VOLUNTEERS DEFEAT
GENERAL STRIKE IN UK
G'day folks,
Britain's first and only General Strike began at one minute before midnight on 3 May 1926. It lasted for just ten days.
The strike was called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in support of
coal miners who had been told that their wages were to be reduced by 13
per cent and the length of their shifts increased from seven to eight
hours.
In response, miners in the North of England, Scotland and Wales went on
strike, marching to the slogan: “Not a minute on the day, not a penny
off the pay.”
In London, a trigger event for the General Strike came when printers at
the Daily Mail in Fleet Street refused to print a leading article
criticising trade unions. Shortly afterwards the TUC called out all of
its members in essential industries.
The result was that an estimated 1.75 million people across the country
stopped work. They included dockers, printers, power station workers,
railwaymen and transport staff. The TUC’s aim was to bring the capital
to a halt and so force the Government to act on behalf of the miners.
It didn’t work out that way. Society was bitterly divided by the strike,
many people outraged by the TUC “holding a pistol to the nation’s
head.” Volunteers moved in and some of London's buses, trams, trains and
delivery vans were kept running by non-unionised workers and university
students.
Generally, though, the transport network was crippled without its
regular bus and train drivers, and roads became choked with cars. Food
deliveries were held up. Fights broke out between police and strikers in
cities across the UK and in some places police charged rioting strikers
with batons.
In a radio broadcast Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
made a heartfelt plea: "I am a man of peace. I am longing, and looking
and praying for peace. But I will not surrender the safety and the
security of the British constitution.
"Cannot you trust me to ensure a square deal and to ensure even justice between man and man?"
It seemed not and even though the Roman Catholic Church branded the
strike a sin, it rumbled on. As it did so the Army escorted food lorries
and set up barracks in Hyde Park, where a milk and food depot was
created.
Because the printers were on strike most newspapers appeared in a very
brief form, if at all. But to help get the Government’s message across, Winston Churchill,
Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, pioneered a new newspaper, the
British Gazette, which he edited. It was printed in Paris and flown to
London daily.
It ran to only eight editions but the circulation rose from an initial
200,000 to 2,000,000 and it proved to be an effective propaganda tool
for the Government.
Meanwhile, talks between the TUC and ministers continued to take place
regularly at 10 Downing Street. On 13 May, union leaders, recognising
that the country was muddling through despite the strike, called it off –
much to the anger of many miners. They were to remain locked out until
September and in the end gained nothing from the dispute.
A year later, Stanley Baldwin
passed a new law that effectively outlawed the sympathetic strike
action and mass picketing that had created the General Strike. It was
repealed by a Labour Government in 1946, but in the 1980s Margaret Thatcher reintroduced the ban, which is still in force today.
After the country got back to normal, a debate took place in Parliament
on whether the taxpayer should bear the costs of the British Gazette and
a Labour MP speculated on what would happen in a future general strike.
Churchill rose to his feet and declared: "Make your minds perfectly
clear that if ever you let loose upon us again a general strike, we will
loose upon you (pause) another British Gazette!"
The comment drew laughter and applause from both sides.
Clancy's comment: An interesting move by Churchill.
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