Remembering the 1970s: Equal Pay strike in West London

Book Review

From the publishers:
    This is the remarkable story, still relevant today, of four hundred women and their supporters who, in 1976, went on strike for 21 weeks to win equal pay with their male counterparts. It took place at the Brentford plant of Trico-Folberth, an American multinational producer of windscreen wipers. The strike was trail-blazing in many ways, and was essential to making women’s rights a central focus for the labour movement in the UK, a major turning point of the 1970s. Trico: A Victory to Remember is indispensable to understanding that shift. Illustrated with stunning archive photos mostly unseen for over forty years, the book charts the women’s campaign to their final victory, including anecdotes from some of those involved.

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Sally Groves and Vernon Merritt, Trico: A Victory to Remember. The 1976 Equal Pay Strike at Trico Folberth, Brentford. Lawrence & Wishart with Unite the Union, 2018. 

This account of the "longest successful strike for equal pay in British Trade Union history" is presented in an attractive and readable form. Sections of reportage and commentary are interspersed with pages of direct quotations, clearly differentiated and attributed, from several of those involved. Many excellent illustrations bring out both the collective experience and the individuality of the women in their struggle. Discreet footnotes (or side-notes) fill out extra bits of background and history.

A Foreword written by the first author in 1977 summarises what these "400 or so very remarkable women" did and why, and what happened as a resut. Strike action was taken in May 1976 when women being paid less than men doing identical work walked out - after "months of frustrating and non-productive negotiations" aimed at persuading a recalcitrant management to fulfil its obligations under the Equal pay Act (which had itself given employers five years to prepare). Three weeks into the action, the strike was made official by the then AUEW; the factory produced items for the motor industry, mostly windscreen wipers and related accessories. A minority of the male workers, about 150, joined the strike, which was to last for 21 weeks, prolonged by "unbelievably incompetent company policy" which caused considerably hardship but at the same time strengthened solidarity and support. Management tactics included hiring transport gangs to smash through picket lines in convoy. Settlement was reached in mid-October, when a mass meeting was told that equal pay had been agreed. The triumphant return to work followed three days later.

First march round Brentford - only women in sight

Second march with the union to the fore.
The strike committee (right-hand page) has 50% women (4:4)

United in victory march, 18th October

Details of incidents, personalities and day-to-day organisation are given in the three parts: "Getting organised", "The battle rages", and "The reckoning", each containing numerous subheadings. Part 1 describes the background of a workforce drawn mostly from nearby council estates, so that, importantly, many of the women were known to each other or related. Labour was segregated by gender, men on the night shift and in "craft" jobs; adjustments led to the few men on the washer assembly line being paid £6.50 per week more than the women. Spontaneous stoppages had occurred in February when shop stewards "restored order". Things were made worse by a "series of phony excuses" including conformity with the (Labout) government's pay policy (wage restraint) and by "hamfisted handling" of grievances, as British managers adopted the methods and "blackmailing tactics" of their American employers.

Part 2 launches into the developing struggle, featuring “Strike breakers incorporated”, “They shall not pass”, and “Battle at the Trico gates” while throughout, the activists' own take on events adds another dimension under a great variety of headings such as Picketing and solidarity, Surveillance, Growth of political awareness, Strike breaking, Sexist attitudes and many more. Despite problems, obstacles and risks it was evidently far from an unremittingly grim experience on  Costa del Trico in that famously hot summer, as many pictures show. Methods included strike bulletins with cartoons (to counter the inevitable press hostility and bias), meetings in nearby Boston Manor Park, with entertainment, and a protest delegation to Brentford police station about police complicity with strike-breakers. They had lots of fine days for it for a time at least. Part 3 continues with “More determined than ever”, “Tribunal trickery” plus the wider picture of outside support being sought and organised and the union involvement, and finally “Victory!”

Acclaim for the settlement, 15-10-1976 (pp.158-9)

This is followed by an analysis-with-hindsight and assessment of contemporary relevance in "Forty years on - what lessons for today?" including a comparison with Grunwick, and an overview of campaigning for equal pay, "Fighting for our rights". Lastly there is an obituary for Eileen Ward, one of the foremost activists. 

