1926 United Kingdom general strike
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1926 United Kingdom general strike | |||
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Date | 4–12 May 1926 | ||
Caused by | Mine owners' intention to reduce miners' wages | ||
Goals | Higher wages and improved working conditions | ||
Methods | General strike | ||
Resulted in | Strike called off | ||
Parties | |||
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Lead figures | |||
Number | |||
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The 1926 General Strike in the United Kingdom was a
It was a
Causes
When mine owners announced that their intention was to reduce miners' wages, the
The
A previous royal commission, the
After the Samuel Commission's report, the mine owners declared that miners would be offered new terms of employment, which included lengthening the work day and reducing wages depending on various factors. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain refused the wage reduction and regional negotiation.
General strike, May 1926
The final negotiations began on 1 May but failed to achieve an agreement, leading to an announcement by the TUC that a general strike "in defence of miners' wages and hours" was to begin on 3 May,[9] a Monday, at one minute to midnight.[10][11]
The leaders of the Labour Party were not happy about the proposed general strike because they were aware of the revolutionary elements within the union movement and of the damage that the association would do to the party's new reputation as a party of government.[12] During the next two days, frantic efforts were made to reach an agreement between the government and the mining industry representatives. However, they failed, mainly because[13] of an eleventh-hour decision by printers of the Daily Mail to refuse to print an editorial ("For King and Country") condemning the general strike. They objected to the following passage: "A general strike is not an industrial dispute. It is a revolutionary move which can only succeed by destroying the government and subverting the rights and liberties of the people".
Baldwin was now concerned about the TUC and printers' action interfering with the freedom of the press.[citation needed]
King George V tried to stabilise the situation and create balance saying, "Try living on their wages before you judge them."[14]
The TUC feared that an all-out general strike would bring revolutionary elements to the fore and limited the participants to
The government had been preparing for the strike over the nine months in which it had provided a subsidy by creating organisations such as the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies, and it did whatever it could to keep the country moving. It rallied support by emphasizing the revolutionary nature of the strikers. The armed forces and volunteer workers helped maintain basic services. It used the Emergency Powers Act 1920 to maintain essential supplies.
On 4 May 1926, the number of strikers was about 1.5–1.75 million. There were strikers "from John o' Groats to Land's End". The reaction to the strike call was immediate and overwhelming, surprising both the government and the TUC; the latter not being in control of the strike. On this first day, there were no major initiatives and no dramatic events except for the nation's transport being at a standstill.
"Constitutional Government is being attacked. Let all good citizens whose livelihood and labour have thus been put in peril bear with fortitude and patience the hardships with which they have been so suddenly confronted. Stand behind the Government, who are doing their part, confident that you will cooperate in the measures they have undertaken to preserve the liberties and privileges of the people of these islands. The laws of England are the people's birthright. The laws are in your keeping. You have made Parliament their guardian. The General Strike is a challenge to Parliament and is the road to anarchy and ruin".
Stanley Baldwin, 6 May 1926, British Gazette
On 5 May 1926, both sides gave their views. Churchill commented as editor of the government newspaper British Gazette: "I do not agree that the TUC have as much right as the Government to publish their side of the case and to exhort their followers to continue action. It is a very much more difficult task to feed the nation than it is to wreck it". Baldwin wrote, "The general strike is a challenge to the parliament and is the road to anarchy". The British Worker, the TUC's newspaper, wrote: "We are not making war on the people. We are anxious that the ordinary members of the public shall not be penalized for the unpatriotic conduct of the mine owners and the government".
In the meantime, the government put in place a "
On 6 May 1926, there was a change of atmosphere. The government newspaper,
On 7 May 1926, the TUC met with Samuel and worked out a set of proposals designed to end the dispute. The Miners' Federation rejected the proposals. The British Worker was increasingly difficult to operate, as Churchill had requisitioned the bulk of the supply of the paper's newsprint so it reduced its size from eight pages to four.[18] In the meantime, the government took action to protect the men who decided to return to work.
