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kalashnikov

Battle of George Square, Glasgow 1919

 The battle of George Square, Glasgow (Bloody Friday) 1919

On Friday 31 January 1919 upwards of 60,000 demonstrators gathered in George Square in support of the 40-hours strike and to hear the Lord Provost's reply to the workers' request for a 40-hour week. Whilst the deputation was in the building the police mounted a vicious and unprovoked attack on the demonstrators, felling unarmed men and women with their batons. The demonstrators, with the ex-servicemen to the fore, quickly retaliated with fists, iron railings and broken bottles, and forced the police into a retreat.



On hearing the noise from the square the strike leaders, who were meeting with the Lord Provost, rushed outside to restore order. One of the leaders, David Kirkwood, was felled to the ground by a police baton, and along with William Gallacher was arrested by the police.



After the initial confrontation between the demonstrators and the police in George Square, further fighting continued in and around the city centre streets for many hours afterwards. The Townhead area of the city and Glasgow Green, where many of the demonstrators had regrouped after the initial police charge, were the scenes of running battles between police and demonstrators.



In the immediate aftermath of 'Bloody Friday', as it became known, other leaders of the Clyde Workers' Committee were also arrested, including Emanuel Shinwell, Harry Hopkins and George Edbury.



Government concerns about industrial militancy and revolutionary political activity in Glasgow reached new heights after the events of 31 January 1919. Fears within government of a workers' revolution in Glasgow led to the deployment of troops and tanks in the city.

An estimated 10000 English troops in total were sent to Glasgow in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of George Square. This was in spite of a full battalion of Scottish soldiers being stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing that fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers side if a revolutionary situation developed in Glasgow.



On 10 February 1919 the 40-hours strike was called off by the Joint Strike Committee. Whilst not achieving their stated aim of a 40-hour working week, the striking workers from the engineering and shipbuilding industries did return to work having at least negotiated an agreement that guaranteed them a 47-hour working week; 10 hours less than they were working prior to the strike.
thetimeisnow

Great stuff! Really interesting!
azzuri

Extremely interesting kalashnikov and a side to Scottish/British history we don't often hear.

Some very good pics too.
Morph

did a little bit of Red Clydeside at uni kalashnikov, and it was a great and very interesting topic. Could you give us a link to where theres pics were found please so I can find out more?
azzuri

see - http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/

Cool
Morph

Good site Azzuri, one of the things that struck me was the use of religion to push some socialist points. Maybe Rinty or someone could help me here bu wasnt socialism at odds with religion?
BonnieBlueFlag

Wow, very interesting, any further links/referances would be very much appreciated!
mairead

Kalashnikov,
A brilliant post there mate. Congratulations. We could do with more like this.
John MacLean

The fact that Red Clydeside, John MacLean etc is not part of the Scottish history curriculum at schol is a shocking omission. Just why is the industrial revolution (essentially the rise of capitalism) covered but nothing is taught about Scotland's genuine working class heroes?
SLG

Perhaps because Scotland is a capitalist country and our teachers are discouraged to act in a way that might promote an alternative ideology.
agentmancuso

Morph wrote:
Good site Azzuri, one of the things that struck me was the use of religion to push some socialist points. Maybe Rinty or someone could help me here bu wasnt socialism at odds with religion?


Socialism in the UK spread almost entirely in poor Non-Conformist areas in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. South Wales being the classic example.

In any case, despite it's overt hostility to religion, Marxism replicates the mythic structure and soteriology of messianic/revivalist Christianity in exact detail. The most obvious illustration of this is the ludicrous way Marxist/Socialist groups splinter into ever smaller and ever more fundamentalist factions, along lines of theoretical/theological argument as obscure as they are irrelevant to the rest of the planet.
The intensity, conviction and stridence of the True Believer is equally striking in both fundamentalist Christian and Marxist cults. Marxism is basically a materialist Christian heresy, filling the void left by the collapse of traditional religious patterns of belonging and belief.
agentmancuso

John MacLean wrote:
The fact that Red Clydeside, John MacLean etc is not part of the Scottish history curriculum at schol is a shocking omission. Just why is the industrial revolution (essentially the rise of capitalism) covered but nothing is taught about Scotland's genuine working class heroes?


Perhaps because MacLean's affect on Scottish history was utterly minute.
Perhaps because there is no such thing as 'a genuine working class hero'. There is no such thing as 'a working class' for that matter.
Babygael

Ahm watchin' yew agentmancuso!!
John MacLean

agentmancuso wrote:
John MacLean wrote:
The fact that Red Clydeside, John MacLean etc is not part of the Scottish history curriculum at schol is a shocking omission. Just why is the industrial revolution (essentially the rise of capitalism) covered but nothing is taught about Scotland's genuine working class heroes?


Perhaps because MacLean's affect on Scottish history was utterly minute.
Perhaps because there is no such thing as 'a genuine working class hero'. There is no such thing as 'a working class' for that matter.


I wouldn’t expect the history curriculum in Scotland to focus exclusively on John MacLean, or any other individual either for that matter, that would be nonsense. I used his name purely as an example.

Unless it has changed dramatically since I left school (what I have read on the subject would suggest that it hasn’t – am happy to be corrected though) the history taught in our schools is an unbalanced if not to say biased one.

While it focuses on the industrialisation of Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries it barely touches on the working class and their contribution to our nation’s history. The Labour movement that spawned what would come to be known as ‘Red Clydeside’ and produced MPs like John Maxton is largely if not totally ignored.

There was no revolution in Scotland in 1919 to mirror what happened in Russia two years previously. To be honest I don’t think Scotland was as close to revolution as sometimes people like to think. That said it is still a subject that merits greater study if only to provide a more rounded history of our country.
agentmancuso

John MacLean wrote:
agentmancuso wrote:
John MacLean wrote:
The fact that Red Clydeside, John MacLean etc is not part of the Scottish history curriculum at schol is a shocking omission. Just why is the industrial revolution (essentially the rise of capitalism) covered but nothing is taught about Scotland's genuine working class heroes?


Perhaps because MacLean's affect on Scottish history was utterly minute.
Perhaps because there is no such thing as 'a genuine working class hero'. There is no such thing as 'a working class' for that matter.


I wouldn’t expect the history curriculum in Scotland to focus exclusively on John MacLean, or any other individual either for that matter, that would be nonsense. I used his name purely as an example.

Unless it has changed dramatically since I left school (what I have read on the subject would suggest that it hasn’t – am happy to be corrected though) the history taught in our schools is an unbalanced if not to say biased one.

While it focuses on the industrialisation of Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries it barely touches on the working class and their contribution to our nation’s history. The Labour movement that spawned what would come to be known as ‘Red Clydeside’ and produced MPs like John Maxton is largely if not totally ignored.

There was no revolution in Scotland in 1919 to mirror what happened in Russia two years previously. To be honest I don’t think Scotland was as close to revolution as sometimes people like to think. That said it is still a subject that merits greater study if only to provide a more rounded history of our country.


Fair enough. In what sense is history taught in our schools 'biased' though?
agentmancuso

Babygael wrote:
Ahm watchin' yew agentmancuso!!


I'm flattered, truely.
Avatar

Quote:
Babygael wrote:
Ahm watchin' yew agentmancuso!!


I'm flattered, truely.


Aww young love Very Happy
jimtrot

John MacLean wrote:
The fact that Red Clydeside, John MacLean etc is not part of the Scottish history curriculum at schol is a shocking omission. Just why is the industrial revolution (essentially the rise of capitalism) covered but nothing is taught about Scotland's genuine working class heroes?


Because history is written by the ruling class.

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