Red Clydeside: Timeline of events (original) (raw)

This chronological timeline provides a guide to the events which helped shape the political landscape of Glasgow between 1910 and 1932. The timeline charts the industrial conflicts, community-based protests and political developments which established Glasgow's reputation as the centre of working class struggle in Britain in the first three decades of the twentieth century. In order to better understand the developmental nature of the events which contributed to the legend of Red Clydeside, the timeline has been divided into four distinct periods.

The first period covers the immediate pre-war years between 1910 and 1914, during which it was said that the workers of Clydeside were imbued with a 'spirit of revolt'. The second period covers the war years between 1914-18, when leading members of the British government were of the firm belief that Glasgow was in the grip of 'revolutionary ferment'. The third period covers the years between 1918-22, which saw the electoral rise of the Independent Labour Party on Clydeside, the demise of the Liberal hegemony in British politics, and a growing fear within the British political establishment of the 'menace of socialism'. The fourth and final period covers the years 1922 to 1932, a period in which the opposing forces within the labour movement engaged each other in an ideological and electoral battle for the hearts and minds of Scottish socialists.