Battle of George Square

David Kirkwood and Willie Gallacher being detained by police at the City Chambers

The 1919 Battle of George Square, also known as Bloody Friday and Black Friday, was one of the most intense riots in the history of Glasgow, Scotland, which took place on Friday, 31 January 1919. The dispute revolved around a campaign for shorter working hours, backed by widespread strike action. Clashes between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters broke out, leading to the British government sending soldiers and tanks to the city to prevent any further gatherings due to their fear of a Bolshevist uprising. It was described as a 'social revolution' by supporters, as had happened the previous year in the 1917 Russian Revolution, and was occurring in Germany whilst the 'Forty Hours' strike unfolded.

The Forty Hours Strike

Before the First World War, the standard working week was 54 hours. National negotiations had established a 47-hour working week for men in the shipbuilding and engineering trades, to be introduced in 1919. A Joint Committee of shop stewards, members of the Scottish TUC and Clyde Workers' Committee however proposed a campaign to limit working-hours to 30 per week, which was altered to 40 per week after the Glasgow Trades Council became involved. It was, however, opposed by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and most other unions.

The immediate objective was to alleviate unemployment, exacerbated by the post-World War I recession, by sharing out available working hours more widely at a time when unemployment was rising as war contracts were completed and when tens of thousands of ex-servicemen were returning to the civilian labour force. Many workers also resented the fact that the new 47-hour week agreement removed their traditional morning break.

A strikers' meeting was called for Monday, 27 January, and more than 3000 workers gathered at the St. Andrew's Halls. 40,000 Glasgow workers came out on strike that day. By Friday 31 January, this number had swollen to 'upwards of 60,000'. It was Scotland's first mass picket since the Radical War of 1820. The strike culminated in a mass meeting in George Square on the Friday to hear Lord Provost Sir James Watson Stewart issue a response from the British government to the unions' request for government intervention in the dispute. Emanuel Shinwell, the Glasgow Trades Council president was amongst those to address the crowd.

The riot

The fierce rioting between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters began whilst a Clyde Workers' Committee deputation was in the Glasgow City Chambers meeting with the Lord Provost of Glasgow. On hearing the ensuing riot that was taking place in George Square between the police and protesters, CWC leaders David Kirkwood and Emanuel Shinwell moved outside in an effort to quell the riot. Before they could reach the crowds outside however, Kirkwood was knocked to the ground by police and he, William Gallacher and Shinwell were arrested and charged with "instigating and inciting large crowds of persons to form part of a riotous mob". Sheriff MacKenzie's attempts to read the Riot Act proved unsuccessful as the crowd tore the Act from him as he was in the process of reading it.

The exact cause of the riot has been disputed - some sources indicate it was caused by an unprovoked baton charge by the police, whilst others indicate that strikers attempted to stop trams travelling through the square. Pitched battles took place between police and strikers in the streets around the square. Iron palings were pulled up and used as a defence against the police truncheons, while bottles were mobilised from a passing lorry to serve as missiles. The police's efforts to disperse the crowd from the Square were unsuccessful. Eventually there was a re-grouping and the workers began to move off from George Square to march towards Glasgow Green. Police were again unsuccessful in their attempts to disperse the strikers.

For the rest of the day and into the night, further fighting took place throughout the city. Many people, women and children among them, were injured. More than a dozen strikers were taken to Duke Street Prison and later tried at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh.

Military intervention

Medium Mark C tanks and soldiers at the Glasgow Cattle Market in the Gallowgate

The failure of the Police to control the riot prompted the Coalition Government under David Lloyd George to react, after Scottish Secretary Robert Munro described the riot as a 'Bolshevist uprising'. 10,000 troops armed with machine guns, tanks and a howitzer arrived on the Friday night and Saturday to occupy Glasgow's streets. A 4.5 inch Howitzer was positioned at the City Chambers, the cattle market was transformed into a tank depot, Lewis Guns were posted on the top of the North British Hotel and the General Post Office, armed troops stood sentry outside power stations, docks and patrolled the streets. They were deployed for a week in order to deter any more gatherings.

No Scottish troops were deployed, with the British government fearing that fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers' side if a revolutionary situation developed in Glasgow. This was in spite of a full battalion of Scottish soldiers being stationed at Maryhill barracks in Glasgow at the time.

Consequences

Manny Shinwell, William Gallacher and David Kirkwood were jailed for several months.

A 47-hour week was eventually agreed with the trade unions involved. In the General Election of 1922, Scotland elected 29 Labour MPs, including the 40 Hour Strike organisers and Independent Labour Party members Manny Shinwell and David Kirkwood. The 1923 General Election eventually saw the first Labour government come to power under Ramsay MacDonald. The region's socialist sympathies earned it the epithet of Red Clydeside.

See also

• Red Clydeside

References

• Magnus Magnusson. Scotland: The Story of a Nation.