On 8 May 1926, there was a dramatic moment on the London Docks. Lorries were protected by the British Army. They broke the picket line and transported food to Hyde Park. That showed that the government was in greater control of the situation. It was also a measure of Baldwin's rationalism, in place of Churchill's more reactionary stance. Churchill had wanted, in a move that could have proved unnecessarily antagonistic to the strikers, to arm the soldiers. Baldwin, however, had insisted otherwise. In Plymouth, tram services were restarted, with some vehicles attacked and windows smashed. However, not all strike actions in the city were confrontational; a football match, attended by thousands, occurs between a team of policemen and strikers, with the strikers winning 2–0.[19] The supporters included a delegation of 4,000 strikers, which marched to the grounds accompanied by a marching band.[20]
On 11 May 1926, the
However, the
On 12 May 1926, the TUC General Council visited 10 Downing Street to announce its decision to call off the strike if the proposals worked out by the Samuel Commission were respected and the government offered a guarantee there would be no victimization of strikers. The government stated that it had "no power to compel employers to take back every man who had been on strike". However, the TUC agreed to end the dispute without such an agreement. Various strikes continued after this as their unions negotiated deals with companies for their members to return to work.
Aftermath
The miners maintained resistance for a few months before being forced, by their own economic needs, to return to the mines.[11] By the end of November, most miners were back at work. However, many remained unemployed for many years. Those still employed were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages, and district wage agreements.[citation needed]
The effect on British coal mines was profound. By the late 1930s, employment in mining had fallen by more than a third from its pre-strike peak of 1.2 million miners, but productivity had rebounded from under 200 tons produced per miner, to over 300 tons by the outbreak of the
The split in the miners that resulted from
The
In the long run, there was little impact on trade union activity or industrial relations. The TUC and trade union movement remained intact and did not change their basic policies. Keith Laybourn says that historians mostly agree that "In no significant way could the General Strike be considered a turning point or watershed in British industrial history."[26] There have been no further general strikes in Britain, as union leaders such as Ernest Bevin, who had coordinated the strike, considered it a mistake; they decided that action by political parties was a better solution.[27] However, the country came close to a one-day general strike on 31 July 1972 over the imprisonment of the Pentonville Five.[28]
The Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits the Labour government had been imposing, against Trades Union Congress (TUC) opposition, to control inflation.
In popular culture
- Young Anarchy by Philip Gibbs was the first novel to mention the general strike.[29]
- Meanwhile (1927) by H. G. Wells was the first novel to feature the general strike and describes its effect on the British labour movement.[29]
- Swan Song, a 1928 novel by John Galsworthy that is part of The Forsyte Saga, depicts the response of the English upper classes to the strike.[29]
- The poet modernist poem of the same year, "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle". His imagistic depiction of how events unfolded occurs in the extended passage beginning "I saw a rose come loupinoot..." (line 1119).
- Harold Heslop's 1929 novel The Gate of a Strange Field is set during the strike and describes the events from the viewpoint of striking miners.[30]
- Ellen Wilkinson's 1929 novel Clash focuses on a woman activist's involvement with the strike.[31]
- The strike functions as the "endpiece" of the satirical novel, The Apes of God, by Wyndham Lewis. In that novel, the half-hearted nature of the strike, and its eventual collapse, represents the political and moral stagnation of 1920s Britain.
- The strike forms the climax of Cloud Howe (1933), by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, part of his A Scots Quair series of novels.[32]
- In James Hilton's 1934 novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the retired schoolmaster Chipping calls the strike "a very fine advertisement" since there was "not a life lost" and "not a shot fired".
- The failure of the strike inspired Idris Davies to write "Bells of Rhymney" (published 1938), which Pete Seeger made into the song "The Bells of Rhymney" (recorded 1958).
- In the 1945 novel, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, the main character, Charles Ryder, returns from France to London to fight against the workers on strike.
