Full Transcript for E118: 1926 general strike, part 1

00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:02.520 even in sort of rather stodgy or Britain. So the 69 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:05.280 idea that revolution was kind of in the air was 70 00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:06.120 on the agenda. 71 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:09.080 This context of coming out of a World war and 72 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:13.560 into a period of international revolution gave rise to another issue, 73 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.839 anxiety around the position of the British Empire. 74 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:21.240 So the British Empire had been unrivaled really, but the 75 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:26.279 First World War was itself a product of interimperialist rivalry 76 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:30.279 and exacerbated that rivalry with the growth of the German economy, 77 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.199 with the growth of the American economy. So you have 78 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:38.319 figures like Winston Churchill who are particularly identified with the 79 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:42.240 drive to maintain a kind of British imperial presence in 80 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.079 the world. So that really lay behind Churchill, who was 81 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:49.920 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, bringing Britain back into the 82 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:54.240 gold standard which had been abandoned during the war. In 83 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:56.000 April nineteen twenty five. 84 00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:59.399 The gold standard was a system where a country's currency 85 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:02.879 was linked to a fixed amount of gold. Under this system, 86 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:06.240 the government guaranteed that a specific amount of its currency 87 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:09.560 could be converted into a specific weight of gold, and 88 00:05:09.639 --> 00:05:13.560 this allowed for fixed exchange rates between different countries currencies. 89 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:17.160 The gold standard was finally abandoned in the nineteen seventies. 90 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:19.759 He did this to shore up the pound as the 91 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:23.160 currency of the Commonwealth and the British Empire, but he 92 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.240 pegged the pound way too high, so it ended up 93 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:30.240 having a disastrous effect on the British economy, but particularly 94 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:34.240 on mining, because the mining exports were so important and 95 00:05:34.279 --> 00:05:39.439 they became hideously expensive. And John Maynard Kings, the economist, 96 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.079 warned Churchill at the time that the miners would pay 97 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:45.639 the price for returning to the gold standard in this way, 98 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:49.040 but obviously Churchill wasn't too concerned about applied to the 99 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:51.519 British miners and was more concerned about empire. 100 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:55.199 As is pretty much always the case, when capitalism finds 101 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:58.600 itself

in any kind of economic difficulty, the cost of 102 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:01.800 dealing with that difficulty is passed on to the working class. 103 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:04.560 In this case, pegging the pound to the price of 104 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.600 gold hurt the export of British coal, and so coal 105 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:10.959 owners wanted to pass the price of that onto miners 106 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.759 by making them work longer for less. However, miners were 107 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:18.800 already living and working under extremely tough conditions and had 108 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:21.560 been doing so for a long time, on low pay 109 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:25.800 and frequently being injured or even killed because of unsafe conditions. 110 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:29.399 One of the many miners who experienced such an injury 111 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:33.199 was Abe Mofat, a Scottish communist active in the Fife 112 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:36.399 coal fields. Abe would later go on to become president 113 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:40.279 of the National Union of Scottish Mineworkers, having started work 114 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:43.199 down the pits at the age of just fourteen. 115 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.480 Or forty, yeah, nineteen ten. 116 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:50.439 There was no other on ployment than maining villages at 117 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.959 that game, and their maner son was more or less 118 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:55.040 the mightic. 119 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:55.879 Go as follow as a plough. 120 00:06:57.160 --> 00:06:57.680 I like to be. 121 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:02.360 One fourteen southern brother than seven sisters. 122 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:04.600 All of us were in the mane, and my father 123 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:08.600 and my mother worked on and grandmother worked on the dead. 124 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:15.680 My wife a small man, he used to call a 125 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.160 little musco, and lately so I. 126 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:22.040 Think little Moscow was a term used to describe areas 127 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:25.000 of the UK where the Communist Party had particularly high 128 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:29.040 levels of support. Other areas included parts of South Wales 129 00:07:29.319 --> 00:07:32.000 and the village of Chopwell in the northeast of England, 130 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:35.480 where even today there still exists a road called Marks 131 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:40.079 and lenin Terrace. Not coincidentally, these little moscows were often 132 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:42.560 found around mining communities. 133 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:46.639 But the pit was just in the village, So the 134 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:48.560 village was part of the pit, and the pit was 135 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:49.519 part of the village. 136 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:51.680 You were working with the same people. 137 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:55.759 But yeah, I wasn't long in the pit when I 138 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:59.439 got an accident. It was almost six weeks working in 139 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:04.199 the pit. They stone came down from the roofs and 140 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.879 protonly for me. It didn't strike my body, almost up 141 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:12.560 my good and at that kind of a b and 142 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:14.480 the elder brother had to carry me home on his 143 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:19.600 back into into a minor's house. And may you can 144 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:22.560 imagine the face of my mother and her young son 145 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:27.399 six weeks in a president and carried home on the 146 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:28.240 other son Black. 147 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.039 Despite being so young, Abe was well steeped in the 148 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:35.720 militant culture of Britain's miners at that time. 149 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:39.960 It was the custom for your parents to join the 150 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:43.399 Union the first thing you went down the pit. I 151 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:47.320 would say that about them, that the miners, fathers and 152 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:50.360 mothers at that time were very loyal to the tradeing 153 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:52.840 a movement. Not the first thing they've done on you 154 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:55.720 went down the pit was to join you member kicking. 