Beginnings: ‘I’m from Govan’
Beginnings: ‘I’m from Govan’
Chapter one discusses the appalling socio-economic circumstances of poverty and squalor that Reid was born into in 1930s Glasgow and how this impacted on his attitude to towards capitalist society. As part of this we look at the problems faced by his father in providing for his family and his mother’s ability in a hand-to-mouth culture to use the meagre resources in such a way as to ensure food and clothing for her children. We stress the fact that music and literature were embedded in the family. Reid himself became the personification of the auto-didact. We emphasise that it was the library rather than the classroom which moulded and shaped him culturally and politically. After engaging with a number of youth organisations Reid joined the YCL at the age of 15; the year he began his working life in a stockbroker’s office before leaving to become an apprentice engineer.
Keywords: Social Conditions, Housing, Poverty, Family, Work
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