Red Clydeside

Timeline of events

To all workers in all trades

Additional guarantees

May 1926

The decision to call a general strike was made by the council of the Trades Union Congress in support of the miners who had begun a strike on 30 April 1926 against the reduced wages and increased working hours imposed by the mine owners. With the primary focus on restraining its own membership, the TUC entered the general strike very poorly prepared, and nine days after it started the strike was called off.

It has often been said by left-wing opponents of the TUC leadership that the trades union leaders never believed in the strike and only led it in order to prevent it being controlled by the workers. In other words, they led it in order to ensure its failure.

Ironically, the union leadership's efforts to stifle its radical wing had a contrary effect, as in the months following the general strike membership of the communist party swelled while unions lost two million members.

Source: Gallacher Memorial Library, Glasgow Caledonian University Special Collections and Archives