Kmflett's Blog

204 years ago this week a General Strike was in progress in Glasgow

The passage below is from the book 1820 by the late socialist historian Malcolm  Chase covering the strike on 3^rd and 4^th April 1820

Malcolm Chase 1820

The Committee of Organization’s ‘earnest request of all to desist from their Labour’ was widely heeded. On Easter Monday (3^rd April 1820)what would have been a normal working day saw the economy of Glasgow halted. ‘In addition to the unemployed weavers, we now have Mason, joiners, Smiths, labourers &c, in consequence of a total stop of building. Wrote Dugald Bannatyne, the Glasgow postmaster,  adding the comment ‘many will have been drawn into it from want and despair- for the people are in great distress. ‘In the midst of confusion in which we are constantly kept it is impossible to give a very active account’, the Lord Provost told London on the Tuesday.

https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2020/04/02/200-years-ago-this-week-the-worlds-first-ever-general-strike-took-place-in-glasgow/

At no time since the beginning of radicalism has there been such a general apprehension of danger as within these last ten days in Glasgow and its neighbourhood The Times 7^th April 1820