At the beginning of World War One the Trade unions were threatening major strikes. They were putting a lot of pressure on the Liberal government requesting that much more should be done for the workers. They were asking for higher wages and better working conditions. During the war they agreed not to strike in return for the government’s agreement to give the workers higher wages and improve their working conditions.
Although WW1 contributed to the changes within the Labour party and Trade unions, it is also true these changes began to occur before the war. In the years leading up to the war the living conditions of the working conditions were extremely poor while the rich were living in luxury. “Some union leader called for all the unions to join together in a massive strike. This would bring both industry and the government to their knees and the unions could then take over the running of the country”. Quoted from The rise of socialism home front research booklet. Strikes broke out in 1910.
In 1911 one million workers went of strike, According to a photograph (see below) taken in 1912 when London was running out of food due to a transport strike.
In 1930 the railway men, the transport workers and the miners teamed up in an attempt to organize a general strike of all the workers,
As the extract from the rise of socialism home front research booklet states, “the government would have been defeated by these powerful unions if the war had not broken out”.
As for The Labour party, they began to adopt socialists ideas in 1901, long before the Great War started.
To understand how the war affected the role of women it is important to know what role they played in the society before the Great War. Women were expected to raise children and take care of their husbands and home. They were not allowed to vote in elections very few women worked out side the home, were paid less than men and generally were not equal with men. A group of women who were trying to achieve equality with men were called The Suffragettes. During the war men left their jobs to fight and many jobs in transport and industry became free. The country needed transport and industry to run and so the government decided to employ women to do these jobs. Women soon proved they were as capable as men. Source A (see below) in the home front research booklet shows women working in a munitions factory in 1917.
Some women in particular from the upper/middle class worked as nurses as source B, a recruitment poster for nurse, shows.
After the war, munitions factories closed down and many women lost their jobs. Women were expected to return the jobs back to the men when they came back from fighting. However many women got the taste for working and higher responsibility and liked it. They wanted to keep their jobs. This was a difficult situation as unemployment was high and men wanted their jobs back. Two years after the war there were fewer women working than before the war.
This could be interpreted by some as the war did not change the role of women in the society. It is also possible to say the role of women did not change as the suffragettes were already active before the war. However the women have pressed the government to give them the right to vote. Source C, from the home front research booklet shows how women were campaigning for there right to vote
The new women role made them more confident. They changed their way of dressing and behaving. They cut hair short, smoked cigarettes and drank cocktails. Source F from the home front research booklet shows the new style of dressing called the flapper style.
In December 1917, a bill was passed giving the vote to all women over 30 and to women 21 or over who were either homeowners or married to homeowners. Although this was very restrictive it was a big step closer to equality.
During WW1 the role of government changed. The government before the war had a Laissez faire attitude to running the country. This meant that it would let the economy and industry run its self and not interfere unless needed. This could no longer be the government’s view as the country needed to run effectively in order to protect its people and win the war. To do this the government introduced new laws, such as The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) in 1914. Under DORA the people of Britain were not allowed to:
- Fly a kite
- Give bread to dogs, chickens or horses
- Talk about military affairs in public places
The government of Britain could:
- Try any civilian for braking these laws
- Take any land it needed
Source E from The Home Front by Peter Caddick-Adams gives evidence for how DORA gave the government power to control its land and people
When the war broke out people panicked and bought a lot of food which they keep at their homes which caused a food shortage problem. The government tried through DORA to reduce consumption of food.
Source C tells how the country’s food intake had lessened. “Consumption of sugar fell between 1914 to 1918 from 1.49lb to 0.93lb.” This example shows that government’s intervention was successful in this case.
The poster in source D gives an example of how the government used propaganda to reduce the amount of coal burnt. (See poster below)
The poster was a simple method of propaganda used to tell the people of the consequences of their action. Before the war posters of this kind were not used by the government but since then they have been used and continue to affect England ever since.
There is evidence that the government began to change even before the Great War. Between 1900 and 1914 the government became more active. The liberal party introduced new social policies to help ordinary people. Source 1 gives an example of social reforms such as:
- From 1903-1913 more money was spent on children’s education
- In1906 Workmen’s Compensations Act was introduced, protecting workers who were injured at work or caught a disease at work, giving them a right to compensation.
- In 1908 Old Age Pensions was introduced for people over seventy
- In 1911 National Insurance Act was gave workers sickness benefit and free medical care.
Before the war the Laissez Fair attitude of the Liberal party caused a huge class system in Great Britain. There was very little government interference. Women had no votes, with a position of a second class citizen. When the war began some changes were already happening but the war acted as a catalyst and sped up those changes or any about to happen. The government had to intervene by introducing DORA to help the country function more efficiently.
Every body was helping the country win the war. All this resulted in long term social changes some of which are still with us today.
