The General Strike, 1926

The Conservative Government became justifiably concerned by the fact that the Labor unions were beginning to acquire control of who was able to work and hence had the power to virtually construct a rival Government in opposition to the Conservatives. With such a large following the potential new Government could have brought about revolutionary changes in the Government at the time and hence the Conservatives were threatened. As a result Baldwin believed that a national strike was an unconstitutional attempt to undermine parliamentary democracy and, in response, he broke off negotiations with the Labor unions.

The so-called attack on the community that Sir John Simon alluded to (Ln 5) and the fact that the miners had been deprived of sympathy (Ln 6) were respective to the fact that by joining the miners in their plight, various other labor intensive essential industries such as transport and electricity were also depriving the greater community of the essentials to maintaining an acceptable standard of living.

The communities were forced to suffer great hardships with many families becoming dependent on public soup kitchens. There was violence between those on strike and those who had returned to work, and during the last few weeks of the strike, between the miners and the police.

In many ways it would appear that the General strike caused many within the community to despise the miners, as they had been the instigators to the hardships that were forced upon them. Finally on November 19 the Strike came to an end in Wales when the workers had a choice between striking and starving. By this time the miners had to accept the terms and conditions of the owners and these were much less favorable than those offered the previous May.