Communist Women in Scotland

During the first half of the twentieth century Glasgow was witness to an unparalleled wave of working class protest and political agitation. The protestors challenged the capitalist social order and also, on occasion, the state itself. What was the legacy of this turbulence and upheaval which reinforced Glasgow's reputation as the centre of working class struggle in Britain?In this original and meticulously researched analysis, Neil Rafeek makes the first systematic study of 'Red Clydeside', the term given to Communism, radical Labour and trade Unionism in Scotland, a legendary phenomenon in British and even international labour history. He focuses on the role of women in the Communist Party and describes women's experiences of meeting leading international personalities of the era: Khrushchev, Gagarin, Tereshkova, Castro and the Ceauescus. Using rich and evocative personal testimony blended with the author's own analysis, Rafeek shows the idealistic socialist motivation behind the establishment of 'Red Clydeside' and the subsequent growing strains and discord in Communism and the labour movement generally, internationally and in Scotland.