Support Ferguson Marine!

We demand that the Scottish government support Scottish heavy marine industry, and ensure that the twenty-one boats that the current ferry plan proposes to buy are built in Scottish shipyards.

We are an island nation with a rich industrial history, a skilled workforce, and world-leading science and technology capabilities. We have been building boats on the Clyde since the 15th century. We have a history of steelworks stretching back 200 years.

The insanity of getting foreign companies to build our boats is mind-boggling. Any rational government would be building boats here on this island using British steel made using British clean coke.

The Workers Party believes in achieving economic security through industrial development, not through paper-pushing, financial chicanery, offshoring production, and extracting profits from poorly paid workers abroad.

We believe in a government of action that implements a national strategic plan of industrial development, both via direct control in state-owned firms and by investment and guidance for surrounding private firms.

Scotland is planning to replace 21 of the ferries in its fleet in the next 10 years. That is enough work to sustain Ferguson and to create growth, development, and technological progress. The Workers Party wants the skills and technology developed by building these boats to be in Scotland.

We believe in the nationalisation of key sectors of the economy. We don’t see nationalisation as a temporary bailout after which we can sell it off to our mates for a quick buck. A nationalised Ferguson should be the core of a national heavy marine industry strategy and be a part of a larger heavy industry plan.

It is ironic that our government pushes for climate-friendly development and is even hosting a global climate conference, COP26, while a firm like Ferguson, which can develop green technologies like hydrogen-powered propulsion and contribute to a heavy marine ecosystem that could build offshore windmills in Britain, is allowed to flounder through lack of investment.

Free-market production has failed Scotland. Our steelworks are shut, our coal mines are flooded. The Clyde is a shadow of its former self. Much of our heavy industry has been crippled or dismantled.

If you believe that Scotland should be developing its industries according to a rational plan with state investment, guidance, and control of the largest firms, then please support the Workers Party’s call to create a campaign to pressure the government to have these boats built in Scotland.

We call interested workers to contact us to discuss what can be done to safeguard Ferguson.

See our Party Programme to understand our priorities and contact us to get involved.