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It is often said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. On the 100-year anniversary of the General Strike, Britain’s trade union leaders have chosen to ignore, gloss over, and consciously hide the clearly revolutionary character of this momentous class battle.
A century after Britain saw a general strike of revolutionary proportions, the stereotype persists that British workers are averse to radical class struggle. In this episode of the RCI’s Spectre of Communism podcast, RCP General Secretary Ben Gliniecki sets the record straight.
To conclude our series on the centenary of the 1926 General Strike, we publish an excerpt from Ben Gliniecki’s book ‘A Communist History of the British General Strike’, which outlines the lessons of this monumental struggle for revolutionaries and class fighters today.
On 4 May 1926, London was paralysed. For nine days, two million workers had brought the capital to a standstill, and shown how London might be organised differently. The TUC’s decision to end the strike was met with righteous fury.
Today marks 78 years since the Nakba, the brutal terror campaign waged by Zionist forces against Palestinians to found the state of Israel. British imperialism – having subjected the region to decades of domination, plunder, and division – was central to this catastrophe.
In Scotland, as across Britain, workers showed extraordinary discipline, solidarity, and initiative. They proved that without them nothing moves. More than that, they showed in outline how workers could begin organising society themselves.
When the General Strike began on 4 May 1926, the coalfield communities of South Wales answered the call with militancy. Throughout the struggle, these militant workers saw and experienced their power in action. Includes a 1976 article by Rob Sewell.
The TUC had publicly promised that it had called off the strike to allow for an “honourable peace”. In reality, this defeat heralded a brutal counter-offensive by the bosses. The legacy of this defeat weighed on the labour movement for decades.
Terrified by the growing strike, the TUC general council decided that the only way to calm things was an unconditional surrender. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they went to Downing Street hat-in-hand, prepared for any humiliation to keep the situation from running out of their control.
Dark clouds began to gather on 11 May, as the strike entered its eighth day. At noon a government spokesman stated that “without being unduly optimistic, the tide has turned.” They knew that, with the connivance of the TUC leaders, the strike would soon be over.
Only now, on the seventh day of the General Strike, did the TUC leadership bring out its “second line” of workers, who came out enthusiastically. For the TUC leadership, the movement was threatening to move far beyond their control.
Determination remained high among the workers on day six of the General Strike. The same could not be said for their weakening leadership. The TUC was now actively working with the government to call off the strike, but the miners were refusing to accept defeat.