A campaign has been launched to award the Freedom of Glasgow to six weavers killed by soldiers during a wage dispute in 1787 – and revoke civic honours given to the officers who ordered the shooting.
Glasgow band The Tenementals is calling for the Calton Martyrs to be formally recognised ahead of the massacre’s 240th anniversary in September 2027.
Its petition asks Glasgow City Council to award the weavers the Freedom of the City, or the highest available posthumous recognition, and publicly distance modern Glasgow from the honours bestowed on the military commanders.
The killings took place on 3 September 1787, during a strike against a 25 per cent reduction in wages. Soldiers from the British Army’s 39th Regiment of Foot opened fire on demonstrators, leaving six people dead.
The weavers are remembered as Scotland’s first working-class martyrs, with their struggle regarded as a landmark in the development of the labour movement. According to the University of Glasgow’s account of the campaign, the city authorities subsequently awarded the Freedom of the City to the officers who ordered the soldiers to fire.
The petition is accompanied by a new song, The Broken Stones of the Calton Weavers, released by The Tenementals on 3 September.
It draws attention to the condition of memorial stones in Calton Burial Ground and asks whose lives Glasgow chooses to commemorate.
Professor David Archibald, of the University of Glasgow and lead singer of The Tenementals, said: “The Calton Weavers suffered a terrible injustice in life, and in death.”
He described finding one of the modern memorial stones broken in two when the song was being written, with part still attached to the wall and the other lying on the ground below.
The initiative supports the work of the Calton Weavers Commemoration Committee, which organises remembrance events, publishes material about the strike and raises funds for a permanent memorial.
Three of the martyrs are buried in Calton Burial Ground. The committee’s first commemorative event in September 2023 included a gathering at their resting place, a walking tour exploring the area’s radical history and a talk by historian and curator Elspeth King.
The group also worked with Calton Books to publish a new edition of King’s The Glasgow Weavers’ Strike of 1787, helping bring the story to another generation.
The Tenementals has set a symbolic target of 1,787 signatures, seeking to secure council consideration before next year’s anniversary.
The campaign’s central demand is that Glasgow formally recognises the workers who died and revisits its historic decision to honour those responsible for the shooting. Read the petition here.