The winning formula was, in the authorial view, the “power of direct action backed up by the organised muscle of a strong trade union connection”. Valid perhaps in this sort of context (implementation of reform enacted by legislation), but the point is not lost that it was the women’s own decisiveness and determination that both instigated and sustained the struggle. While it may be difficult in the conditions of 2018 wholly to endorse or revert to the optimism and triumph that are the prevailing mode of the book, it reminds us that such a struggle can be both upbeat along the way and effective in the long run. 

"Local Auhor" - window display, The Pitshanger Bookshop, W5

The Trico factory closed in 1994, with most of the workforce becoming redundant, and different buildings occupying the site, so that in a way these events may appear all to belong in the past. Nevertheless the subject's significance remains as a bit of labour history that should not be forgotten as well as concerning a vital issue still far from resolved. This very worthwhile publication does an excellent job of helping to preserve it in collective memory. 

New publications from Past Tense

Past Tense have published six new pamphlets as below, five for sale and one FREE.

“They came out in October, but we've been so busy with one thing and another that we
haven't had much time to publicise them as yet.”

• BLACK WOMEN ORGANISING
The Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation for Women of African and Asian Descent
£3.00 + £1.50 P&P
ISBN: 978-0-9932762-7-9

The Brixton Black Women’s Group, founded in 1973, emerged among women who had been active in the Black Power movement in London in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This pamphlet reprints two articles originally published in feminist journals in the 1980s - an interview with three Brixton Black Women’s Group activists about the development of the group, and an appraisal of the national Organisation for Women of African and Asian Descent.
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• RENT STRIKE: ST. PANCRAS 1960 Dave Burn
£3.00 + £1.50 P&P
ISBN: 978-0-9932762-5-5

In 1960 over 2000 council tenants in the then London borough of St Pancras went on partial rent strike, against a new rent scheme introduced by the Conservative council. This pamphlet recounts the causes and the history of the rent strike, examining the reasons the rent scheme was brought in, and the history of the tenants’ movement. A comprehensive but also compelling story of a community struggle, as well as a thoughtful analysis of its motives and possibilities.
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“MENACING LANGUAGE AND THREATS” The Anti Corn Law Riots of 1815
£1.50 + £1 P&P
ISBN: 978-0-9932762-4-8


At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, corn prices fell to nearly half their war level, causing panic among British farmers - many of whom were also voters. In response the government introduced the Corn Laws in 1815; banning cheap wheat imports, to ensure the high incomes of farmers and landowners.
This was class legislation at its most blatant. It made sure aristocrats could continue to benefit from high bread prices, and the high rents that they supported; knowing well enough this law meant penury for the poor, who relied on bread to stave off starvation.
Riots broke out in the area around Parliament as the Acts were being debated, and spread out around London and Westminster as the London houses of the MPs and lords held most responsible were targeted by crowds...

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• I HAVENT HAD SO MUCH FUN SINCE MY LEG FELL OFF The North London Civil Servants Strike, 1987/88 Jean Richards
£2.00 + £1 P&P
ISBN: 978-0-9932762-2-4

An account of a strike by low-paid civil servants across North London Department of Employment offices in 1988, also involving Job Centre and Department of Health & Social Security staff who came out in solidarity when they were asked to do the strikers’ work.

By a woman civil servant who worked for 10 years in one of the offices in dispute.

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THE ESTABLISHMENT VERSUS THE ROTUNDA!

£2.00 + £1 P&P

ISBN: 978-0-9932762-3-1

In the early 1830s a building on Blackfriars Road became the most notorious radical political meeting places of its era. For a few short years, the Rotunda was the heart of radical London. The Rotunda entered its golden age in 1830, when it was taken over by freethinker Richard Carlile, and was transformed into a centre of political and scientific education and theatrical anti-religious performances... It became home to diverse radical groups and speakers, including the National Union of the Working Classes, Robert Taylor (known as the “Devil’s Chaplain’), and female atheist lecturer Eliza Sharples, the ‘Pythoness of the Temple’.

The Rotunda was feared and hated by the political establishment, who saw it as influencing all radical and rebellious opinion. The reactionary Duke Of Wellington considered the battle for the future of society as one of “The Establishment Vs The Rotunda.”

[See also https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/today-in-london-radical-history-richard-carlile-jailed-for-supporting-swing-rioters-1831/]

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• WE REMEMBER WAT TYLER A6 pamphlet
£1.00 + £1 P&P

The 1381 Peasants’ Revolt remains one of the most cataclysmic and inspiring events in British history. At its heart stands a figure of whom so littl4 is known… Wat Tyler. A man who appears for
two weeks, is elected leader of a peasant rebellion, articulates a demand for the abolition of classes, and is killed… Who was Wat Tyler?