155 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:00.559 And then I wasn't wrong in the field family of 156 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:04.799 the Flush strike and the British goldfield to establish a 157 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:10.159 minimum wage. At that day. The minimum wage that was 158 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.240 a you was very small. 159 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:13.120 Nonetheless, it was a. 160 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:17.039 Very important stake. It was a flush stake and to 161 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:19.960 establish a minimum weight for the miners of that game. 162 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:23.000 As I say, the mini as is very small, you know, 163 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:25.799 was a victory. It was only a sexual enery minimum week. 164 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:29.799 This strike that Abe mentions to establish a minimum wage 165 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:33.720 in the mining industry was the nineteen twelve National Coal Strike. 166 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:37.440 Miners held out for over a month, forcing the government 167 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:40.759 to pass the Coal Mines Act, which legislated a minimum 168 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:44.600 wage in the mining industry. However, as Abe says, even 169 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.440 this victory was hardly one which allowed miners to live 170 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:52.759 in comfort. Unsurprisingly, there were subsequent disputes. A successful nineteen 171 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.639 nineteen strike ballot led to the Sanke Commission being set up, 172 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:59.879 which gave miners a pay rise of two shillings a day, 173 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:03.679 so about

the equivalent of just over three pounds or 174 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:07.799 about four dollars fifty in today's money. It also limited 175 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:12.320 the working day to seven hours. However, in nineteen twenty one, 176 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:16.519 mine owners suddenly announced sweeping wage cuts and a lockout 177 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:20.000 starting at the end of March. Miners called for support 178 00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:23.279 from rail and transport workers' unions, who issued a call 179 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:27.039 for strike action. Meanwhile, the government declared a state of 180 00:10:27.080 --> 00:10:30.879 emergency and sent troops to mining villages around the country. 181 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:33.600 But the day before the strike was due to begin, 182 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.600 negotiations took place, which resulted in it being called off 183 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.960 despite winning nothing for the miners. These negotiations were so 184 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:45.919 disastrous that the day they were announced subsequently became known 185 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:49.759 as Black Friday. One of the key negotiators of this 186 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:53.720 disaster was James Thomas, leader of the National Union of 187 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:58.840 Railwaymen or the nu ARE. The historian Julian Simmons described 188 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:03.879 Thomas at length as quote the greatest buffoon the labour 189 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:07.720 movement has ever known, a man who dropped his h's 190 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:10.720 as eagerly as he put on a dinner jacket. The 191 00:11:10.759 --> 00:11:15.879 personification of the beery, cheery, plain speaking man that musical 192 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:19.759 comedians felt the British working man to be an image 193 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:23.080 of this imaginary working man, also for the employers with 194 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:27.039 whom he dined and negotiated so zestfully, and for the 195 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:32.000 aristocrats who enjoyed his frank and unabashable social climbing. In 196 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:35.519 nineteen twenty one, his role was that of the peacemaker 197 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:38.559 of a man who felt that any kind of settlement 198 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:43.120 was preferable to a transport strike. End quote. We'll come 199 00:11:43.159 --> 00:11:45.799 back to Thomas later in these episodes, as he's an 200 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:49.279 important character for how the nineteen twenty six general strike 201 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:52.360 would play out, but for now, it's important to note 202 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:55.080 that the mining industry had long been an area of 203 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:59.759 industrial conflict and militancy, and at the same time workers 204 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:03.240 in our other industries were becoming more assertive and beginning 205 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:06.480 to learn the lessons of the past. This was most 206 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.840 obvious in what became known as the Red Friday of 207 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:13.399 nineteen twenty five, is self a reference to the disastrous 208 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:15.559 Black Friday four years earlier. 209 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:19.279 You've got a working class movement which is quite confident, 210 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:23.720 which has had a number of experiences, particularly in July 211 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:28.159 nineteen twenty five Red Friday, where an alliance of miners, 212 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.440 rail workers and transport workers have come together and really 213 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.399 forced the government to back down, rather humiliated the government 214 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:39.639 by forcing them to subsidize pay for the miners. And 215 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.600 then in August nineteen twenty five you have a massive 216 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:46.679 textile strike which is quite strong around where I'm speaking 217 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:49.360 from in West Yorkshire, but something like one hundred and 218 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.480 fifty thousand workers came out. It's a bit of a 219 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:56.559 hidden strike and they got solidarity from other workers. So 220 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:59.440 you've got this potential clash of a ruling class wanting 221 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:03.000 to impose its will and a working class feeling rather 222 00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:05.039 confident in its methods of struggle. 223 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:07.720 We talk a little bit more about this nineteen twenty 224 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:11.399 five textile strike, including an interview with Betty Harrison, a 225 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:14.320 textile worker who took part in it, in our bonus 226 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:19.440 episode available for our Patrion supporters. Red Friday meanwhile showed 227 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:22.039 that the trade union movement had learned the lessons from 228 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:25.159 nineteen twenty one and managed to stick together at a 229 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:27.879 moment when the bosses were trying to push through a 230 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.480 whole host of attacks on the miners. 231 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.799 Trade unions forced the government to agree to subsidize the 232 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:37.360 mining industry. So the mining industry had been the backbone 233 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.919 of the English Revolution. Miners occupied this special role as 234 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:44.679 these sort of heroic workers who kept the economy going 235 00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:48.120 and so on. But the lack of investment in the 236 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:53.240 mines and the falling profitability of mining exports meant that 237 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:57.559 the mine owners were constantly trying to impose wage cuts 238 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:01.360 and lengthen the working day. How the trade unions had

