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The General Strike of 1926: the tragic story of how the world's best organized working class confronted the world's most powerful, and self-confident, government.
In May, 1926, nearly three million British workers downed tools to support nearly one million of their countrymen, miners whose employers meant to lengthen their working day and cut their pay. This General Strike brought the country to a grinding halt - which, according to Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, represented a threat not merely to the nation but to the parliamentary system itself. For nine days, the world's best organized working class confronted the world's most powerful, and self-confident, government. And yet the outcome was never in doubt, for Britain's most important trade-union leaders thought as Baldwin did, although they kept saying they were engaged in a wages dispute only. Really, they feared winning even more than they feared losing.
In Nine Days in May, award-winning author and historian Jonathan Schneer mines hitherto untapped archival sources to explain why and how the Strike came about, why and how it was waged and countered, why and how it ended. In addition to government reports and TUC reports, he uses reports of undercover agents and spies, "special" constables sworn in for the duration of the Strike, volunteer strike-breakers, Communist agitators, trade-union leaders and rank-and-file members of trade unions; also, of course, the papers of politicians of all parties.
This is a tale of Shakespearian dimensions, replete with tragic heroes and villains and buffoons and opportunists and double-dealers, and contending, evenly matched, forces - both of which meant to do their duty whatever the cost. There may never be another general strike in Britain, but the General Strike of 1926 was one for the ages, illuminating the human condition.
Contents
Part One: Context
1: Miners
2: Owners
3: Unions
Part Two: Confrontation
4: Fridays: Red and Black
5: Hiatus
6: Crisis
Part Three: Conflict
7: Crescendo
8: Climax
9: Coup de Grace
Part Four: Conflagration
10: Specter
11: Volunteers
12: Spies, Snitches and "Specials"
13: The Communist Party (I)
14: The Communist Party (II)
15: Eccleston Square
16: Police and Military
17: A Day in the Strike
Part Five: Contrails
18: Ending It (I)
19: Ending It (II)
20: The Burghers of Calais
21: Conclusion: Reflections, Deductions, Speculations
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
