Film Screening: Sitting Tight & Red Skirts on Clydeside

30 years ago a courageous group of women occupied our building at Kinning Park Complex, demanding it be put into community hands. This amazing piece of activist history is just one instance in a long tradition of women activists locally and nationally. 

Come along for a cosy afternoon watching two incredible films documenting women’s history and activism along the Clydeside. 

Sitting Tight: The Story of the Lee Jeans Sit-in

In February 1981, amid fears the Lee Jeans factory was to close, 240 members of staff barricaded themselves inside while negotiations regarding their jobs took place. The sit in lasted 7 months, during which the community banded together to support workers and their families. Local eateries delivered food and shipyard workers donated money and other supplies and attended a rally at the factory the day staff were to be forcibly removed. The event made national news and finally in August 1981 the firm was bought out and all 240 jobs were saved.

The documentary features interviews with workers, their families and local historians, a reconstruction of sit in events (script written during workshops with Greenock Writer's Club), songs commissioned by local singer/songwriters, photographs, letters and other artefacts.

Runtime: 26 minutes 

Red Skirts on Clydeside 

A documentary which looks at the process of rediscovering women's history using the 1915 Glasgow Rent Strike as a focal point. Includes interviews with women about their memories of Socialist organisations in Glasgow and personalities involved in the Strike.

Runtime: 40 minutes 

Please note that the recommended viewing age for these films is 12+. The films will include discussion of sexism, classism, imprisonment, birth control and evictions.

Thank you to RIG Arts for allowing us to screen Sitting Tight. 

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Host or Publisher Kinning Park Complex