During the agitations around Chartism and each of the nineteenth century Reform Acts, radicals in Scotland turned out onto the streets in formal processions. They did so with a variety of vibrant materials, including flags, uniforms, costumes, and models. This article examines the purposes of, and forms taken by, these processions. As well as expressing support for national reform movements, public political materials also expressed a belief in a more generic radical ideology based around liberty and natural rights. They were equally meant to entertain compatriots and, through the physical occupation of space, intimidate opponents. Perhaps more significantly, these materials were imbued deeply with the marchers’ personal and collective identities. In particular, marchers tended to highlight their professions through material references to manual labour, either in images of tools and products or in live demonstrations of the working process. Frequently, this labouring identity was tied strongly to political belief. The persistent expression of an identity founded on physical labour, guarded from the non-labouring, and interwoven with radical ideology, calls into question arguments which have downplayed the role of class in nineteenth-century radical politics.