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

Events

The Red Clydesiders enter Parliament 1922

In the 1922 general election the Independent Labour Party (ILP) triumphed in Glasgow, winning 10 out of the 15 parliamentary constituencies in the city. Those elected included David Kirkwood and Emanuel Shinwell, both former leaders of the Clyde Workers Committee, and also James Maxton and John Wheatley, leaders of the rent strikes of 1915-1916.

This overwhelming electoral victory for the ILP in Glasgow gave rise to a real hope amongst the working people of Clydeside that gains could be made for Glasgow's working classes at the heart of British democracy. In the post-election euphoria, 250,000 people gathered in Glasgow city centre and at St. Enoch railway station to give the newly-elected MPs a rousing send off to Westminster.

There were electoral successes also for the Communist Party in industrial towns on the outskirts of Glasgow. Walton Newbold won the parliamentary seat of Motherwell for the Communist Party of Great Britain, and they came within 800 votes of winning both the Greenock and Paisley parliamentary seats.

The initial hopes and enthusiasm which greeted the election of the Red Clydeside MPs in 1922 were to be dashed. The harsh realities of parliamentary politics meant that the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) employed a strategy of respectability and compromise. This strategy became even more pronounced after Labour formed a minority government in 1924, as they concentrated on not alienating themselves from middle-class voters.

The policy of the Clydeside MPs from the Independent Labour Party (ILP) on the other hand was to harass and confront the Conservatives and Liberals, especially on the issues of poverty and unemployment. This was to lead to confrontation with the leadership of the PLP, who viewed the ILP tactics as little more than cheap political stunts which discredited the PLP as a whole. In effect the Red Clydesiders were muzzled by a stronger and more moderate parliamentary machine and left largely without influence.