BLACK FRIDAY 1919
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One of the worst riots on the streets of Glasgow took place on Friday, January 31, 1919.
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Take me back to the River Clyde page please.
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The Scottish TUC and Clyde Workers' Committee called the '40 hours strike', later referred to as Black Friday.
Before the First World War, the working week was 54 hours but Scottish workers wanted it cut to 30.
Emmanuel Shinwell, the Glasgow Trades Council president, persuaded them to go for 40 hours a week.
A strikers' meeting was called for Monday, January 27, and more than 3000 workers gathered at St Andrew's Halls.
By Friday, this number had swollen to 50,000.
It was Scotland's first mass picket.
City magistrates had been forewarned of the dangers of keeping trams on the streets at a time when 10,000 strikers were marching from the halls to occupy George Square.
But the warning was ignored, and the riot started after a tram tried to make its way through the square while strike leaders were inside the City Chambers awaiting talks with the Provost.
Fighting broke out between workers and police with the fighting spreading as far as Glasgow Green. Many people, women and children among them, were injured.
More than a dozen strikers were taken to Duke Street Prison and later tried at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Manny Shinwell, William Gallacher and David Kirkwood were jailed for several months.
After the riot, soldiers from Maryhill Barracks, with machine guns, tanks and a howitzer, occupied Glasgow's streets for a week to prevent any more gatherings.
A 47-hour week was eventually agreed with trade unions.
