It was the early days of the Thatcher project. At the start of 1981, the free-market chill was about to lay waste to the Linwood car plant, Bobby Sands was beginning his fatal hunger strike and formerly militant unions were feeling cowed by the implications of the 1980 Employment Act. This was the era of Ghost Town by the Specials: economic desolation at No 1.
The outlook was bleak, but in a garment factory in Greenock, something remarkable happened. Furious at their American owners for proposing to move production to Northern Ireland where lucrative subsidies awaited, 240 workers occupied the Lee Jeans plant. Refusing to leave, the predominantly female workforce drew support from miners and dockers, Jimmy Reid and Michael Foot. Seven months later, the 140 still occupying reclaimed their jobs. [READ MORE]