Scottish quote of the day: Jimmy Reid, Glasgow University, 1972

Trade union activist and politician Jimmy Reid was the spokesman and one of the leaders of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in of 1971-72 in which workers refused to accept the liquidation of the company and continued to work without pay in protest.

Subsequently elected rector of Glasgow University, Reid’s inaugural speech in 1972 was described by the New York Times as the greatest speech since the Gettysburg Address. It is still considered one of the greatest ever given in Scotland.

“A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings. Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.

This is how it starts, and, before you know where you are, you’re a fully paid-up member of the rat pack. The price is too high.”