Trade union leader Ben Tillett rallied workers

THE Edwardian era is often portrayed as a period of peace and calm that preceded the horrors of the First World War. In fact the early years of the 20th century were a time of enormous social unrest. And exactly 100 years ago this month, in August 1911, Britain appeared to be on the brink of revolution. The Liberal government, elected in a landslide victory in 1905, was being assailed from all quarters. Traditional Conservatives, nicknamed “the last ditchers”, were opposing the government’s planned restrictions on the powers of the House of Lords, which were designed to curtail the centuries’ long hold of the landed gentry. The Suffragettes, who were fighting for votes for women, were becoming increasingly militant, with members smashing windows of government buildings, attacking ministers and setting fire to postboxes.

And most dangerously of all the country was gripped by a wave of strikes that threatened to overturn the old order and usher in a revolutionary era of workers’ control. The industrial unrest of the Edwardian age was fuelled principally by economic factors. For much of the 19th century Britain had been the Workshop Of The World but by the turn of the century Britain’s dominance was threatened, with the US and Germany providing stiff economic competition. As our share of world trade fell, living standards dropped. In the period 1896-1914, real wages fell by around 10 per cent, while from 1909-1912 the cost of living rose twice as quickly as it had done between 1902-1908.

A new generation of trade union leaders were determined not only to gain higher wages for their members but also to use their power to transform the country radically. “They hoped to form single unions for each of the great industries and use the weapon of the general strike to end capitalism and secure the revolutionary overthrow of the old system of society,” explains historian HL Peacock. The wave of industrial action – unprecedented in British history – began in 1910 with a strike by railway workers, which was followed by similar action by cotton workers, boilermakers and Welsh miners. In 1911 sailors went on strike.

And in August, as the country sweltered in a heatwave, the unrest spread to London’s docks. “Piles of vegetables on the wharves rotted. Barrels of butter turned rancid. Fish and meat began to stink,” relates Andrew Marr in his Making Of Modern Britain. The government brought in armed policemen and the military to try to break the strike. More than 1,600 special constables were drafted in. Ben Tillett, leader of the new Transport Workers’ Federation, declared in a fiery letter to Winston Churchill then home secretary: “We shall bring about a state of war. Hunger and poverty have driven the dockers and shipworkers to this present resort and neither your soldiers nor police shall avert the catastrophe that’s coming to this country.”

Liverpool was the scene of widespread unrest as workers took to the streets. “Civil war – London and Liverpool under mob rule,” newsreels proclaimed. The Mayor of Birkenhead declared a revolution was in progress and pleaded with the government: “If you cannot offer me more military or naval support I cannot answer for the safety of life or property.” The government sent all the troops from the garrison of Aldershot North and two armoured cruisers HMS Antrim and HMS Warrior were dispatched. On August 13 a demonstration of around 80,000 people on St George’s Plateau was violently suppressed by the authorities on what became known as Bloody Sunday.

“As policemen were aiming cruel blows upon the heads of men, women and children… dozens lay bleeding and unconscious, citizens were to be seen lying helpless on the ground,” an eyewitness reported. POLICE demanded that film of the protests be edited so as to remove the scenes of their attacks on the crowd. The following day a general transport strike in the city was declared. On August 15 soldiers shot dead dockers Michael Prendergast and John Sutcliffe. Later that week the four railway unions called a national strike – the first in Britain’s history.