Our comrade Livie (Livingstone) Reid has died aged 77. He was a stalwart of the left in both the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU/T&G) and Unite.
He was born and raised in Dumfries, but spent most of his school holidays with a Communist family in Clydebank. He spent most of his life as a Communist and was an active shop steward wherever he worked.
As a lay member and then as a full time official he was innovative in creating democratic structures delivering power to workers.
He became the T&G’s District Secretary in Exeter, then Dumfries, and finally Taunton. He was a key negotiator of left unity at difficult times in the T&G, and played a leading role in the formation of the United Left in Unite.