Scottish Workers' Representation Committee was the parliamentary outfit of the Scottish Trades Union Congress

Scottish Trades Union Congress

The Scottish Trades Union Congress is the co-ordinating body of trade unions, and local Trades Councils, in Scotland. With 39 affiliated unions as of 2007, the STUC represents around 630,000 trade unionists....

 1899-1909. It was known as the Scottish Workers Parliamentary Elections Committee until 1903. In contrast to the Labour Representation Committee in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, SWRC was able to maintain organisational unity between different strands of ideological tendencies in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, ranging from Marxist, Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 and Fabian

Fabian Society

The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...

 socialists.

The SWPEC's first contest was the 1900 UK general election. It sponsored radical journalist A. E. Fletcher in Glasgow Camlachie

Glasgow Camlachie (UK Parliament constituency)

Glasgow Camlachie was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1955.It elected one Member of Parliament using the first-past-the-post voting system.-Boundaries:...

. He took 3,107 votes and did not win the seat. It then stood Robert Smillie

Robert Smillie

Robert Smillie was a trade unionist and Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.-Biography:Born into the city of Belfast, the second son of John Smillie a Scottish Crofter. Until into his adult years he spelt his name as Smellie; he spelt it like this even on his wedding certificate in 1878...

, a leader of the miners' trade union, in the North East Lanarkshire by-election, 1901, who was also defeated. When another by-election arose in North East Lanarkshire, in 1904, another miners' leader was selected, John Robertson

John Robertson (Bothwell MP)

John Robertson MBE was a Scottish Labour Party politician.He began work in the coal mines as a boy of thirteen, eventually becoming Chairman of the Scottish Miners' Union...

, who again failed to win the seat.

In the 1906 parliamentary elections SWRC stood five candidates: Robertson in North East Lanarkshire

North East Lanarkshire (UK Parliament constituency)

North East Lanarkshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post voting system.- Boundaries :...

, Joseph Sullivan

Joseph Sullivan (MP)

Joseph Sullivan was a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1922 to 1924, and from 1926 to 1931....

 in North West Lanarkshire

North West Lanarkshire (UK Parliament constituency)

North West Lanarkshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post voting system.- Boundaries :...

, David Gilmour in Falkirk Burghs

Falkirk Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)

Falkirk Burghs was a district of burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1918. The constituency comprised the burghs of Falkirk, Airdrie, Hamilton, Lanark and Linlithgow, lying in Stirlingshire, Lanarkshire and Linlithgowshire.In 1918,...

, James Brown in North Ayrshire

North Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency)

North Ayrshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 until 1918. It returned one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system.-Boundaries:...

, and Smillie in Paisley

Paisley (UK Parliament constituency)

Paisley was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 until 1983, when it was divided into Paisley North and Paisley South...

. The candidates won a total of 14,877 votes, but again failed to win a seat.

In 1909 the SWRC was dissolved and merged with the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

. In 1915 a Scottish Council was formed within the Labour Party.