RENT STRIKES : PEOPLES' STRUGGLES FOR HOUSING IN WEST SCOTLAND 1890-1916.

Melling, Joseph

ISBN 10: 0904919722 / ISBN 13: 9780904919721

Edité par Polygon Books, Polygon Books, 1983

A propos de cet article

Book Condition: Near Fine. Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches. weight: 9.1 ounces. Engels in his book 'The Conditions of the Working Classes in England' quotes a description of the conditions in Edinburgh and Glasgow: ¿I have seen wretchedness in some of its worst phases both here and upon the continent but until I visited the Wynds of Glasgow I did not believe that so much crime, misery and disease could exist in any civilized country. In the lower lodging houses 10, 12, sometimes 20 persons of both sexes, all ages and various degrees of nakedness, sleep in indiscriminately huddled together upon the floor. These dwellings are usually so damp, filthy and ruinous, that no-one could wish to keep his horse in one of them¿. As early as 1885 Glasgow militants were campaigning for decent municipal housing in the city and by 1914 the Glasgow Women¿s Housing Association ¿ whose aims were the improvement of tenement homes ¿ was formed. But it took the anvil and hammer of the onset of war and its consequence of the need for more workers into the munitions industry, the loss of workers who joined the army and the influx of thousands of immigrants into already overpopulated, crumbling areas to foment social tensions among the working class to breaking point. Additionally, financial stresses of increased costs of living were felt by working class families but it was the actions of rapacious landlords, who saw an opportunity to increase their rents more often, that caused latent indignation to rise. Evictions for arrears of rents ¿ especially for the families of men who ¿took the King¿s shilling¿ ¿ provided additional sources of moral outrage, especially when the rhetoric from the Conservative/Liberal coalition Government of the day was that everyone had to make sacrifices. Although not alone in the struggle for social justice and decent social housing, Glasgow became the most overcrowded city in Britain and a centre of class conflict where many figures came to political prominence. In the three years before 1915, Glasgow¿s population increased by just fewer than seventy thousand; ¿ mainly with Irish and Highlander immigrants ¿ but less than two thousand tenements were built. The landlords found themselves in a situation where demand far exceeded supply and they reacted to the glut of potential new renters in the most callous fashion: increasing rents at little notice and evicting anyone who fell into arrears in the sure knowledge that the space would be re-rented instantly. In a renowned incident in March 1915, a landlord instructed his henchman factor to evict a woman: a wife of a soldier who had fallen into rent arrears totalling one pound. When the henchmen arrived to enact the eviction (or poinding as it is known in Scotland) they were confronted by several hundred angry neighbours headed by John Wheately. The factors withdrew in disarray but events like these were used in the propaganda war by the activists who portrayed the landlords and their accessories as unpatriotic ¿spies¿: the ¿Hun at home¿. The first of the strikes began in the April of that year and Govan was to become and remain the bastion of the struggle. Mary became a well known figure calling her ¿troops¿ to her meetings: large and small, in kitchens, in closes, and in backcourts by creating a raucous clatter with her football rattle. In every window of every house there were 1/d notices which read: ¿We are not removing.¿ Within weeks thousands of notices were displayed in street after street. Soon all of Glasgow was involved: from Parkhead to Govan, Pollokshaws to Calton. Demonstrations were organised. Mrs Barbour understood the importance of respectability and decorum during these marches. Demonstrators ¿ men, women and children ¿ all presented themselves in good order, wearing their best ¿Sunday¿ clothes, many carrying homespun placards declaring, for example: "Partick Tenants¿ Strike, Our Husbands, Sons and Brothers are fighting the\nPrussia.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: RENT STRIKES : PEOPLES' STRUGGLES FOR HOUSING IN WEST SCOTLAND 1890-1916.
• Éditeur: Polygon Books, Polygon Books
• Date de parution: 1983
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0904919722
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780904919721
• Reliure: Soft cover
• Édition: 1st Edition.
• État de l'article: Near Fine
• Dimensions: 8,4 L x 5,4 H x 0,5 P (en pouces) 8,4 pouces de largeur par 5,4 pouces de hauteur par 0,5 pouces de profondeur
• Poids: 9,1 onces