239 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.919 forced the government to step in and give the mine 240 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:05.200 owners a subsidy. 241 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.919 The positions of the miners and mine owners were exactly 242 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.399 opposed to each other. For the mine owners, coal exports 243 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:15.679 were collapsing, and as a result, so was the price 244 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.879 of coal, which meant miners needed to work more for 245 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.720 less money. For the miners, however, the volatile economics of 246 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:26.200 coal were due to quote the general crisis of the 247 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:31.559 capitalist world end quote, which necessitated the wholesale nationalization of 248 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:35.519 the industry. But in the first instance, miners argued that 249 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:40.519 their paying conditions must be quote untouchable, as the present 250 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:44.759 wage is not a living wage end quote. As July 251 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:48.320 nineteen twenty five, war on with no agreement between miners 252 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:51.759 and mine owners on the horizon. The Miners Federation of 253 00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:54.600 Great Britain took their case to the General Council of 254 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:59.279 the Trades Union Congress the TUC. The General Council agreed 255 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:02.039 to put a complet embargo on the movement of coal 256 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:06.320 starting from the thirty first of July, affecting railways, docks, 257 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:10.919 waterways and roads. On the evening of Thursday, thirtieth of July, 258 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:15.120 Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin called a meeting with the 259 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:18.919 Miners' Union. Despite saying earlier that very day that there 260 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.360 could be no government subsidy for the mining industry, this 261 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:26.120 was precisely what he agreed with. The government subsidized in 262 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:29.360 miner's wages to the tune of twenty three million pounds 263 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:32.679 in today's money the equivalent of just under one point 264 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:36.200 eight billion pounds or two point four billion dollars. But 265 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:40.639 this subsidy only bought a temporary piece, scheduled to run 266 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:43.519 out at the end of April nineteen twenty six, at 267 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:46.960 which point hostilities between miners and bosses. 268 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:51.639 Resumed, so the mine owners came back in demanding drastic 269 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:55.039 pay cut and crucially an extra hour on the day. 270 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:57.879 And the extra hour on the day was seen as 271 00:15:57.960 --> 00:16:02.679 incredibly important because this was an industry in which levels 272 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:07.279 of accidents was absolutely appalling. Many miners were disabled by 273 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:09.879 the age of forty, not just with lung disease, but 274 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:14.480 with accidents, with amputations, and many accidents happened in the 275 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:17.320 last hour of the day when people got tired, when 276 00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:20.440 people were exhausted from a long shift. So imposing an 277 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:25.799 extra hour was really consigning hundreds of miners to lose limbs, 278 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.679 to have their lives and their health destroyed, and that's 279 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:31.919 why it was such a flashpoint. The immediate sort of 280 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.159 negotiations went on between the miners, the trade union Council 281 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:39.519 and the government, which was led by Stanley Baldwin. He 282 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:43.240 pulled out of negotiations at a crucial point because he 283 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:48.240 said he was being challenged by an alternative government, so 284 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.480 he upped the stakes really to say that by fighting 285 00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:54.559 against wage cuts and this extra hour on the day, 286 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:58.240 the working class movement, the labor movement, was seeking to 287 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:03.759 overthrow a democrat partically elected government and imposed tyranny. And 288 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:07.640 that's the kind of language they used. They wanted revengeful 289 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:11.440 the year before, they wanted to humiliate the working class movement. 290 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:14.559 They wanted to put workers back in their boxes, really, 291 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:18.880 and it became a general strike partly because the trade 292 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.000 unions had said, you know, an attack on one union 293 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:24.160 will have been an attack on all of us. But 294 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:27.519 also I think that was propelled forwards by a developing 295 00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:32.240 class consciousness. The nationalism that had been central to the 296 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:36.119 war effort back in nineteen fourteen fifteen had given way 297 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:40.599 during the war to a much more bitter critique of 298 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:43.359 the idea of a national interest and that we're all 299 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:46.240 in it together, you know, that sense that we're not 300 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:48.279 all in it together, that that we're not going to 301 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:51.720 be disciplined by saying there's some threat of revolution. So 302 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:54.680 I think the general strike was a product both of 303 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.599 the formal agreements at the top of the unions and 304 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:01.839 this growing sense that together working

