THOUSANDS of striking workers raise a red flag on high in a furious act of defiance.

It could be a scene from anywhere in the world. Perhaps a country gripped by revolution or political unrest.

But this was Glasgow 90 years ago, when tanks rolled down the streets of Scotland's largest city to quell civil unrest. It is the one and only time this has happened in Britain.

It came amid fears that Scotland was on the brink of revolution. A general strike had crippled Glasgow's industries, and tens of thousands of shipyard workers had taken to the streets in an attempt to win a cut in working hours. The bitter dispute came to ahead on a day which would become known as Bloody Friday.

On January 31, 1919, as many as 60,000 protesters crammed into the city centre, converging on George Square, where they clashed with police.

Desperate to avoid an escalating crisis, the Government sent English troops into Glasgow in an attempt to restore order, while union leaders involved in the dispute found themselves thrown in jail.

But many now believe the Government response to the protests was a huge overreaction, and that the use of soldiers armed with machine guns, tanks and heavy artillery is a stain on the country's political history.

The dispute took place against a background of industrial unrest dating back to before World War One.

With the rise of the Labour movement, workers in the nation's heavy industries had been demanding better pay and conditions, fully aware of their collective bargaining power.

Half of the world's ships were being built on the Clyde, but workers were still living in poverty and working 54-hour weeks, making the shipyards a breeding ground for radical politics and discontent.

At the same time, the world watched as revolutions erupted in Russia and Germany with monarchies being overthrown.

But according to Dr Jim Phillips, of the University of Glasgow's Department of Economic and Social History, the dispute which led to the crisis was triggered by the end of World War One and the number of demobilised servicemen returning home looking for work.

He said: "The specific issue was a strike proposed by workers and trade unions in Glasgow and the wider Clydeside region on the issue of trying to secure shorter working hours.

"They were aware of the requirement of trying to accommodate the many hundreds of thousands of ex-servicemen who were about to re-enter the labour market."

The militant Clyde Workers' Committee, whose members included the revolutionary socialist John Maclean, thought a shorter working week would be the ideal way to create new employment.

At a conference of union leaders on January 18, the decision was made to call for a 40-hour working week, with a general strike to be held on Friday, January 24.

THE stoppage brought Glasgow to a halt, and on the following Monday workers marched to George Square for a huge open-air rally.

By Wednesday, talks were taking place between union leaders and the Lord Provost, with a response being expected by Friday.

But political leaders were petrified the dispute could escalate into calls for revolution, the very thing which had led Russia into communism little more than a year earlier.

Scottish Secretary Robert Munro claimed it was a misnomer to call the situation in Glasgow astrike. He described it as a Bolshevist rising.

Dr Phillips said: "The central question still is what was it about? What was the scale of the industrial crisis and what was the political temper of the city?

"I think there is a general feeling among scholars that the nature of the political crisis was exaggerated at the time by the authorities.

"There were Bolsheviks in Glasgow, within the trade unions and within socialist politics, who wished to seek a very significant movement in the distribution of wealth.

"But the political atmosphere was, I'd say, misinterpreted by the authorities. Glasgow wasn't on the verge of a Bolshevik revolution."

On the Friday, workers gathered in George Square aware that the political leaders were not willing to compromise over working hours.

Estimates of the number of demonstrators range from 30,000 to 60,000, with batonwielding police lining the streets.

It's believed that fighting broke out when someone in the middle of the crowd raised a red flag into the air, prompting police to charge with their batons. But it's also suggested that unrest could have been started by a tram trying to force its way through the crowds.

Finding themselves outnumbered, the police retreated with fighting spreading beyond George Square to as far as Glasgow Green, with chaos ensuing into the night. Dozens of police and protesters were injured.

It was this which led to the Liberal Government sending in troops to restore order.

Fearful that local regiments would support the strikers, about 10,000 soldiers were sent by train from England overnight.

Soldiers from the Highland Light Infantry, based in nearby Maryhill, were locked in their barracks, and, as the English soldiers took to the streets, Glasgow was said to resemble an army camp by the morning.

Neither was any mercy shown to the those behind the strike. Willie Gallacher, leader of the Clyde Workers' Committee, was charged with incitement to riot, as were the other organisers, Manny Shinwell and David Kirkwood.

Gallacher had already spent time in prison for agitating against the war, along with fellowsocialists John Maclean and James Maxton.

This time, he was sentenced to five months, while Shinwell was given three months.

