International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

In January 1880, in a lecture presented by the statistical society in London on “The strikes of the Last Ten Years,” it was stated there had been some 2,352 strikes across Britain in that year, and that 473 strikes took place in Scotland. Indeed, Glasgow topped the league of the “Top-Ten strike Towns” in Britain, with Edinburgh/ Leith and Dundee in fourth and eighth position, respectively. The report stated that wage demands were “in ninety percent of cases” the major source of dispute, but that north of the border other forces were at work, with labor leaders in Scotland fostering a “constant spirit of opposition” in the collieries and mines. The report gave no detail as to the cause of this “spirit of opposition,” but it nonetheless demonstrates willingness on the part of Scottish workers to campaign on wider political issues rather than just economic ones. This period also coincides with the foundation of socialism in Scotland, although it was not widespread. But the absence of socialism does not preclude the influence of other forms of political action on trade union formation. The radical campaign to overturn elements of the Criminal Law Amendment Act – introduced in tandem with the 1871 Trade Union Act (which made picketing illegal, rendering a strike almost impossible to enforce) – and a growing “distrust of middleclass Liberal politics” politicized many workers and trade ... log in or subscribe to read full text