Fighting deindustrialisation : Scottish women's factory occupations, 1981-1982 / Andy Clark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clark, Andy, author.

Series:

Studies in labour history (Liverpool University Press) ; 19.

Studies in labour history ; 19

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in the labor movement.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, [2022]

Summary:

In Fighting Deindustrialisation, Andy Clark outlines and examines one of the most significant and under-researched periods in modern Scottish labour history. Over a fourteen month period in 1981 and 1982, as Scotland suffered the effects of the accelerated deindustrialisation of its economy, three workforces refused to accept the loss of their jobs. The predominantly women assembly workers at Lee Jeans (Greenock), Lovable Bra (Cumbernauld), and Plessey Capacitors (Bathgate) were informed that their multinational employers had taken the decisions to close their plants. At each site, a battle was fought against capital movement, corporate greed, and unfair jobloss. The workers occupied their factories and refused to vacate until their demands were met and closure avoided. At all sites this objective was achieved; none of the factories completely closed following the women's occupations.In this book, these occupations are analysed together for the first time, through a range of analytical frameworks from oral history, memory studies, industrial relations scholarship, and deindustrialisation studies. In his extensive examination, Clark argues that the actions of 1981-82 should be considered as one of the most significant periods in Scotland's history of deindustrialisation. However, the public memory of 1981-82 is precarious; Fighting Deindustrialisation begins the process of incorporating women's militant resistance within academic and popular understandings of working-class activism in later 20th century-Scotland.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

1 'Not our jobs to sell': Introduction

I Theoretical Perspectives and Historiographical Contexts

2 'No way could ye get another job': The Development of Deindustrialisation Studies

3 'Why the hell are ye takin' the job aff me?': Theorising Collective Action

4 'Ah mean, the young anes don't know wit a factory is': Scotland's Economy and Women's Working Lives in the Twentieth Century

II The Occupation of the Factories

5 'Wait a minute, wit have we actually just said here?': The Lee Jeans Occupation

6 'We were frightened it wis aw' gonnae go abroad and we'd be oot the factory': The Lovable Occupation

7 'We felt like criminals! And we wurnae, we were just fightin' for wur job': The Plessey Capacitors Occupation

III Analysis and Discussion

8 ''It wisnae as if we're sittin' there wi' nae work': Injustice, Solidarity, and the Mobilisation of the Workers

9 'There is nothing there for us and nothing for the future. We are going to battle - we are not moving'

10 'Ye never think that somebody's gonnae come along and ask ye questions aboot it': The Turn to Memory

11 'Ah'm part ae that wee bit of history': Conclusion

Appendix: Interviewees

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Clark, Andy Fighting Deindustrialisation

ISBN:

9781837649501