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Red Clydeside was an era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. It also referred to the area around the city on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley. Red Clydeside is a significant part of the history of the labour movement in Scotland and Britain as a whole.
Some newspapers of the time used the term "Red Clydeside" in a Derogatory, to refer to the groundswell of popular and political radicalism that had erupted in Scotland. A confluence of charismatic individuals, organised movements, and socio-political forces gave rise to Red Clydeside, which had its roots in working-class opposition to Britain's participation in the First World War. The region had a long history of political radicalism dating back to the Society of the Friends of the People and the "Radical War" of 1820.William Kenefick, Red Scotland! The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, c. 1872 to 1932 (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).Robert Keith Middlemas, The Clydesiders: A Left Wing Struggle for Parliamentary Power (Hutchinson & Co., 1965).
Labour unrest, particularly among women and unskilled labourers, greatly increased between 1910 and 1914 in Clydeside, with four times as many days on strike as between 1900 and 1910. During these four years preceding World War I, membership of those affiliated to the Scottish Trades Union Congress rose from 129,000 in 1909 to 230,000 in 1914.
Anti-war activity also took place outside the workplace and on the streets in general. The Marxist John Maclean and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) member James Maxton were both jailed for their anti-war propaganda efforts.
Helen Crawfurd was opposed to conscription and, although there were anti-war and anti-conscription campaigns in organisations such as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom being organised and run by middle-class women, few working-class women were involved in Scotland. Frustration on her part on their lack of representation, Helen Crawfurd organised a grassroots meeting called 'The Great Women's Peace Conference' involving socialist-minded women in June 1916. From this meeting, and alongside her fellow Rent Striker Agnes Dollan, The Women's Peace Crusade (WPC) arose in November 1916 in Govan, Glasgow. As intended, the organisation initially attracted working-class women in Govan to activism, and with open air meetings throughout Glasgow, Edinburgh and within Lowland Scotland they began to extend their reach. By 1917, street meetings were regularly being held all around the districts of Glasgow and beyond, including Partick, Maryhill, Bridgeton, Parkhead, Govan, Govanhill, Whiteinch, Shettleston, Springburn, Possilpark, Bellahouston, Rutherglen, Paisley, Overnewton Barrhead, Cambuslang, Blantyre, Alloa, Cowdenbeath, Drongan, Drumpark, Douglas Water and Lanark. As a further indicator of their success, a mass demonstration was organised by the WPC on Sunday 8 July 1917, in which processions marched to the sound of music and the flying of banners from two sides of the city to the famous Glasgow Green in the centre of the city. As the two streams of Crusaders approached the green they merged into a huge colourful and noisy demonstration of around 14,000 participants.
By the time that the Peace Crusade disbanded it had become a UK-wide organisation.
John Maclean of the British Socialist Party organised the Scottish Federation of Tenants' Associations in 1913 to fight against rent increases and championed public housing. In 1914 the Independent Labour Party Housing Committee and the Women's Labour League formed the Glasgow Women's Housing Association. Under the leadership of Mary Barbour, Mary Laird, Helen Crawfurd, Mary Jeff, Jessie Stephen and Jessie Fergusson the Glasgow Women's Housing Association became the driving force behind the rent strike that started in May 1915 in the industrialised area of Govan. Tenants refused to pay the latest increase in rents and staged mass demonstrations against evictions, resulting in violent confrontations. With the start of the First World War local young men left Glasgow to serve in the army overseas, and the first violent protest in the Govan district took place in April to resist the eviction of a soldier's family. As evictions were repeatedly attempted with support from the police, women attacked the factors and the sheriffs' men.
In early summer 1915, the rent strikers were supported by mass demonstrations and by August, the rent strikers had found widespread support in Glasgow. Rent strikes spread from heavily industrialised areas of the city to artisanal areas and slum areas. Strikes ignited in Partick, Parkhead, Pollokshaws, Pollok, Cowcaddens, Kelvingrove, Ibrox, Govanhill, St Rollox, Townhead, Springburn, Maryhill, Fairfield, Blackfriars, and Woodside. In October 1915, 15,000 tenants were on rent strike and a demonstration led by women converged on St Enoch Square. By November, 20,000 tenants were on rent strike as violent resistance against evictions continued. Trade unions threatened factory strikes if evictions supported by the police continued and following demonstrations on 17 November, legal action against rent strikers was halted. State Secretary of Scotland Thomas McKinnon Wood asked the Cabinet to freeze all rents at pre-war levels and in December, the Rents and Mortgage Interest Restriction Act 1915 received royal assent.
In March 2018, to mark International Women's Day, a bronze sculpture of Barbour was unveiled in Govan, Glasgow portraying Barbour leading a line of strikers.
The Sheriff of Lanarkshire, who had earlier checked that troops would be available if he needed them, called for military aid. Mainly Scottish and mainly veteran troops were sent from bases elsewhere in Scotland, and one battalion was sent up from the north of England. Claims that the troops were sent by the government, as well as claims that Scottish troops were locked in their barracks during the incident, are part of the extensive mythology surrounding the event. It was only fourteen months since the Russian Revolution, and the German Revolution was still in progress in January 1919. The troops started arriving at 10 pm that evening, after the violence was over. Six tanks arrived from Dorset on Monday, 3 February.
William Gallacher, who would later become a Communist MP claimed that, whilst the leaders of the rally were not seeking revolution, in hindsight they should have been. He claimed that they should have marched to the Maryhill Barracks and tried to persuade the troops stationed there to come out on the protesters' side.
The trade union leaders, who had organised the meeting, were arrested. Most were acquitted, although both Gallacher and Manny Shinwell were put in jail for their activities that day, Shinwell also being charged with an inflammatory speech the week before in James Watt Street in the city's docks, in an episode that later erupted into a race riot.
According to the Labour Party, the Red Clydesiders were viewed as having a dissident left-wing character. Many of them, most notably Maxton and Wheatley, were great critics of the first and second Labour governments, elected in 1924 and 1929 respectively.
The Red Clydeside era still impacts upon the politics of the area today. Ever since, Glasgow has been known for political and industrial militancy. The Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work In of 1971 offers a pertinent example. The Labour Party has been historically dominant in Glasgow where they held the vast majority of parliamentary seats until SNP gains in 2015 from where they held all seats (with the exception of Glasgow North East between 2017-2019) until their return to Labour in 2024.
This period in Glasgow's colourful past remains a significant landmark for those on the political left in Scotland. The story of the Red Clydesiders can still be politically motivating. At the 1989 Glasgow Central by-election, the Scottish National Party candidate Alex Neil called himself and the SNP member of Parliament for Govan at the time, Jim Sillars; the "new Clydesiders".
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