How the General Strike Changed Britain
The General Strike of May 1926 was quickly defeated, but it would rupture and recast the landscape of British politics. For some, the strikers’ failure was an opportunity.
For nine days in 1926 the United Kingdom was gripped by the first and only general strike in its history. Between 4-12 May more than two million workers downed tools in sympathy with members of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain (MFGB), who were threatened with reduced wages and longer hours, as the general council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) faced off against Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government. The result, despite an overwhelming show of solidarity from the workers themselves, was total collapse. The strike was called off unconditionally, without any serious attempt by the TUC to gain concessions, or even guarantees against the victimisation of strikers by employers. The miners continued their own strike for another seven months, but they too were eventually defeated. Mining wages were reduced to the level of 1914, and in Scotland to that of 1888. In 1927 the Conservatives passed the Trade Union Act, outlawing sympathy strikes. By 1928 TUC membership had fallen by almost half a million.
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