Clydeside Speaks: UCS 55th Anniversary Film Screening

In the summer of 1971, 13,000 Clydebank shipyard workers occupied their threatened yards for over six months and continued to turn out ships during this ‘work-in’, despite the bosses’ attempts to close the last four of the five yards in the area. Their campaign became one of the most powerful examples of worker solidarity in modern Scottish history.

Clydeside Speaks will feature two films exploring the story and legacy of the Dispute, accompanied by contributions from poets, singers and activists. Together we’ll create space for reflection, discussion and solidarity, exploring what the dispute meant then and what its legacy might offer movements and communities today.

About the films:

The Clyde Gods Are Dead, Long Live The Workers (2025) Dir. Matthew Dunsmore. 5.44 minutes.

Having been commissioned as part of Make Film History in 2025, The Clyde Gods Are Dead, Long Live The Workers was made as both an ode to the Clyde shipbuilders and an interrogation of our own lived histories. The film contrasts early 1900’s newsreels with protest footage from the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders strikes during the 1970’s. In doing so, the film unpacks the imperialistic hijacking of the feats of the workers and instead, commemorates their successes. The film also uses imagery from this evening's feature presentation, Class Struggle. By sampling footage from such a wide variety of sources, the film coalesces into a mosaic of time that is littered with hardships, romanticism, and deep scrutiny of a world that is not too far removed from our own.

Class Struggle: Film from the Clyde (1977) Dir. Cinema Action. 75 minutes.

Filmed over the course of a year by left-wing film collective Cinema Action, Class Struggle: Film from the Clyde uses a mix of cinéma-vérité and talking head interviews to document the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders “work-in”, which lasted from July 1971 to October 1972. The film features a slew of important local figureheads from the 70s, such as union leader Jimmy Reid and his fellow shop stewards Jimmy Airlie, Sammy Barr, and Sammy Gilmore. The UCS refused any mainstream media outlet that wanted to interview them for TV. The only film crew they ever let into the work was Cinema Action. The film serves as both an insight into the insurmountable odds stacked against those who believe in collective action and a rallying cry for the power that the working man possesses.

CONTENT NOTES - Contains flashing imagery, scenes of injury/images depicting maimed body parts.