people could push back 305 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:05.480 the boss's offensive and could win something more for themselves. 306 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:09.480 However, after Red Friday, the government spent the next nine 307 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:13.039 months preparing for the eventuality of a general strike. Once 308 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:16.319 the subsidy for the mining industry ran out in. 309 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.559 April twenty five, the government was humiliated, and they immediately 310 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:25.480 launched a big propaganda campaign saying that the trade unions 311 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.839 were in bed with the Reds and were threatening the 312 00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:33.960 whole of society. But perhaps more importantly, they began to organize, 313 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.880 particularly people like Churchill and another character called Joinson Hicks 314 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:42.680 known as Jicks, also known as Mussolini Minor because he 315 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:46.160 was such a hard line right winger. They began to 316 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.799 organize groups for a future confrontation so they were on 317 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:55.000 the ball. They organized something called the Supply and Transport Committee, 318 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:59.279 which was ready to call in volunteers I scabs to 319 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:02.680 break any few future strike. And then in September twenty 320 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:07.519 five they also set up the Organization of Maintenance Supplies 321 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:10.839 the OMS, which became a bit notorious because this was 322 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:15.079 where Joins and Hicks Jigs called off for volunteers to 323 00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:18.839 sign up to smash the general strike, and they were 324 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.119 fed with this propaganda that they had to do their 325 00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:24.960 duty to keep this country safe from revolution and defeat 326 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.240 this communist conspiracy that was going to bring down democracy. 327 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:33.200 We'll be right back after these messages. If you want 328 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:36.440 to listen to our podcast without ads, join us on Patreon, 329 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:38.640 where you can listen to all parts of this mini 330 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:42.559 series now, as well as an additional bonus episode. Support 331 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:44.720 from our listeners on Patreon is the only way that 332 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.200 we're able to devote the time and money it takes 333 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:50.519 to make this podcast. Learn more and join us at 334 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:54.160 patreon dot com slash working class history link in the 335 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:58.400 show notes, it's estimated that between three hundred and five 336 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:02.319 hundred thousand volunteers been recruited in preparation for the strike, 337

00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.920 either to serve as scab replacement workers or be sworn 338 00:20:05.960 --> 00:20:10.119 in as special constables to reinforce police numbers. The government 339 00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:12.640 set up a scheme to keep food and transport going, 340 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:15.839 in which England and Wales were split into ten divisions, 341 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:19.000 each with their own commissioner tasked with maintaining law and 342 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:21.960 order in their area, most of which seemed to have 343 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:25.759 recruited at least twenty thousand volunteers. How many of these 344 00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:28.920 were actually used is another question. For instance, by the 345 00:20:28.920 --> 00:20:32.279 eleventh of May, one hundred and fourteen thousand volunteers had 346 00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:34.960 been recruited in London, but only about nine and a 347 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.279 half thousand were actually given work. Nonetheless, the government made 348 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:43.759 serious preparations for class conflict. On the trade union side, however, 349 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:45.839 things could not have been more different. 350 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:50.799 In contrast, the trade union Council did absolutely nothing. It 351 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:54.319 did nothing at all to prepare and it's almost like 352 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:57.599 they were playing by this set of rules which didn't 353 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:01.400 apply to their opponents, only lied to them. That they 354 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:05.480 went back to trade unionism, building up their organizations, collecting 355 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:10.559 their memberships and subs, and seeing themselves as mediators between 356 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:14.440 a ruling class that didn't want any mediation, that wanted 357 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:17.599 to smash them, and a working class that was frustrated 358 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:22.039 and angry about attempts to impose wage cuts. So, yeah, 359 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.039 the ruling class and the government got really organized, and 360 00:21:25.079 --> 00:21:28.200 the labor movement sadly was let down by its leaders 361 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.759 who did not I think they kind of kept hoping 362 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:36.559 that the government would mediate and negotiate and conciliate because 363 00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:39.160 that was what they saw their role as being. So 364 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.039 they were completely flum mixed when it didn't happen. 365 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:45.119 This position was echoed by Abe more Fat during his 366 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:46.960 interview in the nineteen seventies. 367 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:52.359 Well, there wasn't because the leadership they didn't you. The 368 00:21:52.440 --> 00:22:07.000 next month, fairly leadership learning about it, and yeah, nay 369 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:11.000 months and of EUC lose months. 370 00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:16.519 As Abe says, the TUC didn't use any of the 371 00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:19.759 preceding nine months to prepare for the strike, neither with 372 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:23.720 the miners nor with any other union body. A conference 373 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.119 of TUC leaders met on Thursday, the twenty ninth of April. 374 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:30.759 No plans for a national strike had been made until 375 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.839 Tuesday of that week, literally days before the government subsidy 376 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:38.079 was due to expire. Union leaders were worried that any 377 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:42.240 such plans would be considered provocative. The government and employers, meanwhile, 378 00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:45.720 had no such worries. Better late than never, the TUC 379 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.480 drew up a plan to cool workers out in stages. 380 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:52.599 The first wave was to include all forms of transport, printing, 381 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:57.000 and construction trades, as well as iron, steel, metal, heavy chemical, 382 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:01.319 electricity and gas workers. However, it still left out a 383 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:05.000 number of key industries like postal and telephone service workers, 384 00:23:05.319 --> 00:23:09.200 as well as electricians, engineers, and woodworkers. There was also 385 00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:12.160 some confusion among those who were supposed to be striking. 