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• TROUBLE DOWN SOUTH
Free (£1 P&P)

Some thoughts on gentrification & resistance to gentrification in Brixton, with historical digressions, experiences, and some ranting...

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And don't forget - the 2018 LONDON REBEL HISTORY CALENDAR is still available, it's not too late to order your coy for the year...
Only £6 plus £3 P&P

All of the above are available from Past Tense, either via our publicationspage
where you can pay by card or paypal

Or ooooold style by post from:
Past Tense, c/o 56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London, SE17 3AE

These publications will also soon be available from radical bookshops in London, and some good local independent bookshops and the odd caff too!
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Looking Back at the Grunwick Strike 1976-1978

(From Mary Quaile Club)
Grunwick Strike screening and speakers
Saturday 3rd December, 1pm to 3pm
Venue: Annexe at the Working Class Movement  Library, 51 Crescent, Salford M5  4WX

Photographs from A Place in History, by Colin Philpott (2012)

Forty years  ago in August 1976 six workers walked out of Grunwick Film Processing Laboratory in Willesden,  thereby igniting an historic two-year dispute.  They were soon joined by most of the workforce.

As the first workers left the factory, one – Jayaben Desai – offered a parting shot to the management: “What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips, others are lions who can bite your head off. We are the lions, Mr Manager.”

Thousands of trade unionists from around the country,  including miners,  came to the  aid of the mostly female  Asian work force, and it became one of the most bitterly fought trade union battles of the 1970s. On the picket lines police assaulted and arrested hundreds of trade unionists. [Pictures here and here]

At this event we will be screening a  60 minute documentary The Great Grunwick Strike, made in 2008  by Chris Thomas for Brent Trades Council. This  tells the story of the strike, and includes interview with the strikers and their supporters.

Our  speakers at this event will be

• Sujata Aurora,  Chair of the Grunwick 40 Steering Group, an alliance of Brent-based trade unionists and community campaigners formed to mark the 40th anniversary of the Grunwick strike. She has been active in anti-racist and solidarity movements for three decades

• Lisa Turnbull  from the Durham Teaching Assistants, a group of mainly women workers  who are facing huge wage cuts imposed by Labour-controlled Durham County Council and have voted overwhelmingly to strike.

This event has been organised in conjunction  with the Manchester and Salford branch of the National Union of Journalists  and Manchester Trades Union Council.

Tea and cakes will be served at the end. Entrance is free with a collection to defray expenses. 

Seating is limited in the Annexe so to be sure of a seat at this event, please book in advance: maryquaileclub@gmail.com
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Previously on this blog:
Exhibitions - Striking Women: voices of South Asian Women from Grunwick and Gate Gourmet

STOP PRESS: Wapping Dispute Events, Jan. 2016

https://www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history-wapping-dispute-workers-story 

Talk: The Wapping Dispute. The workers who were dismissed during the Wapping Dispute, in addition to their families and their supporters, were frequently disbelieved or vilified for bringing about their own destruction. The full strength of the law was used against their trade unions and most published accounts of the dispute blamed the workers in one way or another. 

Join us for a talk by one of the strikers involved in the dispute who will put forward the workers' story. This will be followed by a Q&A session and a chance for the audience to talk about their own experiences of the dispute. Free, no booking required.
Thursday 14 January, 6:00pm - 7:30 p.m. 

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, 277 Bancroft Road, London E1 4DQ

Phone: 020 7364 1290. Email: localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk

30th Anniversary Event. Join the strikers and their supporters for this informal gathering to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Wapping Dispute. During the evening, there will be a screening of the film ‘Banging Out: Fleet Street Remembered’ (52 mins), which was produced by digital:works, who worked alongside pupils from two primary schools located near Fleet Street, to chart the history of printing in the area from around 1500, when William Caxton's apprentice set up a printing shop in Shoe Lane, until the digital revolution saw presses move east to Wapping and elsewhere in the 1980s and 1990s. This project put former print workers at the forefront of this history and allowed them to tell their story in their own words. Free, no booking required. Thursday, 21 January, 5:00pm - 7:30pm

Also: http://www.wapping-dispute.org.uk/Plus @SolHughesWriter obtained the Special Branch files.
https://t.co/Wk7Y5EHFqwhttp://specialbranchfiles.uk/anti-apartheid-movement-story/#

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives Exhibition: 

The Wapping Dispute: The Workers’ Story

Tuesday 1 December 2015 – Thursday 11 February 2016 

The Wapping Dispute began on 24 January 1986, when Rupert Murdoch, owner of four of Britain’s leading newspapers, including The Sun and The Times, sought to move production from Fleet Street in central London to a new non-union print works in Wapping. This led to a strike by the print unions, who fought to save thousands of jobs and the basic rights of workers to organise in defence of their conditions. 

