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29-570: The Crofters' Party was the parliamentary arm of the Highland Land League . It gained five MPs in the 1885 general election and five in the election of the following year . The Highland Land League had started on the Isle of Skye , and in 1884 protest action was much more widespread: many thousands of crofters became members of the Highland Land League. A number of candidates stood with

58-410: A strike fund or other form of crowdfunding to help support strikers, particularly against legal threats. Rent strikes may also be undertaken on a informal basis, with some instances seeing tenant unions formed as a result of the action. Some trades unions have been known to support rent strikes. Some of the earliest evidence of collectively witholding rent comes from the 15th centuary, where it

87-474: A commission of enquiry headed by Francis Napier , and the Napier Commission published recommendations in 1884. Napier's report fell a long way short of addressing crofters' demands and it stimulated a new wave of protests. The earlier protests had been largely confined to Skye . In 1884 protest action was much more widespread, many thousands of crofters became members of the Highland Land League and among

116-487: A distinct parliamentary force, the Land League fragmented during the 1890s. Candidates with asterisks (*) and names in bold were endorsed by the Land League as Crofters Party candidates. Candidates with a dagger (†) were elected ahead of candidates endorsed by the Land League. Candidates with a double dagger (‡) were unseated in the 1900 United Kingdom general election . John Macdonald Cameron , MP for Wick Burghs, ran under

145-642: A distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands . It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party . It was consciously modelled on the Irish Land League . The Highland Land League was successful in getting Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in 1885 (in the 1885 general election ). As

174-562: A leverage of bargining power . Rent strikes can occur due to any number of unadressed issues facing tenants, such as high or rising rent costs; poor, unsafe, or unhygenic living conditions; precarity and housing insecurity ; and unfair or abusive landlords . They may also occur to achieve a change in policy or broader political goals, such as civil and political rights struggles, or an increase in social housing . Rent strikes are often undertaken by organised groups such as tenants unions . In these cases, tenant unions may establish

203-703: A parliamentary force, it was dissipated by the Crofters' Act of 1886 and by the way the Liberal Party was seen to adopt Land League objectives. Similarly to its Irish predecessor, the Land League also used direct action tactics to resist both rackrenting and mass evictions by the Anglo-Scottish landlords of the Highlands and the use of the same tactics was to continue into 20th century. The Land League's tactics included rent strikes , boycotting , and land occupations by crofters , cottars and squatters . Perhaps

232-547: A second Highland Land League was formed as a political party . This organisation was a broadly left-wing group that sought the restoration of deer forests to public ownership , abolition of plural farms and the nationalisation of the land . Also they resolved to resolutely defend crofters facing eviction by their landlords and they supported home rule for Scotland . During the First World War (1914 to 1918) politicians made lavish promises about reform which would follow

261-627: Is known now as Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE) . A new Liberal government, elected in 1906 (in the 1906 general election) , abolished the Congested Districts Board and created the Board of Agriculture for Scotland . The new board's principal task was supposed to be that of pressing forward with land reform in the Highlands and Islands. It was largely ineffective. By 1913 crofters were again staging land raids. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, in 1909,

290-584: The Communist October Revolution in Russia, not to mention the socialist Kiel mutiny , which helped end the First World War and bring about the German Revolution . With these other events in mind, the Highland Land League, although radical, were positively gentle in their politics compared to radicals in other countries around the same time. In August 1918 the new Land League had affiliated with

319-690: The Inverness Burghs . A year later Parliament passed the Crofters Act, formally the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 ( 49 & 50 Vict. c. 29), which applied to croft tenure in an area which is now recognisable as a definition of the Highlands and Islands The Act granted real security of tenure of existing crofts and established the first Crofters Commission which had rent-fixing powers. Rents were generally reduced and 50% or more of outstanding arrears were cancelled. The Act failed however to address

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348-453: The Labour Party , with four candidates for the 1918 general election being joint League-Labour. By the 1920s they had fully merged with Labour, under the promise of autonomy for Scotland were Labour to gain power in the forthcoming years, which however remained unfulfilled, presumably at least partly because although Labour succeeded in forming a government, they failed to gain a majority in

377-580: The electoral reform Act of 1884 . As many crofters in the Scottish Highlands newly qualified as £10 occupiers, the Act empowered Scottish Gaels to form the Crofters' Party and Highland Land League. In the early 1880s, in terms of gaining sympathetic public opinion, crofters were protesting very effectively, with rent strikes and land raids, about their lack of secure tenure of land and their severely reduced access to land. The government responded in 1883 with

406-535: The list of MPs elected in the 1885 United Kingdom general election there were Crofters' Party MPs elected by the constituencies of Argyllshire ( Donald Horne Macfarlane ), Inverness-shire ( Charles Fraser-Mackintosh ), Ross and Cromarty ( Roderick Macdonald ) and Caithness ( Gavin Brown Clark ). At Wick Burghs John Macdonald Cameron was also allied with the Crofters Party. A year later Parliament created

435-587: The Crofters Act. The Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 ( 49 & 50 Vict. c. 29) applied to croft tenure in an area which is now recognisable as a definition of the Highlands and Islands : that of the ancient counties of Argyll , Inverness-shire , Ross and Cromarty , Sutherland , Caithness , Orkney and Shetland . (The name is used now as a name for an electoral area of the Scottish Parliament : please see Highlands and Islands ). The Act granted security of tenure of existing crofts and established

