Why did the General Strike of 1926 take place?

Authors Avatar

Why did the General Strike of 1926 take place?

        There were many factors that came together after the First World War that culminated in causing the start of the General Strike, and perhaps made such an event inevitable. Principally, these were the ongoing dispute between the coal miners and the mine owners and the miners’ desire to keep the advantages they had gained during the war.  This dispute was made worse by the government’s belief in the free market in the face of the British industry slump between 1921 and 1925, and by the union alliance system and the government’s belief that the unions were trying to control them using syndicalism (controlling the government using strikes). Whilst these were the main underlying reasons for the strike, its actual timing was influenced by government tactics to delay the ‘moment of truth’ in 1925 in order to make preparations to limit the impact of the dispute on the country as a whole.

        Whilst the dispute between the miners and owners had been ongoing for some years, they were brought to the fore in the years of the First World War. During the war, the government took over the running of several major industries, of which the coal industry was one. In these years of nationalisation, the miners’ wages, hours and safety improved, and at the end of the war, the miners wanted to keep the advantages they had gained. The Sankey report of 1919 concluded that nationalisation should continue. Although this did not happen, the war had given the miners a taste of the way the coal industry could and should, in their opinion, be run. However, once the mines were returned to the mine owners, the workers again became discontented with their conditions of work and pay.

        The main reason the Prime minister, Lloyd George, a Liberal, did not take over the mines was that he thought it would be wrong for a government to own and support an industry that was supposed to be trading on the free market. The decision was made mainly because of this fact but also partly because he was anxious for the government not to take over an industry that had serious problems. The decision was also due to the influence and power of the mine owners. It was going to be hard for any government to stand up to the mine owners, due to their control and authority. This therefore set the tracks for a lengthy dispute between the miners and the government, if the miners did not think the Government was protecting them from exploitation by the mine owners.

        The union system in Britain was strong at this time, with over eight million trade unionists in 1920. The miner’s federation (NUM) was allied in a Triple Alliance to the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and the railwaymen (NUR) and, after the mine owners proposed wage cuts and extended hours to cover the loss in demand for British coal, the NUM called on these other two unions for support. Whilst they agreed in principle with the miners, they thought the miners should have tried harder to negotiate with the mine owners, so withdrew their support on 15th April 1921, named ‘Black Friday’. This caused anger within the mining community, and the miners continued with their strike in an attempt to force the mine owners into abolishing these new working conditions. However, they were soon forced to go back to work and accept the cuts. This event proved to the miners that, if they wanted their strikes to be successful in the future, they would need the support of the other trade unions, as happened in the General Strike five years later. Also, the other unions felt guilty at having deserted the miners on ‘Black Friday’, and had a feeling that this must not be repeated next time another union was in need of support.

Join now!

Between 1921 and 1925, the situation became worse for the miners, as many areas of British industry went through a slump. These industries’ export markets were disappearing and employers, including the mine owners, were trying to cut costs further, which again angered miners and the NUM. The miners were not the only employees forced to take pay cuts during this period though; dockers, rail workers, builders and many others were forced to accept lower wages. This made more unions and workers unhappy and uneasy about their situation, making them more likely to want to strike. As a result, the unions ...

This is a preview of the whole essay