In 2011 the 25th anniversary of the year-long strike and the ruthless dismissal of 5500 workers by Rupert Murdoch was marked by an exhibition which presented the workers’ story of the dispute and provided a political context. We are pleased to be hosting the exhibition at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives from December 2015 until February 2016, to mark the 30th anniversary of the strike. The exhibition will will include dramatic accounts and photographs of the dispute, in addition to objects and items from the time, including banners, posters, badges, and press articles, and will be accompanied by the two free public events [as above] - 'Talk: The Wapping Dispute' and '30th Anniversary Event'

News International Dispute exhibition

Exhibition 9 January - 13 February 2015

St Bride Foundation, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8EQ

0207 353 3331

Friday-Monday 10am-5.30pm; Tuesday-Thursday by appointment

Further information: 07831 676587; info@wapping-dispute.org.uk; www.wapping-dispute.org.uk

<< The exhibition is on display again this time at St Bride Institute, Bride Lane, just off Fleet Street. It is an historic location for all of us from the Fleet Street era of national newspapers and the print and media industry.  And not just for proximity to Fleet Street: countless chapel (workplace union branch) meetings were held there – starting disputes and ending them, setting up campaigns and declaring solidarity with other workers in struggle.

In addition to the exhibition, the print workshop  and the library which are entirely devoted to the history of printing and allied crafts are also well worth seeing.

The leaflet is at this link gives details of opening times.  Please note that the exhibition is open at weekends. Individual and group visits during mid- week (Tuesday-Thursday) but please check for availability. >>

Contact us on info@wapping-dispute.org or 07831676587.

Previously on this blog:

Memories of the Wapping print dispute - some Haringey support experiences [1986-87] 

‘Not Just Tea and Sandwiches: Women of the 1984 Miners Strike’

STOP PRESS

Saturday 21^st June – 12pm – 8pm, followed by Homespun Women’'s Social

The Feminist Library, 5 Westminster Bridge Rd, London SE1 7XW 

PROGRAMME 

Exhibition in the Library – All Day. Artefacts documenting women’s activism in the Miners’' Strike, presented alongside contemporary artwork. Curated by Megan Pickering (http://iamnotawomanartist.tumblr.com/) featuring original work by Jessica Scott (http://jessica-scott.com/)

12-1.30pm Storytelling Workshop: Fiction from Fact, with Laura Wilkinson. This workshop will consider different approaches to writing fiction (short stories and novels) inspired by real life events using a range of images and ideas. Suitable for all levels and experience. Come ready to write. Places limited – please RSVP to bookshop@feministlibrary.co.uk. Fee £10 (if you have trouble attending because of the fee, please contact us so that we can discuss arranging a subsidy)  

12.30-2pm Film: Here We Go! Women Living in the Strike, produced and directed by Maggie Wright, followed by discussion with Jill Mountford of North Staffs Miners'’ Wives Group.

1.30-2.30pm Lunch break – please bring a packed lunch 

2.30 – 4pm Literature of the Miners'’ Strike: where are the women? Women were key activists during the 1984/85 UK dispute, yet their voices remain marginal in popular representations of the strike. Dr Katy Shaw, a leading authority on the literature of the Miners'’ Strike, in conversation with Laura Wilkinson, author of Public Battles, Private Wars, explore women’s crucial involvement in the events of 1984/5 and the role now played by the strike in modern fiction. 

4pm-4.30pm Refreshment Break – Tea, real coffee and cakes (inc. vegan and GF options) available for modest donations.  

4.30-6pm Recording Experiences of the Strike – Documentary and Oral History. Looks at women'’s experiences in the strike and its aftermath, how it changed lives and communities, if these changes lasted, and what can we take from them today.

We will be screening “Not Just Tea and Sandwiches,” a short documentary from “The Miners'’ Campaign Tapes”, as well as being joined by Rachel Kirk of One For All Productions, creators of oral history project “Holes in Tights”, which records the experiences and memories of North East Women in 1984/5.