- Not Honour More (1955) by Joyce Cary is a historical novel revolving around the strike.[33]
- Raymond Williams's 1960 novel Border Country, Matthew Price's father is a part of the strike, alongside his signalmen colleagues.
- The Series Five, episode 9; original airing date, 2 November 1975), to the general strike.
- The strike is referred to in several episodes of the You Rang M'Lord?.
- In the 1970s and the 1980s, "Strikes 1926" was a short-lived restaurant chain in London. The interiors of the restaurants were decorated with photographs from the strike.
- Touchstone, a 2007 novel by Laurie R. King, is set in the final weeks before the strike. The issues and factions involved, and an attempt to forestall the strike are key plot points.
- A BBC series, The House of Eliott, included an episode depicting the general strike.
- In the novel Any Human Heart by William Boyd, the protagonist Logan Mountstuart volunteers himself as a special constable in the strike.
- Robert Rae's 2012 film The Happy Lands is set amongst coal miners in Fife during the strike.
- The fourth part of Ken Loach's film tetralogy Days of Hope is devoted to the strike.
- In the alternate history short story If the General Strike Had Succeeded by communistrule.
- The strike is constantly mentioned in miners' strike of 1984–85.
- The fourth series of the BBC Two television show Peaky Blinders is set in the period immediately prior to and during the strike. The series emphasises the involvement of revolutionary communist elements including Jessie Eden.
Footnotes
- OCLC 48138212.
- ^ "Forgotten (or conveniently forgotten) reason for 1926 miners strike recalled - Dr Fred Starr | Claverton Group". claverton-energy.com.
- ISBN 0416332900.
- ^ "Forgotten (or conveniently forgotten) reason for 1926 miners strike recalled – Dr Fred Starr | Claverton Group". Claverton-energy.com. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
- ^ Robertson, D. H. 'A Narrative of the General Strike of 1926' The Economic Journal Vol. 36, no. 143 (September 1926) p. 376
- ^ Griffiths, D. A History of the NPA 1906–2006 (London: Newspaper Publishers Association, 2006) p. 67
- ^ Robertson, D. H. p. 377
- ^ Taylor, A. J. P. (2000). "IV Post War, 1918–22". England 1914–1945. London: The Folio Society. p. 122.
- ^ Renshaw, P. The General Strike (London: Eyre Meuthen, 1975) pp. 157–160
- ^ "What was the General Strike of 1926?", BBC News UK, London: BBC, 19 June 2011, retrieved 27 April 2012
- ^ ISBN 0750921587.
- ISBN 978-0-09-952078-8.
- ^ Keith Laybourn (1993). The General Strike of 1926. Manchester UP. p. 43
- ^ David Sinclair, Two Georges: The Making of the Modern Monarchy. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1988. p. 105.
- ^ "Nottinghamshire NUM Area History". Nottinghamshireexminer.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
- ^ "'Why Walk to Work?' The British Gazette. No. 2, p. 1". wdc.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- ^ Symons, J. The General Strike (London: Cresset Press, 1957) p. 158
- ^ 'The British Worker and Paper Supplies,' The Times (8 May 1926), p. 4
- ^ General Strike Day 5: Saturday 8 May 1926, University of Warwick, The Library
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ISBN 978-0413332608.
- ^ Lee S. J. 1996 Aspects of British Political History 1914–1995 p 90]
- JSTOR 789636.
- ^ Mathias, The First Industrial Nation, p. 449.
- )
- ISBN 978-0719038655.
- ^ J. Graham Jones, "Ernest Bevin and the General Strike", Llafur: Journal of Welsh Labour History/Cylchgrawn Hanes Llafur Cymru (2001) 8#2 pp 97–103.
- ^ "Pentonville voices". warwick.ac.uk.
- ^ ISBN 1136492569, pp. 127–150
- ISBN 1349118273. p. 46
- ISBN 1317121368, 2016, p. 8
- ISBN 18746409981999, p. 36.
