) not only speaks of the complexities of left politics after 1945, but also illuminates and facilitates our understanding of institutions and social change in post-war Britain by showing how they were understood and negotiated by a particular individual.