History- The General Strike 1926

Question 1

The General strike was one of the biggest showdowns between the people and the government in 20th century Britain.

Answer 1

The Samuel commission said mine owners should reorganise their businesses and introduce modern machinery. That way the mines would be more efficient and profitable. There will be no need to cut wages and hours. This suited the miners but not the mine owners. The commission also said the subsidy should stop. Miners will have to take a temporary pay cut until the owners had reorganised their mines. The miners weren’t pleased with this.

Question 2

The General Strike began when the subsidy ended

Answer 2

Neither side accepted the Samuel report. The mine owners said they would cut wages on 30 April. The miners said they would strike on 1 May. The owners locked out the workers on 30 April – starting a strike.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) felt that if the miners wages were reduced, then those of other workers were to follow. They threatened to strike all key workers – in a general strike – starting on 3 May.
Negotiations between the TUC and the government began 2 May.
The Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, pulled out of the negotiations.

Question 3

Thousands of workers joined in with the strike. There were workers from mining, transport, the railways, construction, shipbuilding, printing, electricity and the steel industry.

Answer 3

the printer’s strike closed down ordinary newspapers, but the TUC and the government introduced their own. The government paper was called “the British Gazette”, edited by Winston Churchill. It described the strike as violent, disorganised and an attack on the British constitution. The TUC’s paper, “the British worker”, emphasised the solidarity of the strike, and said that the strike was an industrial issue, not an attack on the government. It also attached Churchill.
100,000 people volunteered for the organisation for the maintenance of supplies. They were mainly students and middle-class men. They kept the buses, trains and London underground moving.
Food supplies were transported and armoured convoys escorted by special constables. In London, Hyde Park was used as a centre for distributing milk. There were no shortages because of the strike.
Although the government expected violence, it wasn't that bad. Some buses were attacked in London, and there was minor crowd trouble in Nottingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Question 4

The government refused to negotiate, but offered a peace plan drawn up by Sir Herbert Samuel. The TUC called off the strike on 12 May, and everyone except the miners gave up. The Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, said the end of the strike was “a victory for common sense”.

Answer 4

The General Strike lasted just 9 days.

The miners stayed on strike for 6 months but eventually gave in and had to accept longer hours and lower wages.