Expain why the general strike broke out in 1926

Authors Avatar

Explain why the General Strike broke out in 1926.

May 1926 saw one of the largest acts of union in British workforce history, the general strike saw much of Britain come to a standstill as the country’s main traditional, staple industries ceased production. The strike began when 1 million miners were locked out by their employers for refusing to take a pay cut. The response of the British working class was magnificent. Over 2.5 million workers responded to the call for action and refused to work.

   There are several events that lead up to and caused such anger amongst the workforce and ultimately the General Strike.

  The first, and one of the most important in my opinion, was the economic situation of the time. Britain was at the beginning of a huge economic depression, and after the war found that they now couldn’t compete with other countries in the international export markets. Germany and Poland were using more modern machinery and were able to churn out coal more efficiently and cheaper than Britain as she did not modernise her machinery, only 20% of British coal was cut by machinery, the rest was handpicked. In addition to this both France and Italy were receiving free coal from Germany as part of the reparations so had very little need to buy it from somewhere else.

Join now!

  The problems with exports were only made worse by the decision to go back on the gold standard after the war, the pound, according to some experts, was overpriced by 10%, leading to further losses in the sales of various staple exports from Britain.

  These loss of sales caused loss in profits for the industry owners, they blamed the loss on high wages, that were kept the same during the war, they attempted to lower wages and consequently strained the relationship between themselves and the workforce. Loss in profits also lead to mass unemployment, this again only ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Avatar

This is a well focused response that sets out the key reasons for the Strike and shows a particularly good understanding of the economic context and its role. There could have been further analysis of the role of key individuals. 4 out of 5 stars.