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Whatever Happened to Red Clydeside?

Industrial Conflict and the Politics of Skill in the First World War*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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Recent studies of industrial conflict during the First World War have challenged earlier interpretations of working-class politics in Britain. The debate has focussed on the events in west Scotland during the years when the legend of “Red Clydeside” was made. It is now commonplace to emphasise the limited progress of revolutionary politics and the presence of a powerful craft sectionalism in the industrial workforce. This essay discusses the recent research on workplace unrest, popular politics and the wartime state. Although the “new revisionism” provides an important corrective to earlier scholarship, there remain important questions which require a serious reappraisal of the forces behind the different forms of collective action which took place and their implications for the politics of socialism. It is argued that the struggles of skilled workers made an important contribution to the growth of Labour politics on the Clyde.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1990

References

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78 Ibid., 19–10–1916–2–11–1916; in spring 1916 the Govan L.R.C, had selected William Sharp as their candidate for a proposed bye-election contest, 29–3–1916 – 19–4–1916, 21–8–1916. The withdrawal of Sharp later in the war suggests that his conversion to Labour was early and of a particular quality, not the result of mature wartime experience. Ibid., 6–1–1916 – 12–1–1916, 7–12–1916 – 18–4–1917; “Munitions of War Amendment Bill: Notes on Clauses”, MUN 5 20/221.1/40, for comments of civil servants Llewellyn Smith, Beveridge, Wolff and Miles on the proposals of Labour.

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80 Ibid., 31–8–1918.

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