Full Transcript for E120.1: [TEASER] 1926 general strike, bonus episode

was as a result of the 36 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:28.280 joint efforts of ourselves with officials of the TNNG that 37 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:33.000 produced the first registration scheme. When I first came a float, 38 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.719 I had a brass tally, so that everybody who had 39 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:39.360 a recognized claim to a living from the industry were 40 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.960 given brass talies, and you could only be employed on 41 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:44.520 the production of your brass tally. 42 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:47.080 One thing that we didn't get a chance to mention 43 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:50.319 during the main episodes was that Harry's union had actually 44 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.960 split with the TGWU not long before the general strike. 45 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:57.000 This meant that his union were not actually part of 46 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.439 the TUC and by extension, had not act actually been 47 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:03.879 called out on strike in nineteen twenty six. Despite this, 48 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:07.840 Harry's union decided independently to support the strike call. 49 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:12.120 We would never be associated with anything that would weaken 50 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:15.680 or go contrary to the interest of the workers, whichever 51 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:18.719 section that they came from, and we would expect the 52 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:23.199 same kind of support for ourselves from other workers, even 53 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:25.000 though we weren't in the tc which we used to 54 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:28.240 get from the Doggers under Steve DAWs. They used to 55 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.280 give us support in disputes that we were in at 56 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.039 different times, and it was mainly through the support that 57 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.319 they gave us that we were able to win on 58 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:38.800 the number of occasions that we did stop and it 59 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:43.039 was very effective. That was debro shown their appreciation for 60 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:49.759 our known attitude towards struggles or workers in others. We've 61 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:51.439 always stacked them wherever they'd been. 62 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:54.759 Harry was already a member of the Lighteman's Union at 63 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:57.599 the time of the general strike, having signed up after 64 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:00.159 completing his year as an unlicensed print. 65 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:06.159 On a very much reduced weekly fee, you know. Went 66 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:08.599 And the first branch I was in was in Poplar, 67 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:14.080 and that was just after we had broken away from 68 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:16.920 the Transport and General Workers Union and set up jointly 69 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:22.560 with the Stewridors Union as a separate unit union wise 70 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:25.120 as far as the doctor concerned. And then we came 71 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:27.959 away from them and set up on our own as 72 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:34.879 the Waterman, Lightenman, Tabman and Bargeman's Union. And we carried 73 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:39.959 on until about I should think it must have been 74 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:43.199 fifty six or fifty seven, if my memory serves me Riot. 75 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:48.040 And in the meantime, I mean the reading period. Because 76 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:51.680 we broke away, we were excluded from all national negotiations. 77 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:55.759 We were excluded from the TUC. I think it lasted 78 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.600 about thirty years. We were out in the wilderness as 79 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:02.639 far as the main the movement of the trade union 80 00:05:03.399 --> 00:05:08.079 actor is a concern. And Ernie Bevin, who was the 81 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:11.680 General secretary of the TNG, was so bitter about our 82 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:18.000 rejection of the leadership of that day, simply because in 83 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:21.439 our opinion, they weren't giving the kind of service as 84 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:24.120 trade union officials that we felt that they should be 85 00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:30.160 given and the cop board over as it were on 86 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:34.240 an occasion when there were a number outstanding issues which 87 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:38.639 we were not getting satisfaction on wages wise and conditions wise, 88 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:42.959 so that the bake took place and he was very 89 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:45.240 bitter about the whole business, and it was through him 90 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:48.120 that we were excluded from the National Joint Council NB. 91 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:54.399 Two UC. Historically speaking, our union, the Enlightenment Union, along 92 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:56.839 with the Steven Dawes Union, as far as the London 93 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:02.920 Report is concerned, were the initiators, as it were, of 94 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.720 the growth of the Transport General Workers Union in the 95 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:10.000 dock side section as far as them is concerned. And 96 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:12.439 it was through the assistance and help that we were 97 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:15.000 given and the guidance and support that we were given 98 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:20.000 to dockers in that day that helped to form and 99 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:26.120 subsequently thrive a dockers section of the Transportant General Work's 100 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:26.920 Union for London. 101 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:30.480 With the strike ending the way that it did, many 102 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:33.800 of the older workers in Harry's union branch felt vindicated 103 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:36.800 in their decision to break away from the TGWU. 104 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:41.360 Well, I think some of the elder men, with the 105

00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:46.959 experience of previous disputes and everything, quite few that they 106 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:52.560 were involved with. Their attitude was one where they felt 107 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:56.240 that they were justified in earlier coming away from the 108 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.560 Transportant General Workers Union and being outside of the TUC. 109 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:05.319 And they took that as a kind of exoneration for 110 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:09.839 their earlier decisions in breaking away from the type of 111 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:13.600 leadership that represented the TUC in those days and transform 112 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:16.879 General Workers Union. And they felt that we were off 113 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:19.519 outside them and we were at least clean, if I 114 00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:22.360 can put it back, and the less we had to 115 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:24.560 do with them, the better sort of thing, because they 116 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:27.959 couldn't be trusted anyway. And they said the recent and 117 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:30.519 or we depend on was the power of our own 118 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:34.519 organized strength, fact when it was necessary, with strengthens stevid 119 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:37.720 Ors and the Dockers which used to be forthcoming, even 120 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:40.680 though the official side of the TNNG at time was 121 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:43.920 against any support coming to us. But the right file 122 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:47.519 used to do what they knew from because one thing 123 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:51.079 is that we were all very close knit. We were 124 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:55.240 in a community, and we all lived in the streets 125 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:58.639 where you were either knightamen, you were either seamen. You're 126 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:01.319 either Steevie Dawes who die a doctor or a corn 127 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:07.120 port a cold port, a riga, a ship repair engineer 128 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:11.360 or no vision or joiner or ship. Right, it was 129 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:14.399 a community, and when the docks was quiet, everybody was 130 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.800 quiet sort of me. And so that if you had 131 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:22.480 this kind of neighborly liaison, if you walked through the street, 132 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:25.399 you knew everybody. Everybody knew you. So when you was 133 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:28.079 in trouble, everybody was there, it was sister out of it. 134 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:32.360 That's something that official try union me us in those days. 135 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:33.840 I know that they used to do for me, but 136 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:37.919 I could never understand it. Certainly gallivants can never understand it. 137 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.600 This fast affinity that you have because you lived as 138 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:45.600 a community. Your problems are the problems of everybody else. 139 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:49.679 Sort see, the solutions are the solutions for everybody was 140 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.440 standing by you. Something wouldn't do one another any harm. 141 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:55.840 And we used to get back find of reaction from 142 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:57.720 the men, and they used to go from us if 143 00:08:57.720 --> 00:08:59.120 they was in bored. We used to give them the 144 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:04.080 support whoever they were, whatever ship, whatever jobble was in dispute. 145 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:08.320 Will you may support to whoever was in bother and 146 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:12.559 in times good to us. So despite official bands and 147 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:18.240 prescriptions or whatever, at that level, wait were I very much, 148 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:22.799 as we'll stop the title flying as interfere with the arrangements. 149 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:29.480 As we come Martin, Martin, and the beauty of the day. 150 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.080 That brings us to the end of this episode. Preview 151 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:34.480 to listen to the full thing and help support our 152 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:38.159 work researching and promoting people's history, join us on Patreon 153 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:41.960 at patreon dot com slash working class History link in 154 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:42.720 the show notes.