Richard Kerridge, History Subject Advisor

If you teach Unit Y112 (Britain 1900-1951) of our A Level History specification, you’re probably already aware that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the General Strike. For teachers and students, what better time to revisit a moment that raises enduring questions about power, class and government in Britain.

In this blog I’ll outline the origins and consequences of the General Strike, and explain why it still matters.

Importance of miners

The nineteenth century had seen slow progress in rights for the working class. Miners and railway workers were at the forefront of the battle to improve the lot of the working class and were amongst the first industries to be unionised. By the early twentieth century, coal was the predominant source of heat, light and power. In 1913, 1.1 million men and boys worked in the coal industry producing 287 million tons of coal, around 23% of the world’s supply.

Miners played a prominent role in the First World War with close to 200,000 volunteering by 1915. However, upon return and with no land fit for heroes, high coal prices, and the British coal industry facing major competition from overseas (the Ruhr and Silesia) the coal industry was in a difficult position.

Mine owners did what they always do when they faced hard times, they pleaded poverty and cut miners’ wages while increasing their working hours.

Miners’ working conditions

What of the miners? George Orwell published The Road to Wigan Pier in 1937, ten years after the General Strike. He called the miners ‘splendid men’. They were ‘superhuman’ because, ‘they are not only shifting monstrous quantities of coal, they are also doing it in a position that doubles or trebles the work’. He describes their working conditions as his version of hell: ‘Most of the things one imagines in hell are there: heat, noise, confusion, darkness, foul air, and, above all, unbearably cramped space’.

Was this a work force that deserved lower wages and longer hours ? The miners didn’t think so. The Miners’ Union wanted action and pushed the Trades Union Congress to threaten a strike.

In 1925 Stanley Baldwin’s government decided to subsidise wages for nine months while an inquiry into conditions was held. This was Red Friday: a victory, of sorts, for the workers.

Government preparations

However, it gave Baldwin time to organise. In preparation for a future strike, volunteers pledged to maintain the supply of food, water and fuel and coal was stockpiled to last five months. The number of special constables increased from 98,000 to 226,000 with a reserve of 18,000, while the military, navy and police were briefed on the occupation of docks, power stations and telephone exchanges and how to maintain road, rail and water communications.

The TUC did nothing.

The report, published in March 1926, was largely favourable to the miners but unacceptable to the mine owners. Baldwin tried to maintain neutrality, stating ‘I do not favour one side or the other. I wish only that they should agree between themselves’. They did not agree. The TUC didn’t want a strike and thought that by threatening a general strike they could force another Red Friday-type victory. But they were between a rock and a hard place, and once threatened, the mine owners thought they could win, the government knew it had to win, while the TUC were really playing for a draw. A ballot returned 3.6 million votes in favour of strike action, with just 50,000 against. On 4 May 1926, the General Strike began.

The General Strike

Much has been written about what happened during the nine days in May. Around 20% percent of the nation’s adult population ceased to work. More were due to strike on the day it ended, with the TUC having a second wave of trades poised to strike.

Ultimately the TUC did not want to overthrow the government, it was frightened of winning. The strike ended just nine days after it began. But the miners continued to strike for many more months until they were starved back to work.

What remains the greatest act of worker solidarity in British history also became the single biggest defeat suffered by the trade union movement.

Historical questions abound. How close was Britain to a revolution? Was this nearer to the English Revolution of the seventeenth century or the Russian Revolution of 1917?

Lessons were learned. Don’t threaten a general strike. Don’t strike when it suits your employer unless it suits you better. Seek to effect change through the ballot box.

Should the real question of this event be ‘who was Britain run for?’ And that could not be more relevant today, one hundred years on.

Teaching ideas

There are a number of worthwhile questions that classes could discuss and debate: 

• Who benefited most from the outcome of the General Strike? 
• How close to revolution was Britain in 1926? 
• Can we learn any lessons today from the General Strike?

The role of women in the General Strike is something that is taking greater prominence. Archives, such as the one held at the Marx Memorial Library or the Modern Records Collection, are worth investigating in order to build a fuller picture of what happened.

The General Strike didn’t just happen in London. Local libraries and museums may have material pertaining to this period as there was much literature produced by the strikers to counter the propaganda put out in Churchill’s British Gazette. What does the difference between the two points of view tell us about the divides in British society in the 1920s?

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About the author

Richard joined Cambridge International Assessment in September 2019 and Cambridge OCR in October 2022. Before that, he taught History for seventeen years. He was a Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Head of Humanities, SSAT Lead Practitioner as well as writing and contributing to textbooks and exam-board resources. He has presented at the Historical Association and Schools History Project Annual Conferences and for Keynote Education. Richard is very proud to be an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association. He enjoys spending time with his family, friends and two dogs.