Red Square - the Myth and the Reality

Abstract

The Government Railway Workshops at Midland had few lengthy industrial disputes during its 90 years of existence, yet despite this apparently calm exterior, it was a highly contested site, divided not only into 'blue' and 'white-collar' territories or 'works' and 'management' but within those broad demarcations into the territory of particular trades, between whom a lively rivalry flourished. Yet of all these places, the two that most excite the memory of past employees and catch the imagination of visitors to the site a decade after the closure of the Workshops are the flagpole and 'Red Square'. This paper discusses the various roles of 'Red Square' as a site for the propagation and spreading of political ideas, a symbol of workers' defiance against the Workshops 'hierarchy' and a site for myth making. It concludes with a consideration of how areas such as 'Red Square' might be interpreted and maintained in any significant way in the process of re-developing the site.