Class, community, and the labour unrest in rural Scotland: establishing the Scottish Farm Servants’ Union

In 1912, amidst wider currents of industrial unrest throughout the country, a meeting in the Aberdeenshire market town of Turriff resulted in the formation of the Scottish Farm Servants Union. Due to a range of factors, agricultural unions were notoriously difficult to organize, with numerous earlier efforts ending in failure. Yet this was not the case with the new union, which would grow into an influential element of the Scottish labour movement. This article will reflect on the formation of the SFSU, placing it within the context of the Labour Unrest. In doing so it will highlight how the Labour Unrest was experienced by agricultural workers in the north-east of Scotland and how it impacted their experience of organization. Furthermore, this article will reflect on the class identity of rural labourers, arguing that, in contrast to stereotypical perspectives, rural labourers held a distinctly proletarian identity and positioned themselves as a constituent part of the wider working class.