386 00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:15.720 For instance, building trades were called out except for those 387 00:23:15.799 --> 00:23:19.400 employed on housing and hospital work, while electricity and gas 388 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:23.119 workers were to cease supplying power but not light. There 389 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:26.160 was also confusion about what some of the TUC's instructions 390 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:29.960 would mean in practice, so, for instance, instructed that other 391 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:33.640 than essentials. No goods were to be transported by road 392 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:36.960 or rail, but particularly in the case of road transport, 393 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:40.160 it was unclear whether this simply meant that union members 394 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:43.559 should refrain from such work, or if the TUC was 395 00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:46.960 asking for hard pickets stop in traffic to check vehicles. 396 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:50.599 With plans only being drawn up with literal days before 397 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:53.720 the strike was due to begin, this sort of confusion 398 00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:58.079 was inevitable. In contrast to the equivocations of union leaders. 399 00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:02.319 The government was very much pairing for battle. All army 400 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:06.799 and navy leave was canceled. Two battalions of infantry landed 401 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:09.960 in Liverpool and marched through the

city with their rifles, 402 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:14.440 while battleships anchored in the River Mersey. Other naval vessels 403 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.440 were sent to ports around the country, against a backdrop 404 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:20.720 of cries in the media about revolution and the threat 405 00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:24.119 to the constitution. Yet, despite this show of strength from 406 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:27.880 the government, and despite the haphazard last minute organization of 407 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:31.119 trade union leaders, the response from the rank and file 408 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:35.160 workers surprised everyone, from the government to the employers and 409 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:37.279 even the trade union leaders themselves. 410 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:41.400 What's extraordinary is for all of their lack of preparation, 411 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:48.519 for all their lack of ideological preparation or physical organizational preparation. 412 00:24:49.240 --> 00:24:53.680 The response of rank and file workers was extraordinary. The 413 00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:58.640 militancy and the unity, the kind of energy and dynamism 414 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:01.839 with which people answered the call for a general strike, 415 00:25:01.960 --> 00:25:04.960 I think caught the trade union leaders and the government 416 00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.599 on the hop. And if you read any of the 417 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.519 accounts at the time, everybody says when they woke up 418 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:13.640 on the morning of the fourth May, they woke up 419 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:16.440 to silence, and it was the first time, if you 420 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.759 lived in East London, you'd ever woken up and there 421 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:22.279 weren't docks, there weren't trains, there weren't trams, there weren't cars, 422 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:24.279 there weren't building works. So they woke up to this 423 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:29.480 extraordinary silence, and a lot of the trade union activists 424 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:32.960 at the time report the problem was that the TUC 425 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:36.599 called out certain groups of workers, and their problem was 426 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:39.119 not getting those groups of workers out, It was stopping 427 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:42.599 groups who hadn't been called out wanting to join the strike, 428 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:45.559 and the trade union leaders didn't want that to happen 429 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.839 because they wanted to keep control of who was out. 430 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.880 They wanted to make sure that they were dictating terms, 431 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.519 and this wasn't being swept away in some kind of 432 00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:59.200 mass rank and file revolt. So there was this extraordinary 433 00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:03.359 response from trade unionists and the communities that supported them. 434 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:07.440 They began to organize. Although this strike only lasted for 435 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:11.039 nine days, you can see glimpses of how workers could 436 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:14.240 begin to organize in different ways, and many of them 437 00:26:14.519 --> 00:26:18.000 establish what they called councils of action. So some of 438 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:20.720 these grew out of trades. Councils were set up by 439 00:26:20.839 --> 00:26:25.759 communist organizations the British Communist Party, but they exercised a 440 00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:30.200 huge power in some cities. They decided who was going 441 00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.440 to get food, which transport was going to be allowed through. 442 00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:36.839 They kept the police out of some working class areas. 443 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:40.319 They really did give a glimpse of working class people 444 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:42.839 beginning to run some aspects of their society. 445 00:26:43.559 --> 00:26:46.279 Workers from across the country stood by the call to 446 00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:47.279 support the miners. 447 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:51.079 In the branch, we were told that the decision had 448 00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:53.720 been to support for the miners, and everybody welcomed it 449 00:26:54.160 --> 00:27:00.680 and was quite happy with the policy. Doing everything we 450 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:04.319 could for the miners was read a very strong feeling 451 00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:08.960 of kind of bond with miners. Their work was of 452 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:13.000 a kind where we understood our dirty and dangerous and 453 00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:17.240 low paid. It was, you know, vi comparison with what 454 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:18.440 they should have been getting. 455 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:21.240 This is Harry Watson, who at the time of the 456 00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:23.480 general strike was in the fourth year of a five 457 00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:26.839 year apprenticeship as a lightenment on the docks in Poplar, 458 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:31.079 East London. While regular dockers were primarily engaged in loading 459 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:34.880 and discharging cargo on or off vessels, the lightenman's role 460 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:35.759 was quite different. 461 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:43.240 Well, lightenment, they they superintend the loading of their craft 462 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:48.279 in the sense that is now When I first started 463 00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:49.839 like them, and used to have to get in the 464 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:53.880 barge with the docker Augustevidor and with the corn borders 465 00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:57.759 and helped to load his barge himself with them. Used 466 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:00.119 to be one of the game. And it works on 467 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:04.759 barges and self propelled vessels navigating up and down the river, 468 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:08.839 taking barges from one place to another place.

