The demonstrators stood up to the police. The Chief Constable attempted to read the Riot Act and had it torn out of his hands. Willie Gallacher and David Kirkwood were arrested. Pitched battles took place between police and strikers in the streets around the square. Iron palings were pulled up and used as a defence against the police truncheons, while bottles were mobilised from a passing lorry to serve as missiles.
The Police had anticipated that their baton charge would drive the crowd out of the square - not so. Not only did the strikers and their supporters stand their ground but drove the police back. Eventually there was a re-grouping and the workers began to move off from George Square to march towards Glasgow Green. At the front of this march were ex-servicemen who had returned from the war to "a home fit for heroes" and who were completely in support of the strike. When they reached the Green the police were waiting, ready to charge again. Undaunted the strikers, led by the ex-servicemen, pulled up the park railings and chased off their attackers.
For the rest of the day and into the night, further fighting took place throughout the city. Troops were brought in by the government to restore order, though Scottish soldiers billeted at Maryhill barracks were not used. They were all veterans of the front and could not be trusted to obey orders to turn their guns on the strikers. Instead, the government used young and inexperienced English troops, who were ignorant of the situation.
Willie Gallacher acknowledged later that there should have been a march to Maryhill barracks to enlist the support of the troops stationed there. "The soldiers of Maryhill were confined to barracks and the barrack gates were kept tightly closed. If we had gone there we could easily have persuaded the soldiers to come out and Glasgow would have been in our hands". And that is the nub of the outcome of the Battle of George Square and the Red Clydeside movement as a whole. The workers, men and women, were prepared to fight to the end. They proved time and time again their courage and determination. What was missing was an organized leadership, which could understand the nature of the struggle taking place and lead the workers to victory.
John MacLean was a giant among men. However, in its final stages, the revolutionary struggle on Red Clydeside was led by Willie Gallacher, David Kirkwood, Emanuel Shinwell and their like. These men were brilliant industrial organisers but incapable of understanding the nature of the struggle in which they were engaged. Because of that, they were incapable of taking the decisive steps necessary to bring about a final victory for the working class.
Within a week of the battle of George Square, the strike was over and a settlement was reached on the basis of a 47-hour working week. This was, of course, a victory for the workers in the short term but did not seriously challenge the role of the bosses.
The ruling class had understood for some time the potential of events on Clydeside. They played a shrewd game of repression on the one hand, as with the jailing of John MacLean, and occasional concessions on the other, as with the Rent Restriction Act. In general, the workers' leaders had a more limited view of what was happening and failed to capitalize on the strength and successes of the workers.
In writing about the forty-hour week strike and the battle of George Square Willie Gallacher sums it all up - "We had forgotten we were revolutionary leaders of the working class. Revolt was seething everywhere, especially in the army. We had within our hands the possibility of giving actual expression and leadership to it, but it never entered our heads to do so. We were carrying on a strike when we ought to have been making a revolution."
Perhaps the most telling example of the attitude and perspective of the Clyde Workers Committee leadership is that during the strike, they banned outside speaker from addressing the mass meetings- in order to keep the meetings "non-political". Perhaps if John MacLean and others had been allowed to participate in these meetings, the revolutionary nature of the struggle would have been brought out much more clearly at the time.
John MacLean had hoped and anticipated that 1919 would be the year of revolution on Clydeside. It was not to be so. Glasgow was not to become the second St. Petersburg.
The Russian Revolution was successful because of the existence of a revolutionary party, the Bolsheviks, which offered workers the leadership they needed to change society - not a leadership imposed from on high but coming from the ranks of the workers themselves.
John MacLean represented the embryo of such leadership but was never able to gather round him a party, which could have given the workers of Clydeside and Britain what the Bolsheviks had given the workers in Russia. A combination of his frequent and lengthy stays in jail, and the influence of syndicalist and reformist ideas among even the best leaders of the organized working class, had prevented the Clydeside workers realising their potential.
With organisation and leadership there is no limit to what workers can achieve. In recent times the defeat of Thatcher and the Poll Tax are living testimony to this. What we need, therefore is to build a new political organisation, based upon the best traditions of John MacLean and the Red Clydeside. The inherent compassion, courage commitment of workers could then be mobilised to create the kind of society to which John MacLean and his comrades aspired, and of which they would be proud.
The story of Red Clydeside is to some degree one of disappointment in that the revolutionary movement was ultimately unsuccessful. However, it does offer us a message of hope and a glimpse of what we can achieve. Red Clydeside does not belong to some dead past but to the living present.
It is our responsibility to pick up the mantle left by the heroes and heroines of that time and to honour their memory by ensuring that their vision becomes a reality.