6 –-8pm Group Meal and Discussion, kicked off by Kit Habianic, author of Until Our Blood Is Dry, (Parthian, 2014) which explores transitions in a male dominated South Wales mining community where traditional values are ripped apart. Kit will also tell of her eight-year struggle to get the book published.  We will reflect on the day as a group, and consider what we can take from the various sessions, and how they might relate to our communities today. Hot food with vegan and gluten-free options will be provided for donations.  

8pm onwards: Homespun Women’'s Social, with music from the 80s!

Suggested donation minimum £3 to the Library to support its ongoing work. 
All genders welcome to the day’'s activities, but the social is self-defined "women only".–
Accessible building:– if possible please contact in advance so that we can facilitate access needs.

Matchwomen's Day 2014

Battles and Victories, 1888-2014

Saturday 5^th July, 11am Mander Hall, NUT Hamilton House, Mabledon Place London WC1H 9BD. Transport: King’s Cross,Euston

Tina McEvvit Louise RawKate ConnellyKate HardieSara KhanSukhwant Dhaliwal

John Hendy QC Terry McCartyScarlett HarrisHeather Wakefield Alex Wall Caroline RaineFaisal Ali

Facebook www.facebook.com/Matchwomen Twitter: @Matchwomen1888 Email: Louise.raw@virgin.net

Hosted by NUT London Women Thanks to the Pay Equity Campaign

 

STRIKING A LIGHT:

THE BRYANT & MAY MATCHWOMEN AND THEIR PLACE IN
LABOUR HISTORY

The Strike

In the summer of 1888, fourteen hundred workers, mostly young women and girls, walked out of Bryant & May’s match factory in Bow, East London.

Before the strike the matchwomen were regarded as the ‘lowest strata of society’. The ideal 19th century woman was the ‘Angel in the House,’ a deeply respectable wife and mother – she did not work in factories, and was not to be found in pubs and music halls nor enlivening East End nights with enthusiastic renditions of ‘Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay’(as the matchwomen frequently did).

However, their strike changed everything: during it they were the subject of thundering editorials in the Times, and impressed MPs with their intelligence. After it, they formed the largest union of women workers in the country. They received death threats from someone claiming to be ‘Jack the Ripper’ (the first of the notorious murders occurring just after their victorious return to work) but also attracted the more wholesome attentions of ‘celebrity socialists’ like George Bernard Shaw and, most significantly, Annie Besant, Fabian journalist and, according to all previous sources, the leader of the strike.

The matchwomen’s temerity in taking on Bryant & May, one of the Empire’s most powerful and successful companies, was breathtaking. As working-class female ‘casuals’ they were paid a pittance, could be hired and fired at management’s will and were supposed to know their place – which was firmly at the bottom of the labour hierarchy. That they returned to work two weeks later with their demands for better pay and conditions met, was completely unexpected and not lost on other exploited workers in the East End and beyond.

‘White Slavery’

However, because of Besant’s supposed role, history has frequently treated the matchwomen with condescension to match that of any Victorian grandee. Certainly Besant published a blistering exposé of Bryant & May under the resounding title ‘White Slavery in London’ after interviewing a handful of matchwomen outside the factory.
Besant wrote that Bryant & May’s enormous profits- shareholders were receiving dividends of 20%- had been achieved by slashing wage-rates so dramatically that they were lower in 1888 than 15 years previously. Accordingly the youngest women were obviously malnourished and small for their ages. Factory foreman beat the women and the machinery cut their hands- even severing the fingers of one, who was then unable to work and left penniless.

‘Phossy Jaw’

However their biggest fear was ‘phossy jaw’, the dreadful industrial disease of matchmaking. Toxic particles from white phosphorus, used to dip the match heads, entered the workers’ jawbones through holes in the teeth, causing pain and facial swelling. Eventually the jaw would start to decay, and pieces of bone the size of peas would work their way out through suppurating abscesses. The resulting odour was so appalling that even sufferers’ loved ones could not stand to be in the same room. Factory inspectors would report cases of phosphorus victims living on the outskirts of towns like outcasts. The disease could end in disfigurement and agonising death.