When I 469 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:11.000 was first a float because we had to do it 470 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:15.880 under oars, the road barges about the doors to wherever 471 00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:17.559 they had to go, and which meant, of course you 472 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:23.240 had to understand the navigational aspects of things, taking into 473 00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:25.440 account of the wind and the state of the tide 474 00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:29.559 and the particular geographical position of the place you were 475 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:32.359 coming away from so that you could get out into 476 00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:36.200 the tideway without mishap, and where you were going to 477 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:40.319 you had to be very certain about to shake your 478 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:42.839 barge up to make a fetch where you were going, 479 00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:46.839 because you've got no brakes there afloat. You had to 480 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:49.680 measure the job that you had to do with your 481 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:51.519 eye on the wind and the tide and where the 482 00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:57.480 wallfall the ship was fast, so that your barge could 483 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:03.960 come alongside under your navigation or no how without doing 484 00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:04.720 any damage. 485 00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:07.839 Harry was a member of the Popular Branch of the 486 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.480 National Amalgamated Stevedores, Lightman, Watermen and Dockers Union, which he 487 00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:16.160 had joined after his first year as an apprentice. Opinion 488 00:29:16.200 --> 00:29:18.720 in the branch was solidly behind the miners. 489 00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:23.119 The branch at that I had about five hundred members 490 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:29.680 in the Poplar branch, and when the decision was taken 491 00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.039 as a result of the lockouts that there would be 492 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:37.519 a national strike in support of the miners against the 493 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:43.559 evelopment and coal owners, everybody was very happy with that situation. 494 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:47.119 I think it was also in the minds of the 495 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:51.720 older men, the more experienced men that the implications of 496 00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:57.759 the coal owners behavior support as it was by the government, 497 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:00.519 was that if they got a way with it with 498 00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:05.160 the miners, they'd obviously everybody else in the working class 499 00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:10.680 against the film. The backwash of the events as far 500 00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:14.839 as the miners' ways and conditions were concerned, and because 501 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:17.680 when it was reported to us that not only were 502 00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.119 they being asked to accept the reduced rate the party, 503 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:24.880 but I think it was

they were going to their 504 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:30.480 working day length. And the indignation that we felt at 505 00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:36.160 this contemptuous attitude towards men of the caliber of miners 506 00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:39.799 was so open and shot that there was no question 507 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:42.960 or doubt in anybody's mind that our position was one 508 00:30:43.079 --> 00:30:46.480 where we could do nothing else other than helped to 509 00:30:46.599 --> 00:30:50.240 win this particular issue that the minds were involved with. 510 00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:52.559 In my way of looking at it, I suppose it's 511 00:30:52.680 --> 00:30:56.720 a very simple way, because I wasn't all less sophisticated 512 00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:00.720 in my thinking in that I think it was either 513 00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:03.480 right it was wrong, And as far as I was concerned, 514 00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:06.119 the miners were right and asking for higher wages and 515 00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:09.960 for short hours, and the coal owners were wrong to 516 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:12.240 deny it because had a fair idea of the kind 517 00:31:12.279 --> 00:31:14.640 of work that the men did, and the kind of 518 00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:17.000 rewards that I would be looking for if I was 519 00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:19.759 doing that job, which would have been far in excess 520 00:31:19.880 --> 00:31:22.880 of what the miners were asking for. Well, I mean, 521 00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:28.720 even then, in my way of thinking the I couldn't 522 00:31:28.759 --> 00:31:32.160 even understand why it was that the coal owners and 523 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:36.720 the government were taking such an entrangident attitude towards the 524 00:31:36.839 --> 00:31:40.440 miners and their claims. It was opening shut to me. 525 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:46.519 And men were an important section of the community. We 526 00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:50.000 depended on them for everything because coal in those days, 527 00:31:50.039 --> 00:31:52.039 I mean you take the river alone, we used to 528 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:56.160 transport hundreds of thousands of tons of coal a week 529 00:31:56.960 --> 00:32:01.160 to the power stations up and down the canal. Coal 530 00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:04.839 was the power fuel of that day, you know, to 531 00:32:04.920 --> 00:32:09.359 a degree that nothing else was. Even lorries were all 532 00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:11.880 that much in existence in those days. We used to 533 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:15.799 have steam traction engines pulling freights and out on the 534 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:19.920 roads andthing that time. And coal was from our point 535 00:32:19.960 --> 00:32:25.559 of view, and essential and if we wanted to ensure 536 00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:28.039 that the supplies of it were going to come through 537 00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:30.839 the only way we could guarantee that, as we saw it, 538 00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:33.079 was that the minders not paid the wages and work. 539 00:32:33.160 --> 00:32:35.559 No other conditions that we would expect. 