John William Muir

Politician

1879 – 1931

84

Who was John William Muir?

John William Muir was the editor of The Worker who was prosecuted under the Defense 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, and was a member of the Clyde Workers' Committee, 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, and became close to John Wheatley. In the 1918 election, he stood for the Labour Party in Glasgow Maryhill, but was unsuccessful. He won the seat in the 1922 general election. He lost his seat in the 1924 election, after which he ran the Workers Educational Association until 1930.

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Born
Dec 15, 1879
Nationality
  • United Kingdom
Died
Jan 11, 1931

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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