WORKERS, KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

Tanks and troops with fixed bayonets, Trongate, Glasgow 1919.

      Since the beginning of capitalism the workers lot has been one of continuous struggle against his/her employer. Any attempt to improve our conditions has been met with stiff and sometimes violent opposition, not only from the employers but also from the state on behave of the employers. This is something that the ordinary worker should remember, but these struggles are however, never taught in mainstream education.

     We have to write our own history and add to it the struggles of today. Each generation has to know it is a continuous struggle and they are part of that struggle. If we don’t record our history and learn from it, then it never happened and we will never achieve that society of equality for all.

Calton Weavers Strike 1787, six weavers shot and killed at Drygate near the Cathedral.

1820 Insurrection, Hardie, Baird and Wilson executed.

Cotton Spinners Strike 1837, strikers sentenced to 7 years deportation.

The Rent Strike 1915, grassroots movement forced the government to freeze all rents until the end of the war.

Clyde Workers Committee 1916, members of the committee arrested by military authorities and removed from the city.

Bloody Friday 1919, mass demonstration in George Square, attempting to gain a 40 hour week, attacked by police, resulting in the largest military mobilization of the British state against its own people, with troops lining the streets of Glasgow and guarding the docks.

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in 1971/72, to save closure, shipyards occupied for 16 months.

       Recently we have had school occupations to stop closures, factory occupations and strikes. These are not new struggles they are part of that continuous struggle to build a society that sees to the needs of all those in that society. A struggle that requires that we are aware that we are all in the same struggle and should support each other in solidarity for that common aim, justice for all. For more of Glasgow’s working class history click here.

 

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