Red Clydeside

Key political figures of the Red Clydeside period

Warrant for the arrest of James Maxton and James McDougall

29 Mar 1916

On 26 March 1916, a large demonstration to oppose the Munitions Act was held at Glasgow Green. Feelings were already running high in the city as two days previously seven Clyde Workers' Committee shop stewards had been deported to Edinburgh by government authorities. This was interpreted by the Labour movement in Glasgow as a blatant attempt by the government to smash the CWC and with it workers' resistance to the Munitions Act.

The demonstration was, as expected, a fiery affair in which James Maxton, James McDougall and anarchist shop steward Jack Smith all gave speeches advocating strike action by Glasgow's workers to ensure the non-implementation of the act. Four days later, Maxton, McDougall and Smith were arrested and charged with sedition. All three were ordered to be held in Duke Street prison in Glasgow without bail until a date for their trial could be fixed.

At the subsequent trial in Edinburgh on 25 April 1916, all three plead guilty. It was suggested at the time that the men changed their pleas at the last minute because of the heavy sentences passed at the previous trials of John Maclean, Willie Gallacher and John Muir. In spite of their plea changes, Maxton and MacDougall were each sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment and Smith was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. Smith was given his extra six months for being in possession of revolutionary literature when arrested. All the men served their sentences at Calton prison in Edinburgh where they were joined by Gallacher and Muir and, for a brief while, Maclean.

Source: Maxton Papers, Glasgow City Archives