In 1926 tensions in Britain were running high. The miners, backed by workers from other industries, staged a strike to protest against proposals to cut their wages and lengthen their hours. It was Britain’s first general strike and sparked fear in the country that revolution was waiting in the wings. After less than a fortnight, the strike was broken with little violence having taken place. The damage to the Trade Union movement was more far-reaching and trust between Trade Unions, workers and politicians was never the same.

Key Facts

Key Dates

30 June 1925 Mine owners propose cutting miners’ wages

31 July 1925 “Red Friday” – government agree to subsidizes miners’ wages for 9 months

10 Mar 1926 The Samuel Report published

1 May 1926 Negotiations break down, TUC plans a general strike

4 May 1926 General Strike begins

5 May 1926 Government attempts to control the media., Warship sent to Newcastle

6 May 1926 Volunteers manage to get some buses running, Fights break out

7 May 1926 Government tries to stop publication of TUC’s newspaper

8 May 1926 Secret talks begin

9 May 1926 Catholic Church declares the strike a sin

10 May 1926 Flying Scotsman derailed, Prime Minister declares democracy threatened

12 May 1926 TUC calls off the strike

Key Figures

King George V

Stanley Baldwin Prime Minister

Winston Churchill Chancellor of the Exchequer

Walter Citrine General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress

A J Cook General Secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain

Ramsay Macdonald Leader of the Labour Party

Sir Herbert Samuel Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry

The Road to Anarchy

Trouble had been brewing in the mining industry since before World War I. Industrial relations had deteriorated enough that Home Secretary Winston Churchill had sent the army into Wales to reinforce the police against striking miners in 1910. Matters got steadily worse after the war, finally pushing the country to the brink in a general strike.

Britain had emerged from World War I victorious, yet once the celebrations were over, the country entered a period of instability. Britain was not in serious debt but foreign assets had been sold and the economy suffered as Britain tried to recover her pre-war position on the world stage. Slowly, the country recovered, but in 1925 the recovery stalled when Winston Churchill, now the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, restored the Gold Standard. This had the effect of making British exports more expensive on the international market and consequently Britain’s industrial areas slipped into recession.

The coal industry was heavily affected by the economic downturn. Rich seams of coal had been worked out in the rush to supply the war industries and new ones had to be found. Miners were hampered in their work by a lack of investment. Few mines had machines, relying on manpower and pickaxes to hew the coal. Production levels fell. Selling the coal was also a problem. While the British mines had been supplying the domestic war market, other countries stepped into the gap left on the international market so Britain had new competitors. In addition, the reintroduction of the Gold Standard pushed up the price of British coal on the world market, making the British coal industry less competitive.

During the war, the coal industry, like the rail industry, had been nationalized. On 1 April 1921, the mines were privatized again. The mine owners might have reacted to the crisis in their industry by investing in their mines with new equipment to raise productivity, but instead sought to protect their profits by immediately threatening to lower their workers’ wages. The miners’ trade union, the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) turned to their trade union colleagues for help.

The MFGB was part of a pact known as the Triple Alliance. Formed just before World War I, the Triple Alliance was a response to the period of industrial unrest that had plagued Britain from 1910 until the war. The MFGB, the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and the National Union of Transport Workers (NUTW – the union for seamen, dockers and other transport workers), undertook to support each other in the event of a strike. Given the mine owners’ threats, the MFGB asked for support in a day of action on Friday, 15 April 1921. Perhaps due to uncertainty about what terms the miners would be prepared to accept, the NUR and NUTW declined to call out their members. The day became known as “Black Friday” and was a serious blow to workers’ solidarity. Abandoned by their comrades, the miners accepted pay cuts that saw their wages whittled away by one-third.