464-498: The Highland Land League's backing in the 1885 general election and in subsequent elections in the rest of the 19th century. The MPs elected with the backing of the Highland Land League formed themselves into the Crofters' Party, although they were also known as Independent Liberals . The MPs were: Also standing in 1885 was Walter McLaren, a Land League-endorsed Independent Liberal who was beaten by Liberal candidate Robert Finlay in

493-741: The House of Commons. Land League members were then key to the formation of the Scottish National Party in 1934. When faced with new land raids the government responded by giving the Board of Agriculture the money and powers to do something like what had been promised. The Board's work was assisted by a downturn in the profitability of sheep farming and, by the late 1920s, perhaps 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares; 200 square kilometres) of arable land and 750,000 acres (300,000 ha; 3,000 km ) of hill pasture had been given over to establishing new crofts. Most of

522-508: The Land League's best known Gaelic slogan was "Is treasa tuath na tighearna " , (lit. "The people are mightier than a lord ." fig. "The whole Clan is mightier than the Chief .") By the 1880s the common people or peasantry of the Highlands and Islands had been cleared from large areas of their ancestral lands, the clearances (known as the Highland Clearances ) having occurred during

551-473: The banner of the Wick Radical Workingmen's Association in 1885, but was endorsed by the Land League; subsequently he ran as the official Liberal Party candidate. Liberal Unionist John Pender beat John Macdonald Cameron in 1892 but his 1896 opponent was not Land League endorsed. Highland Land League The first Highland Land League ( Scottish Gaelic : Dionnasg an Fhearainn ) emerged as

580-482: The communications infrastructure of the Highlands and Islands (roads, railways, and harbours) and, in the early years of the 20th century the Congested Districts Board was able to push through the establishment of new crofting townships on Skye and in the Strathnaver area of Sutherland. The Congested Districts Board was created in 1897 and can be seen as a precursor to the Highlands and Islands Development Board , which

609-402: The crofts of other people. Landlords turned most of the land over to use as sheep farms and hunting parks called deer forests. In addition, in the 1880s, the Highlands and Islands were recently ravaged by the potato famine of the mid 19th century. The 1880s were also a time, however, of growing democracy and of government which was increasingly responsive to public opinion, particularly after

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638-537: The decades following the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Some emigrated at that time, but most were forced, to Canada, the US, as well as Australia and other British colonies. Many who did not leave were crammed into crofting (pieces of land surrounded by legislation) townships on very small areas of land where they were openly abused and exploited by their landlords . Many lacked even crofts of their own and became cottars and squatters on

667-462: The first Crofters Commission (The same name was given to a different body in 1955). The Crofters Commission had rent-fixing powers. Rents were generally reduced and 50% or more of outstanding arrears were cancelled. The Act failed however to address the issue of severely limited access to land, and crofters renewed their protest actions. At the same time there was a shift in the political climate: William Gladstone 's Liberal government fell from power;

696-431: The issue of severely limited access to land, and crofters renewed their protest actions. At the same time there was a shift in the political climate: William Gladstone 's Liberal government fell from power; the new Conservative government was much less sympathetic to the plight of crofters and much more willing to use troops to quell protests. The Liberal Party appeared to adopt and champion Land League objectives and, as

725-455: The new Conservative government was much less sympathetic to the plight of crofters and much more willing to use troops to quell protests. The Liberal Party appeared to adopt and champion Land League objectives and, as a distinct parliamentary force, the Land League fragmented during the 1890s. On the issue of access to land, therefore, little real progress was to be made until after the First World War. Some resources were put into development of

754-755: The new crofts were in the Hebrides , the area where Gaelic best survives into the present day. Crofters benefited also in parts of Caithness, Sutherland, Shetland, and various other localities. Crofting is still a distinct lifestyle today, and the Scottish Crofting Federation continues to represent crofters. Rent strike Historically, rent strikes have often been used in response to various hardships faced by tenants, however, there have been situations where wider societal issues have led to such action. Rent strikes are an example of collective direct action where tenants refuse to pay rent landlords as

783-462: The threat of evicition. These factors resulted in a series of rent strikes during the COVID-19 pandemic . Frequently cases of rent strikes have gone unreported or under reported by perennial news sources, with details often shared via word of mouth . Aditionally striking tenants have often not themselves made record of strikes. Where strikes have been recorded—typically larger scale disputes—focus

812-533: The war, and of course many crofters died in the war itself. After the war the words of politicians did not translate into immediate action, but crofters returning from the war were in no mood to accept government inaction. Land raids began again. To set this Scottish Highland political radicalism in context, the 1916 Easter Rising was recent history in Ireland, as were the Liberal February Revolution and

841-651: Was noted in arrears lists as quia tenentes negant solvere , ( lit.   ' because the tenants refuse to pay ' ). Documentation of rent strikes increased going into the late 19th and early 20th centuary. Increasing industrialisation and urbanisation saw increased disputes between landlords and tenants. In response to an increasing frequency of rent strikes, landlords in some areas retaliated by forming associations of landlords, such as in Berlin and Stockholm. The COVID-19 pandemic saw an increase in housing precarity due to issues such as job losses, decrease in income, and

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