Red ClydesideWhat was Red Clydeside?

Between 1915 and 1919 parts of Glasgow and its surrounding area became known as ‘Red Clydeside’.

Red was the colour of revolution!

The revolutionary flags flying during the Russian Revolution were all red so the nickname of ‘red’ for revolutionary stuck.

There were two phases to ‘Red Clydeside’.

The first phase was a series of disputes in 1915 between the government and the workers in the factories and engineering works around the River Clyde.

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The second phase took place just after the war ended when strikes and conflict occurred between workers and police in George Square, Glasgow.

This caused the government to worry that the strike leaders were preparing to start a revolution in Britain.

Why did the ‘Red Clydeside’ protests start?

Protests started in the engineering factories over the issue of dilution.

Dilution (as discussed) meant the use in wartime of unskilled workers to do parts of a job that had previously been done only by skilled men.

In other words.. The skill was being lessened or diluted by the use of unskilled labour.

Skilled men now saw their jobs under threat!!

Or if they kept their jobs, it was certain their wages would be cut.

If they complained they could be replaced by a group of quickly trained and low paid women!

Why did tension increase between the government and the workers on Clydeside?

The government were worried when engineers at Fairfield’s Shipbuilding and Engineering works went on strike in Feb 1915.

As the demand for munitions soared the government became very suspicious of any action by workers that might pose a threat to efficient wartime production.

Workers on Clydeside were angry with the Munitions Act

This new law made strikes illegal and also made any attempt to restrict or limit the production of war equipment and munitions a criminal offence.

Tensions increased further when ‘leaving certificates’ were introduced.

These new leaving certificates meant that workers now had to get permission to leave one job before they could get another, the engineers felt this was another attempt to control not only what jobs they did but also where they worked.

The rent strikes were also part of the tension and discontent that rumbled through Clydeside in 1915.

From the workers point of view the rent strikes were successful.

The government met the demands of the strikers when the workers in munitions factories went on strike in support of the women organising the rent strikes, the striking men realised the power they had.

They felt that any united action that threatened the flow of munitions would make the government sit up and take notice of strikers’ demands.

The government took a different view

It was concerned about any attempt by workers to unite and perhaps disrupt wartime production.

When the Clyde Workers Committee (CWC) was started, its leaders Willie Gallacher and David Kirkwood, along with socialist John Maclean, soon became the centre of government suspicion.

The CWC continued to organise small scale strikes to protest at the removal of workers rights

From the governments point of view, the CWC was a nest of revolutionaries ready to upset the war effort and even lead revolution in Britain

What was the Clyde Workers’ Committee (CWC)?

The Clyde Workers Committee (CWC), led by Willie Gallacher, was created to protect the interests of the industrial workers. It was organised around the shop stewards who were workers elected from the work place to represent the wishes of the workers themselves.

In January 1916, when the dilution Commission arrived in Glasgow to enforce dilution in the munitions factories around Glasgow. The CWC led the workers in twenty nine Clydeside engineering works

When strikes broke out, the government ordered the CWC leaders to be arrested and deported to Edinburgh, where they had to report to the police three times every day.

Did strikers on ‘Red Clydeside’ gain much public sympathy?

The deportations broke the strength and organisation of the CWC.

Most public opinion supported the government.

Newspapers described the strikers as being greedy and selfish.

Most public opinion saw the strikers as damaging the chances of winning the war and even endangering the lives of soldiers at the front by trying to limit the supply of munitions.

Why did more ‘Red Clydeside’ protests break out at the end of the war?

When the war ended industrial workers across Britain began to fear for their jobs.

They remembered the unemployment of the pre-war years and they realised that the war had given a temporary boost to industries that had been facing problems before the war.

As munitions factories were closed, and orders from the government for the machines of war dried up, industrial workers also faced competition for jobs from thousands of returning soldiers.

On Clydeside the CWC was leading a campaign to reduce the working week of fifty four hours to forty hours, partly to help create jobs for soldiers returning from the war.

Prime Minister Lloyd George had promised returning soldiers ‘a land fit for heroes’.

Instead, most soldiers disillusioned.

There is a view that that the Russian Revolution of late 1917 had inspired some workers to believe that great changes were possible.

Faced with bad housing and unemployment in Scotland after the war, workers and soldiers alike wanted improvements in their living and working conditions.

The CWC held a meeting of its shop stewards in the shipbuilding and engineering industries in January 1919, where the Forty Hours Movement was established.

The CWC promised that if there was still many people without a job even after a forty-hour week had been established then a ‘more drastic reduction of hours will be demanded’.

What was the George Square Riot?

At the end of January 1919 the CWC and other trades unions called a strike and then a large demonstration in George Square. (Glasgow, Friday, 31 Jan 1919)

As the crowds grew to almost 90,000 people the authorities became concerned and clashes between the Police and protestors broke out.

When the Police launched a baton charge into the crowd, running battles between protestors and police spread across central Glasgow.

The government had been advised that the crowd could easily become a revolutionary mob and the government’s concern increased even more when some reports said a red flag was seen flying over the crowd.

It was only 14 months since the Russian Revolution, and in that same month of Jan 1919 a German Revolution had occurred.

The government clearly felt it had to take action.

Over 12,000 English troops were brought in by the government to restore order.

Six tanks were also available for use and machine-gun posts were set up in the city

Within a week of the battle of George Square, the strike was over and a settlement was reached on the basis of a 47 hour working week.

This was a victory for the workers in the short term but it did not seriously challenge the role of the bosses.

Was there really a risk of revolution starting on Clydeside?

There is little evidence that the leaders of the strikes and demonstrations ever considered challenging the authority of the British government.

For most of the strikers and demonstrators the protests on Clydeside were the result of worries about dilution or unfair rents.

At no point did most of the protestors think about revolution.

Did Red Clydeside have much effect on Scottish politics after the war?

Immediately after the events in George Square, membership of the ILP increased.

The war, rent strikes and the image of ‘Red Clydeside’ seemed to have radicalised the voters in and around Glasgow.

Support for the Labour Party grew while the Liberal support fell. In 1922 several of the Red Clydesiders were elected as ILP Members of Parliament, including David Kirkwood and Emanuel Shinwell, both former leaders of the rent strikes of 1915-16.

The success of the ILP in Glasgow gave rise to a real hope among the working people of Clydesde that gains could be made for Glasgow’s working classes.

However the hopes of the ILP members from Glasgow for real social change soon faded.

The official Labour Party knew they needed middle-class votes if they knew they were to be a national electable party, so they aimed at respectability and compromise.

In effect, the Red Clydesiders were muzzled by a stronger and more moderate Labour Party, and were left largely without influence.