Cutting wages did nothing to halt the slide in the mine owners’ profits so on 30 June 1925 they gave one month’s notice of new conditions: wages would be cut and an hour added to the working day. The MFGB opposed this new move. The union was now under the leadership of Arthur James Cook, a radical left winger, who led opposition with the slogan “Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day”. The Triple Alliance swung their support behind the miners and it looked likely that the mine owners would lock the miners out. If the Triple Alliance held, there would be no new production of coal and no transport of existing stocks. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) promised support for the MFGB but rather than a strike, wanted to involve the government in brokering a lasting settlement.

The Conservative government, led by Stanley Baldwin, did intervene and undertook to pay the mine owners a subsidy so that they did not need to cut the miners’ wages. The subsidy was for a nine month period, during which time a Royal Commission, led by Sir Herbert Samuel, would investigate the coal industry and prepare a report. Baldwin also set in motion plans to safeguard the country in the event of a general strike. He set up the Organization for the Maintenance of Supplies (OMS) which recruited volunteers to take on the transport drivers’ jobs and lay down stores of food and fuel.

There were no shortage of volunteers for the OMS. There was little sympathy for the militancy of the trade unions and a genuine fear of revolution among the middle class. The Russian Revolution had happened less than a decade before and fears of the communists had been heightened by the “Zinoviev letter”. The Daily Mail had published a letter, allegedly from the Russian communist leader, which urged British communists to rise up in revolt. Although a forgery, the letter helped harden the resolve of many to oppose any militant opposition to the Establishment.

While Baldwin prepared for the worst, Sir Herbert Samuel and his commissioners collected evidence. In March 1926 he presented his findings which recommended a small wage cut for the miners but no increase in hours, a result that satisfied neither the miners nor their employers. Mine owners forged ahead with their original plans of wages cuts and longer hours. Last ditch negotiations between the sides came to naught and on 1 May 1926, the TUC declared that a general strike would begin at midnight on 3 May.

Once the strike was declared, another round of frantic negotiations began. Ranged against the TUC was not only the government but the Labour Party. Ramsay Macdonald, the Labour leader, was fearful of supporting the strike as the trade union movement contained many communists and hard left wingers like A J Cook. With the country suspicious of the communists, Macdonald did not want to sacrifice his party’s emerging credibility with the voters. Even the TUC favoured a negotiated settlement, but it was not to be. Baldwin was horrified when the printers working for the Daily Mail refused to produce the paper due to an editorial that declared that the proposed strike was akin to revolution and would destroy the government and subvert the rights and liberties of the people. In the Prime Minister’s view, the printers were interfering with the freedom of the press and this was a step too far. Negotiations broke down and the strike began on Tuesday, 4 May 1926.

The first day of the strike saw more than 1.5 million workers on strike. As a result, not just miners, but train and bus drivers, gas and electricity worker and printers, men from the iron and steel industries and dockers all stayed at home. Commuters in London found themselves vying for spaces on the few buses that ran as the city ground to a halt. People relied on the BBC radio service for their news since the printers were not producing the newspapers. The volunteers of the OMS ensured that food and other essentials were delivered and generally the first day of the strike was good natured. The prospect of the country enduring days of the strike was still shocking and JH Thomas, a Labour MP and lead negotiator for the TUC, remarked “God help us unless the government wins”.

On Wednesday, both sides put forward their case in their own newspapers. The TUC produced the British Worker, which emphasised the unity of the workers. In the government’s newspaper, the British Gazette, Baldwin stated that the strike was the “road to anarchy and ruin”. As well as publishing their own newspaper, the government attempted to gain control of the BBC. Despite the government’s best efforts, the strikers were still able to exert control over the transport system. A mob was able to foil an attempt to run trams in London, though a few trains ran with the help of the military. Any buses that took to the road had to have a police escort and some were attacked. To help with law and order, the government swore in over 225,000 special constables. In a more combative move, a warship was sent to Newcastle.

The government sought to undermine the strikers through propaganda. On Thursday, 6 May, the British Gazette reported that over 200 buses were back on London’s roads. In fact, there were less than 90, of which nearly 50 were damaged. Outside of London, there were disturbances in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Leeds, with minor casualties.

