During the riot, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire called for military aid, and government troops, supported by six tanks, were moved to key points in the city.

[1][2] After World War I, the United Kingdom's demobilization of its military and industry, combined with the increasingly worsening post war domestic fiscal and monetary environment, created the prospect of mass unemployment, which the Scottish TUC and Clyde Workers' Committee (CWC) sought to counter by increasing the availability of jobs for demobilised soldiers by striking to obtain a reduction of the working week from a newly-agreed 47 to 40 hours.

[4] On 29 January, a delegation of strikers met the Lord Provost of Glasgow and it was agreed that he would send a telegram to the Deputy Prime Minister Bonar Law asking the government to intervene.

[1] The telegram and the Sheriff's request prompted the War Cabinet to discuss the 'Strike Situation in Glasgow' on 30 January[5] At the meeting, concern was voiced that, given the concurrent European popular uprisings, the strike had the possibility to spread throughout the country.

While it was government policy at the time to not involve itself in labour disputes, the agreed action was justified to ensure there was 'sufficient force'[6] present within the immediate locale of Glasgow to secure the continuation of public order and operation of municipal services.

[8] On the meeting's close, instructions were sent to Scottish Command informing of the situation and to be prepared to deploy government troops if requested.

They were awaiting an answer to the telegram the Lord Provost of Glasgow had sent to the Prime Minister on behalf of a delegation of strikers on 29 January, asking the government to intervene.

[10] The failure of the tram workers to join the strike and thereby paralyse transport in the city had been a source of growing tension in the preceding days.

On hearing the news, CWC leaders David Kirkwood and Emanuel Shinwell left the City Chambers.

[25] Shinwell, born to a Jewish immigrant family in London, ran in the municipal elections to the Glasgow Corporation following his release from prison.

Their number included the 40 Hour Strike organisers and Independent Labour Party members Manny Shinwell and David Kirkwood.