In Britain this development began in Clydeside, a dense area of munitions industries in Scotland that was at the forefront of the opposition to the government's authoritarian manpower policies. In February 1915, during an unoffi cial strike for higher wages and shorter hours, metal workers collectively organized so as to impede the divideandconquer strategies of the employers, who tried to negotiate separately with different categories of workers. Th e fi rst strike committees developed into a more permanent body, the Clyde worker committee, that represented all grades of workers regardless of their skill. … Th e strikes of May 1917 were the largest of the war, involving 200,000 metalworkers for more than three weeks.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 478