- ISBN 978-1573560665. p. 256
Further reading
- Barron, Hester. The 1926 Miners' Lockout: Meanings of Community in the Durham Coalfield (2010)
- Chaloner, W. H. "The British Miners and the Coal Industry between the Wars" History Today (June 1964) 14#5 pp 418–426, focus on historiography of 1926 miners.
- Ferrall, Charles, and Dougal McNeill, eds. Writing the 1926 General Strike: Literature, Culture, Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
- Gildart, Keith. "The Women and Men of 1926: A Gender and Social History of the General Strike and Miners' Lockout in South Wales", Journal of British Studies, (July 2011) 50#3 pp 758–759
- Gildart, Keith. "The Miners' Lockout in 1926 in the Cumberland Coalfield", Northern History, (Sept 2007) 44#2 pp 169–192
- Hattersley, Roy. Borrowed Time: The Story of Britain Between the Wars (2008) pp 115–142.
- ISBN 0-7190-3864-2.
- Morris, Margaret. The General Strike (1976) 479 pp; detailed history
- Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain between the wars: 1918–1940 (1955) pp 284–338
- Perkins, Anne. A Very British Strike: 3–12 May 1926 (2008)
- Phillips, G A. The General Strike: The Politics of Industrial Conflict (1976)
- Reid, Alastair, and Steven Tolliday, "The General Strike, 1926", Historical Journal (1977) 20#4 pp. 1001–1012 in JSTOR, on historiography
- Robertson, D. H. "A Narrative of the General Strike of 1926", Economic Journal (1926) 36#143 pp 375–393 in JSTOR by a leading economics professor
- Saltzman, Rachelle Hope. A Lark for the Sake of Their Country: The 1926 General Strike Volunteers in Folklore and Memory. Manchester University Press, 2012.
- Saltzman, Rachelle H. "Public Displays, Play, and Power: The 1926 General Strike." Southern Folklore: Façade Performances (Special Issue) (1995) 52(2): 161–186.
- Saltzman, Rachelle H. "Folklore as Politics in Great Britain: Working-Class Critiques of Upper-Class Strike Breakers in the 1926 General Strike". Anthropological Quarterly Vol. 67, no. 3, 1994, pp. 105–121. Folklore as Politics in Great Britain: Working-Class Critiques of Upper-Class Strike Breakers in the 1926 General Strike
- Somervell, D.C. The Reign of King George V, (1936) pp 351–368.online free
- Symons, Julian. The General Strike. A Historical Portrait (1957)
- Taylor, Robert. TUC: From the General Strike to New Unionism (2000) 313 pp
- Skelley, Jeffrey. The General Strike 1926. Lawrence and Wishardt, London 1976
- Smith, Harold. Remember 1926. A book list. Remember 1926, Coventgarden 1976
- Turnbull, Tommy. A Miners Life The History Press 2007
- Usherwood, Stephen. "The B.B.C. and the General Strike" History Today (Dec 1972), Vol. 22 Issue 12, pp 858–865 online.
Video
- The 1975 BBC series Days of Hope depicts events that led up to the 1926 strike.
- Lessons of the 1926 General Strike with Tony Benn and Duncan Hallas, Marxism festival, 1996.
External links
- The General Strike Overview and reproductions of original documents at The Union Makes Us Strong, History of Trades Union Congress
- Reporting the General Strike: Contemporary accounts of "The Nine Day Wonder", digitised documents from the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
- The General Strike at Spartacus Educational
- The General Strike at marxists.org
- Churchill & The Gold Standard, UK Parliament Living Heritage
- Ten Days in the Class War – Merseyside and the 1926 General Strike in Autumn 2006 issue of Nerve magazine, Liverpool
- General Strike 1926 at Sheffield City Council.
- CWI | A socialist analysis of the strike by the Socialist Party of England and Wales General Secretary, Peter Taaffe.
- The General Strike by Chris Harman, International Socialism, June 1971.
- The CP and the General Strike by Duncan Hallas, International Socialism, May 1976.