John William Muir (15 December 1879 – 11 January 1931) was the editor of ''The Worker'', a newspaper of the Clyde Workers' Committee, who was prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act for an article criticising the war. Born in Glasgow, by the early 1910s Muir was the editor of '' The Socialist'', the newspaper of the Socialist Labour Party. However, he resigned the post in 1914, as he was in favour of World War I. He became involved in the

Shop Stewards' Movement The Shop Stewards Movement was a movement which brought together shop stewards from across the United Kingdom during the First World War. It originated with the Clyde Workers Committee, the first shop stewards committee in Britain, which organised a ...

, and was a member of the Clyde Workers' Committee, an organisation that had been formed to campaign against the

Munitions Act The Munitions of War Act 1915 was a British Act of Parliament passed on 2 July 1915 during the First World War. It was designed to maximize munitions output and brought private companies supplying the armed forces under the tight control of the ne ...

, which forbade engineers from leaving the works where they were employed. For publishing an article in ''The Worker'' entitled "Should the workers arm?", Muir was jailed for twelve months, alongside Willie Gallacher. In 1917, Muir joined the Independent Labour Party, and became close to John Wheatley. In the

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

election, he stood for the Labour Party in Glasgow Maryhill, but was unsuccessful. He won the seat in the 1922 general election and retained the seat in

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

. He lost his seat in the 1924 election, after which he ran the Workers Educational Association until 1930.

References

* * Oxford Dictionary of National Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Muir, John William 1879 births 1931 deaths British anti–World War I activists Independent Labour Party MPs Scottish Labour MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies Prisoners and detainees of the United Kingdom Red Clydeside Socialist Labour Party (UK, 1903) members Scottish prisoners and detainees Scottish socialists UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 Scottish trade unionists Maryhill Workers' Educational Association