ON THE day that President Trump was inaugurated, signalling a triumph for the rich and right-wing individualism, another event took place in Tannochside Miners Club which represented all that Trump stands against — solidarity and collectivism.

A group gathered in a reunion of old comrades to commemorate the time when they, Scottish engineering workers, decided to stand up against the power and wealth of a US multinational in the face of the law of the land. I was honoured, along with Unison Scotland convener Lilian Macer, to attend the gathering as a guest of the workers.

The Caterpillar occupation took place 30 years ago this month and represents all that is good in working-class solidarity and contrasts starkly with the world envisioned by President Trump. They stood for a future where quality jobs would be available in the community for generations to come, where young workers could learn skills and they could produce a product that was useful for the wellbeing of society.

The company existed to make profits for rich stakeholders while the workers worked to earn a decent living and produce state-of-the-art engineering.

The occupation inspired a resurgence of working-class action in Scotland that had been badly damaged by the defeat of the miners two years before. Ultimately the occupation failed to save the factory and the jobs, but for over 100 days they controlled the plant with no representatives of the company allowed to enter. They created a symbol of class resistance and showed that working-class solidarity was alive and well. Thousands of pounds came in to support them, from children and pensioners, from the local community and from across Scotland and the world.

They also demonstrated, in wonderful visual terms, that workers actually don’t need the capitalist class to be able to produce. They built a tractor as a demonstration of their skills and, painted appropriately, dubbed it the Pink Panther. For without the skills of workers the shareholders cannot build anything. In doing this they underlined the truth that workers can run factories without bosses. They have the skills, the organisation and the discipline to create much-needed products.

This truth is denied to workers every day of their life. We are taught that the banks, the captains of industry and the Donald Trumps of the world are necessary. That we can’t do without them. It is a lie.

Every day workers in the public sector prove this truth. We run the schools, the hospitals, ensure safe and secure communities, we care for older and disabled people, we keep the roads clear in winter. We used to provide power and telecoms, postal services and run the trains and buses. All without the need for shareholders and captains of industry.

What the Caterpillar workers demonstrated in a small way was that workers lack only one thing which prevents them from running industry and controlling society. That is access to the wealth that they create. The workers were faced with a strike of capital when Caterpillar decided, without any democratic process, to withhold capital. Capital that was created by the workers over many years.

This is the same as when public-sector workers face cuts to the services they provide when the governments, run by the representatives of the shareholders in the Tory Party, decide to withhold the taxes paid by workers away from providing public services and direct them instead towards benefitting the rich in society and allowing profits, rather than services, to be delivered.

The election of Trump simply means that instead of sending a representative of the shareholding class to run the government, they have selected one of their own.

John Gillen, one of the stewards in the factory, said recently that all the workers “walked taller for being part of the occupation.” And so they do. They are giants of the working class.

When the management announced at a press conference in Glasgow that the Caterpillar plant in Tannochside was to close, John Brannan, the works convener stood up at the back and announced: “The factory is now under occupation.”

Workers across the world need to find a way to stand up to Trump, Theresa May and the others and tell them that, like the Caterpillar workers 30 years ago, “We are taking over.”

• Stephen Smellie is deputy convener for Unison Scotland. The Caterpillar Legacy Group are organising events over the next few months to commemorate their struggle. Details are on their Facebook page: http://mstar.link/CPO87.