The Gloucester Strike Bulletin is a rare example of such a publication and gives a fascinating insight into the strike from the union side. The presses of the newly formed co-operative printers were made available to volunteers from the Typographical Association to produce a daily newspaper. Strikers and police at the General Strike football match Gloucestershire
A different sort of contest took place on the same day with a football match at Plymouth Home Park between strikers and the police – the strikers won 2-1. There were battles with police in Plymouth on Saturday 8th May when tram workers tried to stop a small number of blacklegs. The first item of business of the meeting held on 10th May was not the progress of the strike but a letter from the town clerk on the long-running issue of street traders. Workers marched through the town with banners “We Want Chinn” and they stayed out until the company gave way.Įxeter Trades Council continued business as usual during and after the strike. When the strike was called off, Newton Abbot railway workers refused to return to work until local trade union and Labour Party activist, Mr WG Chinn was re-instated. The Devon County Show was postponed but buses continued to run. Railways came to a halt and only truncated editions of local newspapers appeared. In Exeter some 3,500 workers answered the strike call.
A system of cyclist messengers carried information to all points of the city. A General Strike Committee was established by the Trades Council and special sub-committees were formed to deal with communications and publicity. Warships were moved into Avonmouth and City docks and sailors guarded the power station. Power station workers, builders, printers and engineers went on strike although the trams and local press managed to continue operations. Nine days later, just before the strike was called off, that number had doubled. On the first day of the strike 18,000 Bristol workers downed tools. The defeat left trade unions badly weakened. The TUC produced its own newspaper: The British Worker.ĭespite strong support for the stoppage, fearing trade union divisions, the TUC called off the strike after nine days leaving the miners to fight on alone for another seven months. Chancellor, Winston Churchill, took charge of the government’s propaganda including acting as a zealous editor of the British Gazette. He sought to portray the strike as a revolutionary act that aimed to bring down democracy and impose communist rule. The dispute had been brewing for some time and when it came it set trade unions against the Conservative Government led by Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. The strike ended in defeat and division but it was a week when working people came together in strength and solidarity.
Please join us in April and May for these fascinating and engaging conversations about organized labor and the fight for dignity, respect, and self-sufficiency in the Tenderloin and beyond.In May 1926 workers across Britain stopped work in support of the miners who faced cuts in pay and longer hours. The neighborhood's small, affordable apartments have drawn blue collar workers for generations - from bartenders and waitresses, to sex workers and union organizers. The Tenderloin has long been a home for the working class. The Tenderloin Museum and Democratic Socialists of America - San Francisco (DSA-SF) are proud to contribute to the oral history of the US labor movement with an exciting new program focused on the past, present, and future of working people. This event is part of a larger month-long project dedicated to the History of the US Labor Movement. $5-$10 suggested donation no one turned away for lack of funds The general strike of 1934 brought the city of San Francisco to a boiling point of class struggle, and would have a pivotal impact in the growth of a militant labor movement across America during the 1930s and 40s. When unions called for a general strike, the mayor declared a state of emergency and police raided the homes and meeting places of suspected "radicals," "subversives," and "communists," arresting 300 in one day. On July 5, or "Bloody Thursday," police fired into a crowd of picketing workers, killing 3 and injuring 115. In 1934, a strike started by longeshoremen up and down the West Coast escalated into a general strike involving 150,000 workers, shutting down the city of San Francisco for four days. The event on May 23rd is an educational presentation about San Francisco’s 1934 General Strike, the single most important event in California labor history.
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