The following day, 7 May, the government claimed that the situation was intensifying and raised fears that the temporary transport system would be disrupted by the strikers. While acknowledging that there had been no significant violence thus far, the newspaper reported that it was necessary to recruit an additional 50,000 special constables to deal with the intimidation meted out by the strikers. Finally, the government laid the charge that the TUC was attempting to starve the country. In fact, TUC officials had met Sir Herbert Samuel and formulated a proposal to end the strike, but this was rejected by the MFGB. The TUC faced another problem; Winston Churchill requisitioned the paper needed to print the British Worker, threatening to cut communication between the TUC and their membership. The TUC managed to keep the paper in circulation by cutting its size.

With the power of the unions to communicate curtailed, Baldwin seized the opportunity to make his case and took to the airwaves on Saturday, 8 May. He told the country that his government was against what they considered to be an attack on the British constitution, not the conditions and pay of the workers. The TUC replied that his appeals to end the strike were aimed at the workers, not at the mine owners who had locked the workers out. The government scored a victory by deploying the military to escort food lorries from the docks in London, with little violence occurring. The police were more heavy-handed in the north, where they charged protesters in Newcastle, Preston, Hull, Middlesbrough and Glasgow.

The day also brought embarrassment for the leadership of the TUC. A cheque arrived for their strike fund from trade unionists in Russia. Keen to avoid any rumours of links with Russian communists, the TUC returned the donation. Meanwhile, their negotiator J H Thomas held a secret meeting with the mine owners.

Sunday saw most of the country at church, where the call from the pulpit was for the strikers to return to their jobs. Cardinal Bourne, the head of the Catholic Church in Britain, went so far as to call the strike a sin. The government declared that the strike was weakening.

As the strike moved into another week, contrary to the government’s claims that workers were deserting the cause, more joined. Textile and flour workers in the north came out on strike and in Northumberland strikers managed to derail the Flying Scotsman. Baldwin declared that the country was faced with revolution and more than 300 communists were arrested. Behind the scenes, Sir Herbert Samuel, without the government’s backing, tried to negotiate a settlement.

More workers were called out on strike on Tuesday, 11 May. Members of the National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union went to court seeking an injunction to avoid the call to strike. This was granted and in addition, the judge went on to declare that the general strike was illegal. This opened the door to legal action against the unions by the employers. It was effectively the end of the strike and on the following day, TUC officials called off the strike, having won nothing for their members.

Legacy

Many of the miners continued to strike for six months, but eventually poverty forced them back to work where they faced lower pay and longer hours. Bitterness characterised the mining industry for decades. Communities were divided with strike breakers ostracised. The miners felt betrayed by the TUC and the government; mutual suspicion spilled over during the 1980s miners’ strike during which there were violent clashes.

The strike hurt not just the mining industry, but the Trade Union movement, which took years to recover its standing.

Sites to Visit

The Big Pit National Coal Museum at Blaenavon, Torfaen, is a celebration of the mining industry in Wales and gives a picture of life for the miners at the time of the General Strike. Underground tours are bookable.

The People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, charts the progress of democracy in the UK and includes information on the general strike and the trade union movement.

Film and TV

Ken Loach’s Days of Hope follows the fortunes of a working class family from World War I through to the General Strike. Available in the Ken Loach at the BBC DVD box set (2011)

Andrew Marr’s excellent series for the BBC The Making of Modern Britain in available on DVD. Episode 4 includes the General Strike.

Further Research

General Strike of 1926: The Economic, Political and Social Causes (Historical perspectives) (1980) R A Florey

Crime writer Julian Symons examined archive material to write The General Strike: A Historical Portrait (1987)

Touchstone (2007) by Laurie R King is a novel set against a backdrop of the General Strike.

Related Youtube Videos

Pathe news footage of the Strike