General Strike of 1926

I

Introduction

General Strike of 1926, in British history, the occasion on which the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called out 1,750,000 workers for nine days in 1926 in an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to act to prevent the wages and conditions of coal miners being reduced.

II

Interpretations of the General Strike

The term “general strike” emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mean a revolutionary attempt to overthrow a government by massive strike action. To many politicians, particularly Conservatives and Liberals, the mass action of the TUC in 1926 seemed to be precisely this, a challenge to constitutional government. Some members of the Communist Party of Great Britain felt the same. Nevertheless to the majority of ordinary trade unionists, and to the leaders of the TUC, the General Strike of 1926 was merely sympathetic action by the organized working class to prevent the wages of miners being, as Ernest Bevin of the TUC suggested, being “driven down unfairly”. As a result, the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin referred to it as a general strike while the TUC considered it to be industrial action in support of the miners.

III

Causes

The General Strike occurred at the end of a period of industrial militancy and was encouraged by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Nevertheless, its precise timing in 1926 owes much to the fact that both the government and the TUC were beginning to assume intractable positions in 1925 and 1926 at a time when the coal industry was in industrial turmoil. The government had controlled the mines during World War I but returned them to the coal mine owners as from April 1, 1921, whereupon the owners imposed wage cuts and ended the national wage agreements, which led to a coal strike. Although the miners had an agreement with the trade unions representing the railwaymen and the transport workers, the famous “Triple Alliance”, they received no support from them and J. H. Thomas, the leader of the National Union of Railwaymen, announced, on April 15, 1921, that there would be no sympathetic strike action from the other unions. This day became known as “Black Friday”. From this point onwards, however, the TUC moved to prevent such a debacle occurring again. It formed the General Council to replace the Parliamentary Committee, thus enabling it to develop an industrial alliance between trade unions to help unions faced with a major conflict with employers.

By the mid-1920s the Conservative government was determined that wages would have to be reduced, especially in the wake of Britain's return to the gold standard and free trade in April 1925. At the same time the TUC became determined to protect the wages of its affiliated members and felt morally committed to protect the miners after the events of 1921. The two sides were almost bound to come into conflict if a major industrial dispute occurred, and with industrial relations becoming bitter in the coal-mining industry once more in 1925 and 1926, it made some form of major confrontation or general strike almost inevitable.

In the summer of 1925 the coal mine owners demanded substantial wage cuts and an increase of working hours to eight per day from just over seven. The TUC committed itself to supporting the miners and conflict was only avoided at the last minute by the timely decision by the government to provide a subsidy to help maintain wages for another nine months. This occurred on Friday July 31, 1925, henceforth known as “Red Friday”. The government also announced the formation of a Royal Commission on Coal, under the chairmanship of Sir Herbert Samuel—a Liberal politician and ex-governor of Palestine—to examine the problems of the coal industry. When its recommendations were issued in March 1926, it was clear that the coal miners would not accept the temporary wage cuts it advocated and nor would the coal mine owners accept the rationalization and re-organization of the industry which the Commission considered essential to the future well-being of the industry.

IV

Events

The General Strike began at one minute to midnight on May 3, 1926. At first the TUC, which had not gained the support of the unions for industrial action against worsening pay and conditions of miners until May 1, only called out the “front-line workers”. These “front-line” workers were those in essential key industries and services such as printing, the railways, and road transport. The vast majority of the less vital “second-line” workers, such as engineers, did not come out on strike although a few did heed the call to strike at noon on May 12, ironically the very moment that the strike was being called off. By and large the workers came out in support of the strike when asked to do so and the local councils of action, normally based upon trades councils, organized local strike activities. Nevertheless, the government managed to keep control of vital supplies, using volunteers to maintain a skeleton service on the railways, controlling the British Broadcasting Corporation, and publishing the British Gazette in response to the TUC's British Worker.