540 00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:39.599 As was mentioned earlier, many workers weren't included in the 541 00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:43.240 initial phase of the TUC strike plan, and very often 542 00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:45.440 they were not well pleased with that situation. 543 00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:50.319 Now, the textile workers were not called out. Quite possibly 544 00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:54.400 if the strike had lasted much longer, they would have been, 545 00:32:54.839 --> 00:32:57.200 but as you know, it only lasted nine days. 546 00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:01.240 This is Betty Harrison, who time of the general strike 547 00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:04.400 was a branch committee member of the Textile Workers' Union 548 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:08.240 and a member of the Independent Labor Party. In nineteen 549 00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:10.759 twenty six, she was working in Bradford in the north 550 00:33:10.799 --> 00:33:13.480 of England as a burla mender, which was a kind 551 00:33:13.480 --> 00:33:15.119 of skilled textile worker. 552 00:33:16.039 --> 00:33:20.240 When you're weeding cloth, there is a warp and then 553 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:24.240 the shuttle goes through the warp to make the nicoll 554 00:33:24.359 --> 00:33:28.240 the west you see, it's the west on the well. 555 00:33:28.359 --> 00:33:31.759 Sometimes it fluffs up and makes a burl, or it 556 00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:35.039 breaks and a knockout to be made. And sometimes it 557 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:38.759 breaks and goes a long way before they'd notice it broken, 558 00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:42.759 either as a pick which is what their shuttle makes, 559 00:33:43.480 --> 00:33:47.640 or as the warp which is coming true and makes 560 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:51.079 the ends down as it were, that breaks, and sometimes 561 00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:53.880 it begs to go through a whole piece before they notice, 562 00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:56.880 though you know it was a very fine thing. Well, 563 00:33:56.880 --> 00:34:01.720 a burla mender takes out the bits of takes out 564 00:34:01.799 --> 00:34:04.960 the knots without letting it run back and make a hole. 565 00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:12.480 So then the ends and the pick, and sometimes it 566 00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:18.239 snarled up and made an or a real mess with 567 00:34:18.440 --> 00:34:21.639 both picks and ends and the real mac And then 568 00:34:21.800 --> 00:34:24.320 I meant that to sort that out, and meant that, 569 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:26.679 Oh it was hard on the eyes. 570 00:34:27.119 --> 00:34:30.719 But of course I was very young and very little. 571 00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:34.480 And incidentally, I must tell you this because it has 572 00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:39.000 a bearing on the future. My father, as a miner, 573 00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:42.960 was very keen on the trade unions, and he said 574 00:34:43.039 -->

00:34:46.880 I must join the union straight away when I started working. 575 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:50.360 And the first day I came home, he said, have 576 00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:53.039 you joined the union yet? And I said no, I 577 00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:56.760 couldn't find the man today. Remember I was only thirteen, 578 00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:59.199 the tiny little thing in any way of ever being 579 00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:03.639 very dull. He said, now I remember, don't forget tomorrow. 580 00:35:04.679 --> 00:35:06.960 My mother said, now, I give it a chance. She's 581 00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:12.800 only been one day. Anyhow, I found the union man 582 00:35:12.920 --> 00:35:16.119 and I joined the union any week. It was the 583 00:35:16.199 --> 00:35:21.280 wee youngsters that first week, and I was a union member, 584 00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:23.800 not in the same union all the time, but as 585 00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:26.599 I'm a union member all the forty seven years I 586 00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:30.679 worked after being in the first week, but I didn't 587 00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:35.960 really become very active until I was about nineteen, and 588 00:35:36.159 --> 00:35:40.639 then my father died and I had to begin things. Incidentally, 589 00:35:40.760 --> 00:35:45.079 I went to night school straight away when I started working. 590 00:35:45.159 --> 00:35:47.440 I went to night school because I wanted to learn 591 00:35:48.519 --> 00:35:50.599 something else and find get a better job. And I 592 00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:53.360 took the usual things one took in those days, short 593 00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:59.440 and type in bookkeeping MM and uh. I wasn't very good, 594 00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:03.960 but the peeping am I. Anyhow, I didn't do anything 595 00:36:04.119 --> 00:36:07.239 with it because I'd stayed in the textid in this 596 00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:11.639 for twenty one years as a Relada Menda. 597 00:36:12.719 --> 00:36:15.119 Betty had been involved in trade unions for a couple 598 00:36:15.159 --> 00:36:18.360 of years before the general strike, including the nineteen twenty 599 00:36:18.440 --> 00:36:21.679 five textile strikes that Judy mentioned earlier in this episode. 600 00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:24.360 Will include some of Betty's memories of that night in 601 00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:27.159 twenty five strike in our bonus episode for this series, 602 00:36:27.480 --> 00:36:32.480 available exclusively on Patreon. However, being an active trade unionist, 603 00:36:32.679 --> 00:36:35.920 Betty was not very pleased about textile workers not being 604 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:37.480 included in the strike call. 605 00:36:38.599 --> 00:36:44.000 And not everybody was called out, a great mistake they 606 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:47.000 should haven Of course, one talks now, and this is 607 00:36:47.079 --> 00:36:51.760 the unfortunate fund about it. You know, one talks with hindside, 608 00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:56.400 so that one's impressions at that time were not quite 609 00:36:56.480 --> 00:37:02.039 the same as one can feel now now. Some of us, 610 00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:07.320 who were young and militant, wanted the textile workers to 611 00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:10.360 come out, and we went with a deputation. 