red clydeside Flashcards
Some workers from the engineering and shipbuilding industries were, at this time, expected to work 57-hour weeks
the strikers during Red Clydeside were demanding a 40 hour working week in addition to an end to dilution
The government was concerned that the strike could spread throughout the country.
At a parliamentary meeting in London it was agreed that ‘sufficient force’ would be made available in the Glasgow area to keep law and order. Armed forces would only be used at the request of local authorities.
The strikers gave up their cause
for a 40 hour work week.
Shipbuilding industries did return to work having at least negotiated an agreement that guaranteed them a 47-hour working week.
Membership of the ILP increased
after the events in George
Square.
The war, rent strikes and the image of Red Clydeside seemed to have radicalised the voters in and around Glasgow.
Huge fights broke out between strikers and the police
Iron railings and bottles were used by strikers as a defence against the police truncheons
Many middle class Conservatives also believed the strikes were damaging Britain’s chances of winning the war…
and endangering the lives of soldiers at the front, by threatening the supply of munitions.
Some people believed that the Russian Revolution of late 1917…
had inspired some workers to believe that great changes were possible - resulting in Red Clydeside. In reality, faced with bad housing and unemployment, workers and soldiers alike wanted change.
On the first Monday of Red
Clydeside 40,000 workers went on
strike.
By the Friday it has been estimated that up to 100,000 strikers congregated in George Square to hear the government response to the workers’ proposal for a 40-hour working week.
The fighting between the strikers and police spread into the surrounding streets and spread towards Glasgow Green.
Official figures state that 34 strikers and 19 policemen were injured.
The police were lined up in streets around George Square during Red Clydeside
Police baton charged the striking workers at 12:20pm.
CWC leader David Kirkwood never actually made it to the Red Clydeside strike
As he was attempting to reach the crowds to calm them he was thrown to the ground by police and knocked out.
William Gallacher was arrested and charged with ‘instigating and inciting large crowds of persons to form part of a riotous mob’
His other CWC leaders, David Kirkwood and Emanuel Shinwell were also arrested.
