Glasgow-born fitter Archibald Crawford served in the British Army during the Second Boer War and stayed in South Africa at its end. There, he returned to his trade on the Central South African Railways, where he quickly became a leading trade unionist. Secretary of the Pretoria Trades and Labour Council, he was a founding member of the Independent Labour Party, but became increasingly syndicalist. Forming the I.W.W. in South Africa without a color line, in 1914 he was deported back to Scotland for his activities. There he wrote this fascinating look at the, less than idyllic, conditions on the Shetlands as international, industrial capitalism reached the isolated islands.

‘Capitalism in Shetland’ by Archibald Crawford from the International Socialist Review. Vol. 15 No. 4. October, 1914.

CAPITALISM has not yet reached the North Pole, but it has firmly planted itself in close proximity. At Lerwick, the principal town on the Shetland Islands, situated in a latitude more northern than Greenland’s Cape Farewell, Capitalism pursues its inexorable and relentless process of exploitation in its most up-to-date fashion.

Lerwick has recently become the greatest herring fishing and curing center in the world. The development of the fishing industry reveals the same line of Capitalist evolution all other industries have experienced. In the early days the Shetlanders prosecuted chiefly the fishing for cod, ling and tusk. They were compelled to deliver their entire catches up to their landlords and accept without demur whatever reward he chose to give in exchange. When they were too old to catch fish they became undesirable tenants and were turned out of their homes to make room for younger and more virile slaves.

In the beginning of the eighties the Crofter fishermen turned their attention seriously to the herring fishing. Bigger interests had to be served and so land reform laws were passed through the British parliament which curtailed the power of the landlords to tyrannize and rob their tenants. Following this relief the Shetlanders came to possess a very fine fleet of first-class sailing boats, which latterly were fitted with steam appliances for hauling their nets. The fishing grounds were comparatively close to the mainland. The fancied security of these “petite” Capitalists was of short duration.

The demand for herring on the Continent of Europe knows no bounds. The existence of an inexhaustible source of supply near Lerwick was proved. Great Capital recognized in these factors a fine proposition. A year or two ago steam vessels, called “Drifters,” were built by “foreign” Capitalists and in the season these crawl towards Lerwick through the North Sea like a procession of migratory ants. With their appearance on the scene the herring disappeared from the grounds close to the mainland, but were followed by the “Drifters” sixty and seventy miles out to sea, where the sailing fleet could not profitably venture. They carried a multiplicity of nets and landed huge catches. About six hundred of these drifters land their catches daily or on alternate days. The cheapened mode of production has lowered the price per “cran” and alas! alack! the sailing fleet of yesterday is now no more.

It is a wonderful sight to see these drifters follow one another like bees into the harbor. They jostle each other at the landing point as they come in and back out, just as human beings do at busy street corners in our large cities. Unlike other fishing centers, which stick to old customs, the whole catch is not landed at the market. A mere sample is shown and the entire catch (value $200 to $700) knocked down to one or the other of the great buyers who represent curing companies whose stations or private wharves are dotted around the harbor. So perfect is the system that a catch of ten thousand crans (a “cran” is the fill of a large basket and constitutes a carrying load for one man) may be landed and disposed of before 4 o’clock in the afternoon and yet not a trace of the day’s fishing is discernible.

A visit to the curing stations brings to light fresh and more damning facts concerning the industry. A drifter at the wharf is landing its crans of herring with exceeding haste. A bonus system gives all the crew and fishermen an “interest” in the business and all are anxious to get away to sea again. Not an hour’s rest nor a meal is taken on land from the beginning till the end of each week. The crans are counted and the herring tipped into a great trough or tank, where it is liberally mixed up with salt. Excepting for the coopers who close the barrels, the rest of the work is performed by girls who gut and pack the fish with a deftness and dexterity which is astonishing.

