Revolt on the Clyde: Birth and Significance of Red Clydeside, 1914-1922 (thesis)

Abstract

Early attempts at characterizing the labor movement in Scotland and the rise of Red Clydeside were often too accepting of the received wisdom of the period and as such require some amount of revision. However, revisionist histories of the period often end up making one wonder why the events actually came to be remembered popularly at all. This thesis will argue that critical analysis of this era reveals a radical departure from the pre-war state of politics in the city, and a unique moment in the city that displayed characteristics unseen in other parts of the country. The facts of the matter, as they were both at the time and as they appear to recipients of the culturally transmitted legend of Red Clyde point towards a genuinely significant change in political culture brought about during and after the First World War, generated in varying degrees by wartime unrest and post-war labor-based political organization, a change that came about thanks to conditions in Glasgow that make it an exception to trends in the rest of the country. The cultural conception of this significant change deserves to be analyzed as well, both from its source from eyewitnesses as well as from subsequent generations that have been culturally aware of something that is Red Clydeside. With all this in mind, it becomes clear that, while the efficacy of the wartime and post-war movements was certainly less than revolutionary, the fact remains that Glasgow from 1914 to 1922 was a place in which real political change occurred, and occurred in ways and for reasons that, while similar to the events taking place throughout the country, were unique. Red Clydeside, then, is a period that is both unique and significant. [From introductory section]