John William Muir (15 December 1879 – 11 January 1931) was the editor of ''The Worker'', a newspaper of the

Clyde Workers' Committee The Clyde Workers Committee was formed to campaign against the Munitions Act. It was originally called the ''Labour Withholding Committee''. The leader of the CWC was Willie Gallacher, who was jailed under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 to ...

, who was prosecuted under the

Defence of the Realm Act The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after it entered the First World War and was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war, such as the p ...

for an article criticising the war. Born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, 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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He became involved in the Shop Stewards' Movement, and was a member of the

, an organisation that had been formed to campaign against the Munitions Act, 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 The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, and became close to

John Wheatley John Wheatley (19 May 1869 – 12 May 1930) was a Scottish socialist politician. He was a prominent figure of the Red Clydeside era. Early life and career Wheatley was born to Thomas and Johanna Wheatley in Bonmahon, County Waterford, Ire ...

. 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. He lost his seat in the 1924 election, after which he ran the

Workers Educational Association The Workers' Educational Association (WEA), founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education and one of Britain's biggest charities. The WEA is a democratic and voluntary adult education movement. It delivers lea ...

until 1930.

References

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

{{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