100 years ago, 1.7 million Britons walked out: marking the 1926 General Strike
This week marks the centenary of the largest single labour mobilisation in the United Kingdom's history. Between 4 and 12 May 1926, 1.7 million workers downed tools and brought Britain to an effective standstill for nine days. Known as the General Strike, the event was seen as the most determined display of solidarity in English labour history; but it also brought one of the movement's deepest defeats.
The spark for the strike began with the miners. After the previous year's economic downturn, coal-mine owners were demanding wage cuts and longer hours from 1,250,000 mine workers. When the union refused, the owners locked the workers out on 30 April 1926. The Trade Union Congress (TUC), the trade-union confederation, took the decision to launch a solidarity strike.
On the morning of Tuesday 4 May, railway workers, bus drivers, dock workers, print workers, ironworkers and gas and electricity supply workers did not turn up to start their shifts. Intercity train services stopped. London's Tube did not run. Factories closed in Manchester and Birmingham. Horse-drawn trams became a rare sight again in the streets.
The government's response was tough. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin mobilised the army and navy to be deployed in essential services. One hundred thousand 'volunteers' were enrolled (typically middle-class students and retired military personnel). These volunteers went on to drive buses, operate trains and generate electricity.
Public feeling towards the strike was complex. In some areas the strike enjoyed strong support — especially Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and North Wales. In others, particularly the wealthy districts of London, there was open support for the volunteers. The Times newspaper framed the volunteer effort as 'defending the foundations of civilisation'.
The General Strike lasted only nine days. On 12 May, the TUC withdrew the strike call suddenly and unexpectedly. The decision was taken without consulting the miners and left them alone. The miners held out for another seven months but most returned to work by the end of 1926 with wage cuts and longer hours.
Historian Jonathan Schneer says there are three reasons for the strike's failure: first, the government's preparedness. Baldwin had foreseen the looming crisis and had quietly prepared the 'volunteer army' plans since 1925. Second, the TUC leadership's reluctance to take a harder line — many union leaders feared the movement turning into a revolution. Third, a division within the working classes: miners were at the centre, but full solidarity from other sectors was limited.
The long-term consequences of the General Strike were profound. In 1927, the Baldwin government passed the Trades Disputes Act, which made solidarity strikes, public-service strikes and pay deductions for political-strike participation nearly impossible. The law remained in force until repealed by the Atlee Labour government in 1946.
The cultural effects were also clear. The General Strike created a two-generation trauma for the British labour movement. UK trade-union membership stood at 5.5 million in 1926; by 1933 it had fallen to 4.4 million. The union movement did not fully recover from the blow until the post-Second World War Atlee period.
The event is still alive in modern Britain's political memory. The descendants of families who participated in the strike remember 1926 as 'the last moment of real solidarity'. Schneer's argument is: 'The General Strike failed because it was not yet ready for the organisational infrastructure of modern political struggles. But in value terms, it set a model for later generations to organise their own struggles.'