This is an introduction to some of the resources which are available online and in print. It is by no means an exhaustive list: there is more material online (and elsewhere) than we have included here. The material had been divided into sections.
The first section here (a. Starting points) identifies two online collections which provide well-structured introductions to the main events of Red Clydeside. There is some debate about how far the militancy of the years was deeply rooted in longer term developments in Glasgow or how far it was the product of the wartime crisis of 1914-18.
We have argued that context is important and the second section (b. The background to Red Clydeside) sets out sources which put Red Clydeside in context, at local, national and international level.
The third section (c. Overviews of Red Clydeside) focuses on three resources, one short online item and two books, all of which present accessible accounts of events. These events, however, have been the subject of prolonged and heated debate among historians and political partisans (sometimes writers fall into both categories). Thus, we try to identify some of the key contributions to the debate in Section d. The debate on Red Clydeside. The next three sections (e. The Rent Strikes; f. Women and Red Clydeside; g. Glasgow and other cities: comparative material) concentrate on key aspects of Red Clydeside. Section h. Scottish Labour History Society provides a link to the website of the SLHS. A subscription is required to gain access to the extensive back catalogue of publications, which covers all aspects of Scottish working-class history, not just Red Clydeside. Section i. Recent academic articles provide a flavour of some of the key research on Red Clydeside as evidence of its continuing interest for historians. Section j. Biography also provides only a sample of the biographical material which exists but selects examples which have broader comments to offer on Red Clydeside. The final two sections (k. Red Clydeside in music and art; l. Short video footage via Facebook) reflect on the legacy of Red Clydeside and how this is reflected in different art forms and in social media
i. BBC iWonder, How Close Did WWI bring Glasgow to revolution? http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zpvffg8#zsbvvcw (A brief overview of key events but a good, nicely illustrated introduction.)
ii. Maggie Craig, When the Clyde Ran Red, Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2018. (A popular account of the social and political history of Glasgow in the early 20th century, which takes the story up to the beginning of the Second World War 2. The central chapters focus on events around World War One)
iii. MacAskill, K., 2019, Glasgow 1919 The Rise of Red Clydeside, London, Biteback. (Sketches in background material but provides a more focused account of the key events of the core Red Clyde years 1915-22 and especially 1919.) The link below summarises MacAskill’s views and contains an interview with him from George Square.)
https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/clyde-flowed-red--kenny-15721937
See also an extensive consideration of MacAskill’s book by Sean Damer, 2019, ‘In the Rapids of Revolution: Review of MacAskill, Glasgow 1919’, Scottish Affairs, 28, 3, pp. 339-348.
Jean McNicol also provides a comprehesive review of MacAskill’s book, alongside a review of Maggie Craig's, When the Clyde Ran Red and John Maclean: Hero of Red Clydeside by Henry Bell. Jean McNicol, ‘The Atmosphere of the Clyde’, London Review of Books, Volume 42, 1, January 2020. https://www.ucu.org.uk/he-action-faqs?utm_source=Lyris&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&utm_term=&utm_content=
Historian Christopher Fevre has produced this undated piece which in his own words represents his ‘take on the Red Clydeside concept and its significance as an analytical framework for understanding debate surrounding labour unrest in Scotland during the early 20th century’.
i. Seán Damer: ‘State, Class and Housing: Glasgow 1885-1919,’ in: Joseph Melling;
(ed.) (1980): Housing, Social Policy and the State, London: Croom Helm. (Damer’s essay argues for the centrality of the housing issue and rents struggle in the development of broader working-class political activism on Clydeside).
ii. Melling, J. (1983) Rent strikes: peoples' struggle for housing in West Scotland, 1890-1916, Edinburgh: Polygon. (A very readable overview of the strikes, which is particularly strong on the role of women and the involvement of the ILP.)
iii. McQueen, M. (2017)Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915: The Struggle for Decent Housing (Doctoral dissertation). (A more detailed, academic piece which incorporates some of the research done since Melling’s work.)
https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/handle/11375/23109
iv. This chapter,
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by Neil Gray, is the introduction to his 2018 edited collection, Rent and its Discontents: A Century of Housing Struggle, published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
v.
One of the leading activists in the 1915 Rent Strikes was Helen Crawfurd, who campaigned alongside other women activists, not least Mary Barbour. The articles below are a small selection of the online resources that are available on both women – and others.
‘Meeting Helen Crawfurd through her own words…’ by Katie Reid (2018) (Glasgow Women’s Library)
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/2018/01/24/meeting-helen-crawfurd-through-her-own-words/
‘Shall we not speak for ourselves?’ Helen Crawfurd, war resistance and the women’s peace crusade 1916 – 18’ by Lesley Orr (2018)
file:///C:/Users/gcm8/Work%20Folders/Downloads/SHALL_WE_NOT_SPEAK_FOR_OURSELVES_HELEN_C.pdf
‘Women and Peace: Helen Crawfurd’ by Amy Todd (2019)
https://blog.history.ac.uk/2019/05/women-and-peace-helen-crawfurd/
Remember Mary Barbour: Mary Barbour & Rent Strike 1915 (2015)
https://remembermarybarbour.wordpress.com/mary-barbour-rent-strike-1915/
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This article is part of the Revisiting Red Clydeside: 'Bloody Friday': The Battle of George Square, Glasgow, 1919 collection. All the media-rich articles in this collection provide an introduction to Red Clydeside and consider the developments that led to the Battle of George Square in Glasgow in January 1919, and also reflect on the enduring legacies of this period.
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