Sunday, May 14, 2017

Red Ed


A brief outline of the radical history of popular grassroots resistance on the East coast of Scotland. Not all events mentioned are anarchist or possibly something I would support in full. Hopefully, this will allow for the writing of a much more in-depth larger work in the future.
1736- Porteous riots
1740- Leith food riots
1770- Meal riots
1780- Bowed Joseph died. Bowed Joseph born in the Cowgate was a famous Edinburgh agitator and took part in riots.
1790- Leith dockers strike
1864- Annuity tax riot.
1865-Midlothian farmworkers' union set up.
1867- Thomas Hastie Bell born.
1876- Kropotkin lives in Edinburgh for a brief time.
1881- Irish nationalist bombs Loanhead police station.
1882- Kropotkin returns to Edinburgh to give a lecture on the russian situation.
1889- School strikes. Dockers Strike.
1890- Cab drivers strike.
1891- Railway workers strike. Dockers strike.
1892- Soldiers riot against cops
1892- Thomas Hastie Bell returns to Edinburgh and involved in anarchism with J. Blair Smith and McCabe.
1895- Sept 14. Emma Goldman lectures in Scotland. Visits Edinburgh.
1896- Tsar Nicholas 2nd visits Leith. Thomas Hastie Bell gets in his face.
1897- Builders strike
1898- Thomas Hastie Bell goes to London.
1900- Emma Goldman visits Scotland again for lectures. She meets Thomas Hastie Bell.
1901- Tramworkers strike.
1905- medical student riot (possibly sectarian)
1911- railway strike, school strike, ropeworkers strike.
1912- carters strike, miners strike, (disgusting) pro-vivisection riot,
1913- Dockers strike, miners strike, tramwaymen strike, ropeworkers strike( pretty close to a regional general strike) rioting
1915- Leith carters strike. Dockers strike.
1919- School strikes.
1924- coal trimmers strike.
1926- riot in Edinburgh.
1933- National Unemployed Workers movement in Princes Street.
1938- March 6-13th Emma Goldman lecturers in Scotland on Spain. She received help from the Anarchist Communist Federation the predecessor to the Anarchist Federation.
1942- Thomas Hastie Bell dies.
1943- National League of the Blind and disabled sets up an Edinburgh branch which exists until 1975.
1977- protests against nuclear power.
1981- Broughton Unemployed Workers Centre opens.
1983- Leith dockers strike.
1984- Counter information news sheet produced. Miners Strike. Violent resistance to the police in Midlothian particularly Bilston Glen colliery. Anti-poll tax protests.
1994- Broughton Unemployed Workers Centre evicted. Protests against criminal justice bill.
1996- Opposition to Job Seekers Allowance. Opposition to deportation of John Gotip (reported in Broughton Spurtle)
2002- Bilston Glen Protest camp begun by Bilston, Midlothian.
2003- Protests against Iraq War. School kids occupy Edinburgh Castle.
2004- Counter information ceases publication. 05/04/2004 Edinburgh
100 people blockade an Esso garage in opposition to war on Iraq
2005- G8 riots in Princes street.
2011- Occupy Edinburgh set up in St Andrews Square.
2013- Bedroom tax protests.
2014- From Yes to Action Statement produced by ACE and signed by ECAP, Scottish IWW, Edinburgh AFed and others. Edinburgh Anarchist Federation puts out critical statements about Scottish Independence.
2015- Action Against Austerity Network founded in Edinburgh which comes to consist of ACE, ECAP, IWW, Scottish AFed, Scottish Unemployed Workers Network(SUWN) , Castlemilk Against Austerity, Dundee Against Austerity...Charles Stewart House is occupied by Edinburgh Uni students. PCS museum workers strikes.
2016- Homeless campers occupy the Cowgate in protest against luxury hotel. Charles Stewart House is occupied by Edinburgh Uni students. RMT railway workers strikes.



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