Annie Besant

Besant’s article shocked the nation, and several days later the matchwomen walked out. Accordingly historians have concluded that they were little more than political puppets.
After ten years research I have been able to prove that Besant was in fact nowhere near the match factory when the strike began, and completely unaware of it until a deputation of strikers came to her offices days later. Besant was a remarkable woman whose life, traced in the book, was an extraordinary fin de siecle search for meaning, ending in India where she had become the effective leader of a new age religion and where her body was burned on a funeral pyre. In 1888 she unquestionably produced valuable publicity for the matchwomen, but by no stretch of the imagination led them.

Just a year after the matchwomen’s victory, a wave of strikes resulted in the unionisation of tens of thousands of the most exploited workers, and sowed the seeds of the independent Labour Party. The most famous was the Great Dock Strike, which began within walking distance of Bryant & May’s: but historians would have us believe that this was purely co-incidental. However, I’ve found considerable evidence that the matchwomen were a clear and admitted influenced on the Dock Strikers, who sought their advice, and hailed their example at strike meetings throughout 1889.

From ‘the Emerald Isle’

I believe that an important factor in the strike was their Irish heritage. As their employer said, most ‘hailed from the Emerald Isle’, as did many dockers. The Irish community in London at the time was famously close-knit and political, united against prejudice in England, which combined with oppression at home, heightened class as well as national identity.

After several years’ research I was finally able to identify the women who really began the strike and show that they had strong ties to Dock and Irish communities, living in streets variously described, with the casual xenophobia of the time, as ‘Fenian Barracks’, ‘a regular Irish den…all the vices of the Irish rampant’, and ‘inhabited by many Irish…a rough lot, given to drinking, racing and betting’.

Real Women

The most exciting and moving part of my work was tracing and meeting grandchildren of the Bryant & May strikers. In my book I introduce key figures like Mary Driscoll and Eliza Martin for the first time, and follow their remarkable lives beyond the strike, into marriage and motherhood.

After writing articles for Irish papers I was sent these words, received by a dock striker in a letter from Ernest Bevin:
‘Fifty years ago…you were among those who were involved in a great industrial upheaval- virtually a revolution against poverty, tyranny and intolerable conditions.
You little thought during those weeks…that you were laying the foundation of a great Industrial Movement.’

I believe that this is an equally fitting tribute to the remarkable matchwomen, who were nothing less than the mothers of the modern labour movement, and to whom we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude.

http://louiseraw.co.uk/moreinformation.htm

The Ruskin College 'strike' of 1909

News from Nowhere Club/
IWCE Network
supported by Labour Heritage
http://iwceducation.co.uk/
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNHome.html

8pm Saturday 12 April


Plebs Magazine

Colin Waugh

Plebs
The Ruskin College 'strike' of 1909

Independent workers' learning existed across the C20

 but can the Plebs ideal of politically committed education be realised today?

The Epicentre,
Leytonstone, E11 4LJ
http://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/NfNfindus.html
info@newsfromnowhereclub.org.uk
0208 555 5248
07443 480 509

 

RaHN Notes circulated for a similar meeting held on Feb. 11 2009

Plebs League, Ruskin  College strike and independent working-class education

 

The historical events of a hundred years ago are still mulled over, and concerned  the responsibility for  post school education. In those years, the unions in this country were extending  their activities beyond the realm of skilled workers and seeking to ensure a proper adult education for those many less skilled  who missed out on  secondary schooling.. Many of those with high ability wanted university style education as befitted  their capacities, in order to  take part in the expansion of unions in workplaces  but this  corner was being  dominated by university authorities.  They tried to extend conventional education which directed working class students away from the  labour movement.

The few dozens workers students at Oxford resisted the takeover move in 1909. They used the traditional methods and went on strike, making the issues a national one.  After a few months , when the academics did not back down, the students established the Labour Colleges system.  Classes were run in numerous cities , correspondence courses were soon set up and the adult education system divided down the middle as the conventional teachers  kept to their intentions.  They continued with the-middle-of-the-road  Workers Education Association, the bitter rival of what was to become the National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC),  with its own college in Tillicoulty, Scotland.  This continued right up to 1964, when the TUC took over the residue  in numerous cities.

The more aggressive unions, especially the miners, called on their financial and political resources.   They sent  full time students  to the NCLC and their members received correspondence sheets and other materials  for a decade or so.  Then the situation was complicated by the divisions within the labour movement as the political party adopted conventional parliamentary procedures but many of the rank and file supported the Communist Party and the new Russian society.   Readers may have their own views on the  fate of the USSR but the struggle still continues for education free from open capitalist influences.