In all probability some six thousand or more girls are employed in this department of the fishing industry. They are recruited mainly from the highlands of Scotland. They follow the herring north to Lerwick and south to Peterhead, Aberdeen, Lowestoft and Yarmouth, etc. They are not yet organized, although they could easily be induced to join up in a union. The result of their individualized condition is manifest in the immoral conditions which surround them. As they are only required for a season of three or four months in the year no effort is made to decently house them. Rows of filthy huts have been built close to the stations and no less than six inhabit each room, small in area and with ceilings which makes one who enters stoop. They have no set hours, being compelled to work as the catch is landed and until the last of the catch is gutted and packed. Hence these girls may be lounging about till 11 o’clock in the forenoon, when suddenly the work will start and without a stop they will work through till 3 a.m. next morning. The outcome of this, in the case of quite a number, is disastrous. At the weekend, in search for rest, change and recreation, they gather in dancing halls and in the reaction which sets in, lose control of themselves. The men, who work under similar conditions, and the overworked fishermen, give full play to their passions. Many of them get the worse of drink and molest the girls, whose wooden huts offer no protection, even if protection were desired, to the aggressive men. There are, of course, a great proportion of respectable girls, but the conditions of life are most demoralizing and men and women are merely the helpless victims. If property was being destroyed, plenty of protection would be provided, but in the mere destruction of the morals of men and women—well, to Capitalism it is a good thing, for it aids the manufacture of slaves.

The fingers of these herring girls suffer frightfully from bone cuts. The salt and pickle make these cuts painful. Girls are to be seen with every finger of both hands bandaged.

The Shetlanders have experienced Capitalism in another industry which, if of minor importance, is nevertheless world renowned. There are very few people who have not heard of Shetland hosiery. The softness, delicacy and beautiful design of the lace shawls and the great warmth and durability of the articles for general wear, knitted by women of the Shetland Isles, are universally known. Knitting is a habit with these women. No matter what the nature of their work; bringing home loads of peat, driving the cattle to the hills or shepherding their flocks, they are invariably plying their needles. The sheep of Shetland are of a distinct species. They are tiny and of numerous shades of color. Their sustenance is meager and to make the most of the scant vegetation they are compelled to roam over the rugged hills and bleak moorland. Hence they are exceedingly hardy. The sheep are not shorn, but the wool is removed by a process (rooin) which preserves the fleece. The wool is first teased to remove impurities, carded and spun by hand.

Alas! Germany has started to make Shetland wool and manufacture “homemade” Shetland shawls and woolen fineries, and an innocent public abroad is thus taken in. The hard working knitters are compelled to sell their products to local storekeepers who insist on them taking goods from their shelves in lieu of cash. Competition has forced the Shetlanders to send their wool to English mills to be carded and spun and returned again. Hence the delicate art of hand carding and spinning threatens to disappear.

The Shetlanders, therefore, living over a hundred miles from the Scottish mainland, almost in Arctic regions, where at times daylight is perpetual and the sun’s rays never disappear from view even at midnight, have come to know Capitalism in its most brutal and aggressive form.

It is little wonder that the philosophy of Socialism and Industrial Unionism found a home there almost ten years ago. A branch of the British Socialist Party exists here, 180 miles north of the nearest branch of any Socialist organization. The secretary, Magnus Manson, a pioneer member and a Socialist and Industrial Unionist of the first order, is chairman of the local School Board. Comrades F.H. Pottinger and Groat are also on the School Board, the former being one of three Socialist members on the County Council. The Party is also represented on the Town Council. All opposition to Socialism has been destroyed, a fact the comrades very much deplore. The Socialist spirit is very widespread. One would expect a visit from royalty to create wonder and enthusiasm in far-away Lerwick, but the Duke of Edinburgh on his recent visit didn’t raise a cheer and the writer has to confess that it was the first place he struck where his autograph was not desired by anyone.

The Octopus Capitalism has reached its tentacles to the uttermost ends of the earth and labor is hot on its trail. Everywhere Capital and Labor is lining up in juxtaposition. Swords are gleaming, some have crossed, and here and there, on the distant Rand and in Colorado, a few thrusts have been made by Capital which Labor throughout its ranks has felt. Countenances are becoming serious and grim. Determination to do and dare, to fight and finish, feature Labor’s warriors. Sooner than we think we will be plunged into the vortex of a mighty struggle from which Labor will emerge victorious and triumphant.

It must be so.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v15n04-oct-1914-ISR-gog-ocr-NWU.pdf