by Gerry Carruthers

April 1st 2020 marked the bi-centenary of the appearance of a proclamation written and broadcast on bills and apparently emanating from the ‘Provisional Government’ in Glasgow. Posted across the industrial centres of West and Central Scotland, among other measures the proclamation called for workers to strike in a show of support for this new Government.

On Monday 3rd April 1820, an estimated 50-70,000 men, women and children heeded the call and downed tools, looms and the other accoutrements of artisan labour. In tandem with the strike, a serious of armed uprisings some weeks or even months in the planning by the revolutionary wing of the Radical movement was sprung.