Colin Waugh  who is active on the Post 16 Educator journal, has written a booklet to tell more fully the story above.  Today education is not totally subject to strong influences from powerful institutions in society but many union members feel  that the old master institutions are still very influential. And there is still alienation   Many children grow up  without any personal knowledge of  how, when and where  unions  can act to benefit workplace members , let alone the higher reaches of current society.

 

The subject is wide open for debate…

134 KB

Meeting Report, Wednesday 8th May, 2013

Radical History Network of North East London

‘EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE’: General Strikes, Solidarity Strikes and Industrial Solidarity

“The general strike is a revolution which is everywhere and nowhere”  (Fernand Pelloutier)

 

The 1926 General Strike in the UK  [By Alex - Full report of presentation available]

 

In May 1926 2 million workers joined the only General Strike Britain has ever seen. It lasted nine days, before being called off by the people who had called it – the General Council of the Trades Union Congress. The TUC leadership had unwillingly called the Strike, in support of a million miners who had been locked out of the pits until they accepted drastic wage cuts. The General Council had been forced into action by the overwhelming class feeling of the members of the unions, who both strongly supported the miners and believed a General Strike to be in their own interests in the face of an economic assault from the bosses and the government.

 

The Strike was in most cases rock solid: increasing numbers of workers were walking out, and towards its end it was spreading into other industries not officially on strike. But the government was very well prepared, having planned in advance - ensuring the amassing of coal stocks to make sure the miners could be defeated and industry could keep going, recruiting volunteer strike-breakers ahead of time, and setting up networks to organise nationally and locally.

 

But, afraid of the possibilities of workers escaping their control, and class warfare overflowing their very limited aims, the TUC bureaucrats tried hard to avoid the Strike, attempted to hamstring strikers on the ground from any autonomous action, negotiated throughout with the government and finally called the strike off, claiming they’d gained concessions, even though none had been won. Although 100,000 more workers came out on the day following the ending of the Strike than had previously been called out, very quickly most workers returned to work, facing worsening pay and conditions from employers made bold by the defeat – and leaving the miners to fight alone for six months until they were forced to give in and accept wage reductions. This sellout did leave a powerful legacy of bitterness. At the time, and ever since, the TUC leadership has been blamed for betraying the General Strike, and the miners.

 

Many on the left, including ourselves, obsess on the myth of May 1926 as some kind of potential revolutionary situation, thwarted by union leaders holding back class struggle. But maybe it wasn’t: few at the TIME saw it as more than an (admittedly huge) industrial dispute, limited to support for the miners. It’s possible that it was doomed to failure, given the conditions prevalent at the time. Although the situation may have contained a lot of ‘revolutionary potential’, this depended on the willingness, confidence and numbers of working class people prepared to go beyond the trade union structures when it became necessary. Whatever bitterness and anger at the selling out of the miners may have existed (and it was widespread), there was no critical mass of people able to translate it into maintaining or extending the Strike.

 

Recent General Strikes in Spain (and generally) [By Millie - Full report of presentation available]

 

Historically there have been two main ways general strikes have come about: They have been national events, pre-announced, or they have erupted, usually on a regional or city-wide basis… The latter type of general strike often starts in one industry, and spreads; it is more often spontaneous or organized from below while the first is more likely to be more top down. Quite often the second kind is provoked by some act of brutality, oppression or repression by the authorities or employers… Most of the city-wide or regional general strikes did have in common that they occurred at a time of general class struggle, upsurge of strikes, etc, they didn’t spring up out of nowhere…

 

In Spain, you often get small general strikes in various regions or cities; for example in Puerto Real, a strike in a car factory grew into a general strike in the whole region. More recently the Asturias miners’ strike sparked a one-day general strike. Spain really loves its General Strikes… There have been 3 there since the start of the current financial crisis in 2008, but before that, just in the post-Franco era, they’ve taken place in 1981, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1994, 2002, 2003, 2010.

 

Most of these have been called in response to labour laws, pension ‘reform’ or dole ‘reform’… Interestingly there have been two main exceptions, having more political than economic aims: the first was called against the attempted military coup in 1981, the second against Spain’s involvement in the Iraq war in 2003. [NB, remembering that the first echoes the general strike and popular mobilisation against the fascist coup of 1936 that launched the Spanish Civil War]. The latter strike saw a lot of civil disobedience, mass opposition – the strike was very much centred in community organising.

