Revolt on the Clyde is Willie Gallacher's eye-witness account of the tumultuous events in Glasgow in 1919, reissued in a new 2017 edition. It is a story of workers' councils, rent strikes and opposition to war; activism that seemed poised to usher in socialist revolution in Scotland. It is also the story of working-class leader Gallacher himself.
When the Clyde Ran Red paints a vivid picture of the heady days when revolution was in the air on Clydeside. Through the bitter strike at the huge Singer Sewing machine plant in Clydebank in 1911, Bloody Friday in Glasgow's George Square in 1919, the General Strike of 1926 and on through the Spanish Civil War to the Clydebank Blitz of 1941, the people fought for the right to work, the dignity of labour and a fairer society for everyone. They did so in a Glasgow where overcrowded tenements stood no distance from elegant tea rooms, art galleries, glittering picture palaces and dance halls. Red Clydeside was also home to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Glasgow Style and magnificent exhibitions showcasing the wonders of the age. Political idealism and artistic creativity were matched by industrial endeavor: the Clyde built many of the greatest ships that ever sailed, and Glasgow locomotives pulled trains on every continent on earth. In this book Maggie Craig puts the politics into the social context of the times and tells the story with verve, warmth and humour.
In 1963, a human skull was discovered in a pub in Kent in south-east England. A brief handwritten note stuck inside the cavity revealed it to be that of Alum Bheg, an Indian soldier in British service who was executed during the aftermath of the 1857 Uprising, or The Indian Mutiny as historians of an earlier era described it. Alum Bheg was blown from a cannon for having allegedly murdered British civilians, and his head was brought back as a grisly war-trophy by an Irish officer present at his execution. The skull is a troublesome relic of both anti- colonial violence and the brutality and spectacle of British retribution. Kim Wagner presents an intimate and vivid account of life and death in British India in the throes of the largest rebellion of the nineteenth century. Fugitive rebels spent months, even years, hiding in the vastness of the Himalayas before they were eventually hunted down and punished by a vengeful colonial state. Examining the colonial practice of collecting and exhibiting human remains, this book offers a critical assessment of British imperialism that speaks to contemporary debates about the legacies of Empire and the myth of the 'Mutiny'.
This text analyzes what really happened in Glasgow in the tumultuous years following World War I. It shows the real improvements in social conditions, and explores the impact of these years on the coming dominance of the Labour party in the west of Scotland.
This social history chronicles the protest movements of early 20th century Glasgow and Western Scotland: “A moving story told with enthusiasm” (Sunday Herald, UK). When the Clyde Ran Red paints a vivid picture of the heady days when revolution was in the air of Glasgow and surrounding areas along the River Clyde. Through the bitter strike at the Singer Sewing machine plant in Clydebank in 1911, Bloody Friday in Glasgow’s George Square in 1919, the General Strike of 1926 and on through the Spanish Civil War to the Clydebank Blitz of 1941, the people fought for the right to work, the dignity of labor, and a fairer society for everyone. The Red Clydeside movement took hold in a Glasgow where overcrowded tenements stood no distance from elegant tea rooms, dance halls, and art galleries. The River Clyde was also home to the famous artists of the Glasgow Style and exhibitions showcasing the wonders of the age. Political idealism and artistic creativity were matched by industrial productivity—especially in ship and locomotive building. In this book Maggie Craig situates the politics of the time in the broader historical context, telling a story of social change and human drama.
The revolt of 1857 continues to arouse interest and debate. This book, first published in 1984 and now in paperback for the first time, remains one of the best studies of popular resistance and peasant rebellion. This revised edition features a new introduction, which provides an update on the historiography of peasant revolt. The author also charts some of these changes and their relevance to a deeper understanding of the uprising of 1857.
Using Comintern archives, oral interviews and a wide range of other sources, this collection presents a sample of some of the exciting new work currently being produced in the field of communist biography. Geographically, the contributions take in North America and New Zealand as well as a range of European countries. Some chapters focus on individuals like Clara Zetkin, William Z. Foster, Umberto Terracini, William Gallacher or Jozsef Pogány. Others adopt a collective approach to explore communist cultures in rural Austria or the Netherlands, or the impact of institutions like the International Lenin School. There are also chapters on communist institutional biographies, the role of general secretaries and the significance of generations and family links.
This book, first published in 1962, is a collection of essays on the ideological origins of the European revolutionary movement. The first essay in the collection is devoted to Saint-Simon who, though not a revolutionary in the ordinary sense, was the begetter of the many ideas which became stock-in-trade of the nineteenth century revolutionaries. The essays that follow are on Marx and the Communist Manifesto, Proudhon, Herzen, Lassalle and Sorel; on the foundation and early history of the Russian Communist Party; on the histories of the British and German Communist Parties; and on Lenin and Stalin.