Red Clydeside: A history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932

Groups

Diagram from syndicalist booklet 'Industrial Unionism', 1920s

This diagram is taken from a syndicalist pamphlet entitled 'Industrial Unionism' by T. L. Smith. It depicts the workplace organisation of the working classes and master classes in the battle front for control of industry.

The pamphlet 's author, T. L. Smith, was general secretary of the Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), a syndicalist group who believed that all workers should organise as a single class to take possession and control of the machinery of production and abolish the wage system.

The IWGB were patterned after the original Industrial Workers of the World founded at Chicago in 1905. However, unlike their American counterparts, the IWGB accepted the need for workers' political, as well as industrial, organisation and representation.

Source: Bissett Collection, Glasgow University Special Collections