 

More specifically, the one day general strikes of the last three years have all been called ‘from the top’ by the two large union confederations, the UGT and the CCOO. But on the day, they feature a lot of mass grassroots activity.

 

OPEN DISCUSSION   These are points that came up in the discussion.

 

• It’s true that post-World War 1 there was a near-revolutionary situation, across Europe there were revolutions and uprisings, and a crisis in Britain. Does today suggest a re-run of 1926? Capitalism has changed a lot structurally, the industrial landscape has altered. There have also been huge changes in class composition, sociological changes, especially increasing atomization; people’s relationship to work and hence the focus on workplace struggles is v. different.

 

• Is there a way at approaching a pan-European General Strike? The European TUC structure poses some problems…

 

• What about a General Strike in the future? What factors will cause it?

 

• The General strike is a means to an end – we need also to think about strikes as occupations, sit ins, there is a long tradition of this in some places. How can we help to bring it about?

 

• Interesting that the first speaker linked William Benbow and Rosa Luxemburg. Benbow was part of the movement for reform that was betrayed by the 1832 Reform Act. Remember that at this time trade unionism was still illegal, trade unionists could be transported to the penal colonies. [Typist’s note: I think that the Combination Acts that banned trade unions or workplace organising had in fact been repealed a few years before in 1825, though it’s true that many aspects of organising could get you arrested, the Tolpuddle Martyrs for instance were specifically transported for swearing oaths when joining the union]. Benbow’s Grand National Holiday: in discussions around this idea, the question of ‘how will we eat?’ came up, and Benbow said “There’s sheep on a thousand hills”, i.e. let’s take everything from the ruling class. But recognizing that this meant civil war.  Rosa Luxemburg also saw things clearly – she made a point that a general strike has to involve unorganized workers – in fact she went further and stated that the struggles of previously unorganized workers would be a factor giving a mass strike real force and potential to transcend trade unionism.

 

• Has there ever been an organic general strike that has grown out of struggles at the grassroots? Yes, as an example, 1877 was given, a nationwide US strike wave sparked by one train strike. This movement arose in a period of intense social change following the US Civil War, in the 1870s many advances and opportunities were in the process of being closed down and restricted, and there was a large collective response. City-wide strikes (as mentioned earlier) were often sparked by dispute in one industry and spread outward. Even a shop assistants’ strike launched a General Strike in 1905. The 1905 Russian revolution to some extent was made up of an organic general strike, growing out of city strikes arising from immediate demands or grievances. For instance the sacking of two workers in the Putilov works in St Petersburg spiraled into a general strike in that city, and so on…

 

• Now, though, conditions are much less favourable. We’ve seen changes in work, i.e. most people being in temporary or insecure jobs, the [worse than] decimation of many staple industries, the huge decline in union membership, and a reduction in community, solidarity, the possibility of people standing together. These changes haven’t come about coincidentally, they have been imposed partly because of previous waves of militancy. It is important to recognize the changes we face now, but also useful to discuss and remember these struggles from the past, and learn as much as we can. It was suggested we can’t just build solidarity around workplaces any more, people don’t work in the same way, big factories etc .with a community around where most people work, are a thing mostly of the past for the UK and western Europe at least… Struggles outside work have risen in importance for many.

 

• It’s also true that many people aren’t happy to join in strikes that aren’t sanctioned by official structures.

 

• But expansion of strikes often takes place outside work now. People who aren’t necessarily on strike can participate in other ways. “Anything where people feel they can connect.” E.g. in Spain, Occupy have launched a campaign of local organising, “Occupy to the barrios”, rather than focusing on central points. [Typist: interestingly we had the same discussion in Reclaim the Streets in 1998-9, though those of us who argued that RTS should be concentrating on local struggles rather than building for big spectacular one-offs lost the argument then. Though that did lead to June 18^th 1999, which some people rate highly. Hey ho.]

 

• How does industrial action spread? During the 1984-5 miners’ strike, there was massive support and solidarity but no other strike action in support.

• Neighbourhood level is the key to organising, local groups and so on, focusing on immediate action. The poll tax showed it was possible… There’s a need for groups of workers getting together locally.

 

• There really is no point in whingeing about the TUC, unions etc, we should just be organising for ourselves.

 

Here the discussion on the night ended… obviously we should be continuing to debate these issues as part of our movements etc…