Red Clydeside

Key political figures of the Red Clydeside period

William Gallacher's funeral procession

1965

Willie Gallacher was born in 1881 in Paisley. He was an engineering worker who became involved in the socialist movement in 1905. He first joined the Independent Labour Party, but shortly switched to the Marxist Social Democratic Federation, which soon became the British Socialist Party. Gallacher became a propagandist speaking at open-air meetings and an active member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.

Between 1914 and 1919, when was to witness to an unparalleled wave of working-class protest and political agitation, Willie Gallacher was active in all of the major community, industrial and political protests on Clydeside, including the rent strikes of 1915-16, the munitions disputes of 1916,and the 40-hours strikes of 1919. Following his conversion to Marxism, Gallacher was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920 and a member of its central committee from 1922 to 1963. He was elected MP for West Fife in 1935 and represented this constituency until 1951. He was chairman of the CPGB until 1956, when he became president, a post which he held until 1963.

Gallacher's funeral in his home town of Paisley was attended by the leading left-wing political figures of the day including Bob Stewart, Rajani Palme Dutt, D N Pritt, Hugh McDiarmid, Frank Stanley, John Platts-Mills, and Johnnie and Elsie Gollan. Among the pallbearers were Frank Stanley, Gordon McLennan and Peter Kerrigan.

Source: Maxton Collection, Paisley Museum and Art Galleries