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

Literature and propaganda

A left-wing infrastructure made up of committed individuals and various socialist, Marxist and anarchist political groupings was already well established on Clydeside before the Red Clydeside period. Between 1910 and 1914 this infrastructure grew rapidly, both on Clydeside and in other industrial centres in Scotland. New recruits to the socialist and Marxist causes helped the parties develop their organisational strength and to reach a wider audience through the use of propaganda.

The publication and dissemination of political literature, as in the examples shown below, was seen as a vital part in the process of increasing class awareness amongst Scottish workers and an important medium for the transmission of socialist and Marxist ideas.