Yes! Yes! UCS!

POWER TO THE PEOPLE: Townsend Theatre Productions latest play coming to North Edinburgh Arts

It’s 1971 and Aggy McGraw, straight out of school, gets an office job at Fairfields shipyard in Govan a week before the new Tory government decides to stop any investment in what they call ‘lame duck’ industries, which includes shipbuilding on the Clyde.

Facing an uncertain future, she has nothing to lose, except her job, and is swept up into the famous ‘Work In’ to demonstrate to the government that shipbuilding has a future – that the jobs, traditions, skills and communities can be saved. 

Townsend Theatre Productions’ new play Yes! Yes! U.C.S! is a celebration of the community solidarity and collective resistance inspired and led by Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’ shop stewards Jimmy’s Reid and Airlie, attracting massive national and international support that led to victory in the fight for Right to Work.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono sent a bunch of roses with message for the people of Glasgow; it read: “Power to the People!”

Yes! Yes! UCS! begins a nationwide tour in February and comes to North Edinburgh Arts on 27 April (venue to be confirmed due to the Arts Centre’s redevelopment).