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

Events

Clydeside Rent Strikes 1915-16

The migration of thousands of workers into munitions districts in the early months of the First World War put strains on available housing and led very quickly to acute housing shortages. These shortages were concentrated in areas of Glasgow such as Govan and Partick where there was a high concentration of firms producing munitions.

A number of landlords with properties in these areas saw this demand for housing as an opportune moment to increase rents in these districts. The increases in rents, in a period of already steep rises in the cost of living for many working class families, were deeply unpopular throughout the munitions districts and were seen by many as a blatant example of war-time profiteering by the landlords.

Women began to organise tenants' strike committees in munitions areas where landlords had increased rents. These strike committees, inspired by a strong sense of injustice, helped organise a campaign of non-payment of rents, and brought the issue of fair rents into the national political arena.

The actions of the landlords in increasing rents, and then in many cases pursuing court action to evict tenants deeply angered many within the Labour movement and became the spur for many to fight for the abolishment of unfair and antiquated housing laws.

These laws allowed landlords to summarily evict tenants in arrears of rent, and allowed the confiscation of possessions by landlords in lieu of arrears. These events were increasingly commonplace throughout 1915, even when many of the female tenants had husbands fighting and dying for their country. The actions of the landlords in pursuing court action to evict tenants was used to great effect as an example of the unpatriotic actions of the landlords, and was one of the main factors in the rent strikes gaining widespread public support.

The rent strikers captured the political support of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), whose leaders became actively involved in the campaign. Industrial support for the rent strikers came from workers in the munitions factories and shipyards. Workers in factories and shipyards formed emergency committees to lend active support to the campaign, and threatened a wave of sympathy strikes in opposition to the imposition of rent increases.

At the height of the rent strikes all of the main munitions districts of Glasgow, including Partick, Govan, Shettleston, Ibrox and Parkhead, were affected, and upwards of 20,000 tenants where involved in the campaign of non-payment of rents. By December 1915, with the threat to war production on the Clyde uppermost in their minds, the government led by Lloyd-George was forced to introduce legislation which not only prevented further rent increases in munitions districts but also established rent levels at pre-war levels for the duration of hostilities.

The success of the rent strikes of 1915 was made possible by the fusion of female-led community agitation, the political leadership of the ILP, and the support of the skilled workers in the munitions industries. It was this triple alliance which enabled the working class of Glasgow to achieve their victory over the landlords, a victory which was exemplified