In the spring and summer of 1920 "indignation" meetings were held in Belfast by working-class members of Carson’s “Old Town Hall circle” to attack the British unions for their "Bolshevism" and "pro-republicanism". Leading Unionists and employers went along in these events and even justified them, as they perceiving themselves to be vulnerable. After one meeting held in the shipyards in July, attacks began on workers identified as Belfast Labour members, socialists and Catholics. This then spread to some sections of the linen industry and the engineering industry resulting in over "8,000 expulsions within a week."