612 00:37:10.079 --> 00:37:11.559 That we were told. 613 00:37:11.599 --> 00:37:15.320 The reasons I was working at that time in a 614 00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:20.840 small shop were only about fifty people. It was a 615 00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:25.039 purely Berlin and mending establishment. It wasn't actually a factory. 616 00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:28.320 I was in at that particular moment that there were 617 00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:31.559 shots like this where they just took in Berlin and 618 00:37:31.639 --> 00:37:34.599 mending from factories that didn't don burlers and vendors themselves, 619 00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:36.880 and that take them for a group of small factories 620 00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:39.159 who sent all the Berlin and men to this. 621 00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:40.760 Thing. 622 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:42.840 And I was working at one of those shots, and 623 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:48.159 I was collecting for the union place. And then we 624 00:37:48.239 --> 00:37:50.920 got this notice and to tell our members that we 625 00:37:51.039 --> 00:37:55.400 weren't out or a meeting was called of the branch 626 00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:58.400 committee and I was on the branch committees. A dance 627 00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:01.079 or all the people that were collect and branch secretaries 628 00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:03.599 were not not the collector, but the Brown secreties were 629 00:38:03.719 --> 00:38:06.880 on the branch committee. And at this meeting where some 630 00:38:07.079 --> 00:38:11.119 of us felt that we ought to approach the negative 631 00:38:11.199 --> 00:38:17.000 to ask why we shouldn't be unstriked, but finding them 632 00:38:17.079 --> 00:38:19.039 the collective, we got the answer that we were the 633 00:38:19.119 --> 00:38:22.039 same line of troops or something, and if it went 634 00:38:22.199 --> 00:38:24.920 on an the length of time we should be called out. 635 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:27.920 There was no sort of idea of how long it 636 00:38:27.960 --> 00:38:30.400 would go on or what the length of time would 637 00:38:30.440 --> 00:38:34.320 be before the second line of action was called call. 638 00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:37.920 So while Bey and workers like her were told to 639 00:38:38.000 --> 00:38:41.599 stand by, others were told to begin the general strike. 640 00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:47.039 Oh you men of time. Candy did the events of 641 00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:53.760 call with me? A little pick and shovel for the 642 00:38:53.960 --> 00:38:58.000 boss man the callering, but I'll never own your soul. 643 00:38:58.760 --> 00:39:01.960 With me, A little pig can show up fair. 644 00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:05.719 That's all we've got time for in

this episode. If 645 00:39:05.719 --> 00:39:08.320 you'd like to listen to part two now without ads, 646 00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:11.119 then do support us on Patreon, which is how our 647 00:39:11.159 --> 00:39:12.000 work is funded. 648 00:39:12.519 --> 00:39:12.719 There. 649 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:15.280 We'll talk about the action of the general strike itself, 650 00:39:15.719 --> 00:39:18.760 including more first hand accounts of the strike and the 651 00:39:18.840 --> 00:39:22.840 clashes that took place between police, scabs and strikers. You'll 652 00:39:22.840 --> 00:39:25.440 also get access to a bonus episode in which two 653 00:39:25.480 --> 00:39:28.800 of the participants in the strike, Betty Harrison and Harry Watson, 654 00:39:29.159 --> 00:39:31.360 talk about their life and work around the time of 655 00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:35.000 the strike, as well as union politics. More generally, it 656 00:39:35.079 --> 00:39:37.679 is only support from you, our listeners, which allows us 657 00:39:37.719 --> 00:39:41.039 to make these podcasts. If you appreciate our work, please 658 00:39:41.159 --> 00:39:44.199 do think about joining us on Patreon dot com slash 659 00:39:44.320 --> 00:39:48.039 working Class History link in the show notes, and if 660 00:39:48.079 --> 00:39:50.920 you can't spare the cash, no worries, please just tell 661 00:39:50.960 --> 00:39:53.159 your friends about this podcast and give us a five 662 00:39:53.280 --> 00:39:57.039 star review on your favorite podcast app. Also be sure 663 00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:00.239 to check out General Strike one hundred dot com find 664 00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:03.320 out more about events commemorating the General Strike in your 665 00:40:03.400 --> 00:40:06.760 area and beyond. You'll also find a ton of historical 666 00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:10.400 markers highlight in the locations of specific incidents that took 667 00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:13.760 place in the towns, cities and villages around the UK 668 00:40:14.159 --> 00:40:16.920 during the General Strike itself. And if you'd like to 669 00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.960 get a copy of Judy's book Revisiting the General Strike 670 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:22.519 of nineteen twenty six, you can find a link to 671 00:40:22.599 --> 00:40:25.039 buy a copy on the web page for this episode. 672 00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:28.400 On the web page. You'll also find more information, including 673 00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:32.360 further reading, images and sources link in the show notes. 674 00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:36.000 Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible, 675 00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:39.400 and a special thanks to Jat's hands. Our theme tune 676 00:40:39.440 --> 00:40:42.280 for this episode is Montanne's version of When the Coal 677 00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:45.599 Comes from the Ronda, a folk song originating from Welsh 678 00:40:45.679 --> 00:40:48.719 miners in the early twentieth century and sung during the 679 00:40:48.800 --> 00:40:52.599 general strike. The song is performed by Montaigne and mixed 680 00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:55.360 by Wave Racer. You can find a link to download 681 00:40:55.400 --> 00:40:58.480 the song on our website. All proceeds go into medical 682 00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:02.000 aid for Palestinians. For more from Montaigne, check the links 683 00:41:02.039 --> 00:41:05.039 on the web page for this episode. This episode was 684 00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:09.119 edited by Jesse French. Anyway, that's it for today. Hope 685 00:41:09.159 --> 00:41:11.280 you enjoyed the episode and thanks for listening. 686 00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:17.400 It comes from the road when the Call comes from 687 00:41:17.639 --> 00:41:24.199 the ronder, with shovel and pick and little lamp and 688 00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:27.559 a wick. When the Call comes from the Ronda.