Kirkwood, however, was acquitted of the charge after producing a photo which showed him being felled by a police baton before he had even reached George Square.

But according to Dr Phillips, the union leaders weren't the ones who wanted to start a revolution. He said: "Those targeted by the authorities were not the dangerous people from the Government's perspective.

"People like David Kirkwood and even William Gallacher were part of what would become the thoroughly respectable tradition of Glasgow and Clydeside labour leaders.

"That includes people such as Jimmy Reid.

During the UCS work-in, there was a very strong rhetorical emphasis on responsibility and respectability. They were always very selective in the battles they decided to fight as they didn't want to expose their people to severe counterattacks from the ruling classes.

"In his memoirs, Kirkwood talks about being absolutely outraged that a respectable man such as himself should be assaulted by police.

"So I think there was a very severe overreaction on the part of the authorities."

Jimmy Reid agrees that union leaders, such as himself, learned a lot from the struggles from the past. When the amalgamated Upper Clyde Shipbuilders went into receivership in 1971 after Prime Minister Edward Heath refused it a £6million loan, Reid led the work-in to prove the yards were still viable businesses.

He said: "Back in the Twenties, the authorities were much less tolerant even than a Thatcherite Government was umpteen years later.

"Public opinion wouldn't have allowed the crude suppression of industrial workers that occurred after World War One.

"And, when the UCS work-in took place, the media was also much more available, and there was an instant response to any type of action or struggle.

"The UCS got very fair coverage and it caught the imagination of people, including journalists, as it was a different form of action. It wasn't in any way negative.

"That particular form of struggle which we developed was not a withdrawal of labour or a strike or anything like that, but to continue working even when workers were sacked.

"Their fellow employees re-employed them the next Monday, so it was a unique phenomenon.

"I don't think there had been anything like it before, either in Britain or in Europe. We had certainly learned a lot since the Twenties."

BUT with dissent being quelled in 1919 by troops on Glasgow's streets, the prospects for strikers still fighting for a 40-hour week seemed bleak.

The strike continued for the next few days, but further talks were held and a 47-hour working week was agreed. It seems likely that such an agreement could have been reached earlier, avoiding any bloodshed, had the Government been more willing to compromise.

Dr Phillips said: "There was a mis-reading of the situation.

"That was partly because Robert Munro the Secretary of State, did not want to be left with egg on his face. He wanted to apply the belt and braces to make sure that there wasn't a socialist revolution north of the Border while he was the Secretary of State for Scotland.

"That obviously would have been the end of his political career."

But despite being jailed for their part in the dispute, many of the union activists involved went on to have successful political careers.

William Gallacher became one of only three communists to be elected to the House of Commons, representing West Fife between 1935 and 1950, while David Kirkwood served as aLabour MP from 1922 to 1951, winning a peerage after leaving the House of Commons.

Manny Shinwell, meanwhile, first became an MP in 1922 and served as a Minister under Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee, also refusing a position in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition. He became Baron Shinwell of Easington in 1970 and died in 1986, aged 101.

Many people now consider Bloody Friday a hugely significant event in Scottish political and social history, proving that the ruling classes of the time feared the possible effects of collective action.

One person with a family link to the dispute is former Hibs and Celtic footballer Jackie McNamara Snr, who has been a political activist all his life.

He said: "My grandfather on my mother's side, Hugh McLachlan, was involved in it.

"He's been dead more than 65 years, so I never knew him.

"But I know he led the unemployed out to join the strike because of the conditions they were living in.

"My grandfather on my father's side may well have been involved as well, so being involved in socialist politics is something that goes way back in my family.

"My father was one of the youngest shop stewards on the Clyde, so I'm steeped in it.

"It might have happened 90 years ago, but it's still part of our history. I'd like to see it talked about in schools more, as it tells us about who we are and why we are here. It's definitely still relevant today."

One politician who agrees is Respect MP and Daily Record columnist George Galloway.

He said: "When I think about it, the picture in my mind is the one showing the sheer scale of the crowd, with people hanging off lamp-posts.

"The scale of the revolt on the Clyde was enormous and it shows that, given one or two breaks, Britain could have been in for a revolution as Russia and Germany was during that period, and how different Britain could have been then.

"The important thing is that none of us know what's round the corner.

"I take comfort from the old adage that there are decades when nothing happens, but there are weeks when decades happen.

"I'm looking forward to those weeks."

'In the Twenties, the authorities were much less tolerant even than a Thatcherite Government was umpteen years later'