THE RENT STRIKE TO BLOODY FRIDAY, 1919.
GLASGOW’S BLOODY FRIDAY 1919.
Like all the events in political struggle it is difficult to
trace the thread back to what brought it to this stage, Bloody Friday
1919 is no different. This was not just an attack on a large
demonstration in Glasgow, it was the culmination of a series of radical
events in Glasgow and the Clydeside area where the state showed its
brutality. Perhaps we could even take it back to the 18th century and
the radicals like Thomas Muir and others. However we can certainly take
it back to the rent strikes of the first world war, the forming of the
Labour Withholding Committee, (LWC) The Clyde Workers Committee (CWC)
and the political climate of that period.
THE RENT STRIKE.
In pre First World War Glasgow there were a large number of empty
houses, by the year 1915 all were occupied by incoming workers to the
munitions and allied war industry trades. A shortage of workers and
materials saw a lack of maintenance and the housing stock deteriorate
rapidly. At the beginning of the war the landlords tried to implement
large rent increases, at the receiving end of this were 7,000 pensioners
and families whose men were fighting in France. This brought about the
formation of the "Glasgow Women's Housing Association" and many other
local "Women's Housing Associations" to resist the increases. A variety
of peaceful activities were used to prevent evictions and drive out the
Sheriff's officers. There were constant meetings in an attempt to be one
step ahead of the Sheriff's officers. All manner of communication was
used to summon help, everything from drums, bells, trumpets and anything
that could be used to create a warning sound to rally supporters, who
were mainly women as the men were at work in the yards and factories at
these times. They would then indulge in cramming into closes and stairs
to prevent the entry of the Sheriff's officers and so prevent them from
carrying out their evictions. They also used little paper bags of flour,
peasmeal and whiting as missiles directed at the bowler hatted
officers. These activities culminated on the 17th of November 1915 with
the massive demonstration and march of thousands through the city
streets and on to the Glasgow Sheriff's Court. The size of the
demonstration caused the Sheriff at the court to phone the Prime
Minister of the day, this resulted in the immediate implementation of
the "1915 Rent Restriction Act" which benefited tenants across the
country.
THE LABOUR WITHHOLDING COMMITTEE.
This happened in a time of war, so it was obvious that by 1915
Glasgow and Clydeside had a very large class oriented militant
grassroots movement and had forced the Government on this occasion to
act in their favour. The rent strike was mainly a women’s organisation
but the men were proving to be just as militant in the workplaces.
Around the same time in 1915 during a prolonged period of considerable
economic hardship for most industrial workers, Clydeside engineering
employers refused workers demands for a wage increase. The insatiable
demand for war munitions had lead to a rapid rise in inflation and a
savage attack on the living standards of the working class. Workers were
demanding wage increases to offset these repressive conditions. At this
time Weir’s of Cathcart was paying workers brought over from their
American plant, 6/- shillings a week more than workers in their Glasgow
plant.
The dispute between workers and management at Weir’s rapidly
escalated into strike action. The strike was organised by a strike
committee named the Labour Withholding Committee (LWC). This committee
comprised of rank and file trade union members and shop stewards. It was
they who remained in control of the strike rather than the officials
from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE).
The strike started in February 1915 and lasted almost 3 weeks. At
its peak 10,000 members of the ASE from 8 separate engineering works
were on strike throughout Clydeside. The officials from the ASE
denounced the strike and backed the government’s demands to resume work.
It was this double pressure from the government and their own trade
union that drove the workers from the various engineering works in
Glasgow to form the LWC to give the workers a voice and to organise the
strike to their wishes.
Although the strikers demands were not met, its importance is in
the fact of it forming the LWC. A committee formed from rank and file
union members that determined policy in the work place and refused to
follow the directives from union officials when those directives
conflicted with the demands of that rank and file.
THE MUNITIONS ACT.
The government alarmed by the February 1915 strike, summoned
trade union leaders to a special conference. The result of this
conference being the now notorious Treasury Agreement. The outcome of
which was that all independent union rights and conditions including the
right to strike, were abandoned for the duration of the war. It also
allowed the employers to “dilute” labour. Meaning they could employ
unskilled labour in skilled jobs to compensate for the growing labour
shortage, due to the every increasing demand for munitions and the
endless slaughter of young men at the front. The Munitions Act also made
strikes illegal and restrictions of output a criminal offence. The
Munitions Act also allowed for the setting up of Munitions Tribunals to
deal with any transgressions of the act.
