In early 1923, a crisis-ridden Germany had defaulted on her reparation payments stipulated by the humiliating Versailles Treaty. As a result, France sent 60,000 troops to occupy the industrial area of the Ruhr and seize coal, steel and other important resources. With German coal production disrupted, this led to an unexpected reprieve, followed by a brief period of artificial prosperity in the British coal industry. But with the withdrawal of French troops the following year, the short-lived revival of British coal exports soon collapsed. Exports fell from 42 million tons in early 1924 to just 35 million in 1925. The coal owners, to protect their profit margins, demanded that all previous concessions be rescinded and that wage cuts, ranging from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, be immediately imposed across the board.

“Britain today stands at a point of crisis – perhaps more so than any other capitalist country”, wrote Leon Trotsky. “The conclusion which I reach in my study is that Britain is approaching, at full speed, an era of great revolutionary upheavals.” This “crisis point” was clearly evident in the coal industry, a decisive part of the economy, which epitomised the general crisis of British capitalism.

An editorial in The Times thundered that general sacrifices had to be made to restore the situation. Matters were made worse in early 1925 when the newly-appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill, announced that Britain would return to the Gold Standard at pre-war rates (to restore the “dignity of the pound”). The decision was taken in light of the fact that the value of the pound had fallen to 90 per cent of its pre-war value and the City of London was anxious to maintain London as the world’s financial centre. The problem was that even at the old 1924 rate, British business found it increasingly difficult to compete on the world market. The revaluation of sterling would render exports profoundly uncompetitive unless costs of production were slashed. So the return to the Gold Standard started a clamour to cut costs – and this meant wage cuts.

“On the grounds of social justice no case can be made out for reducing the wages of the miners”, wrote John Maynard Keynes. However, this attack on the miners was about something more important than “social justice” – namely the owners’ private profit. “They are the victims of the economic juggernaut,” continued our learned economist, as if it were some invisible hand at work. With the 12-month mining agreement coming to an end, the battle lines were drawn.

The post-war years had seen a shift to the left in the trade union movement. Reciprocal relations had been established between the British TUC and the Russian trade unions. Alfred Purcell, a left-winger from the furnishing trades, was elected president of the TUC, and was joined on the General Council by fellow lefts George Hicks from the Bricklayers’ Union and Alfonso Swales of the AEU. The departure of Frank Hodges as secretary of the Miners’ Federation to become a minister in MacDonald’s government resulted in AJ Cook, the miners’ agent for Central Rhondda, being nominated for the miners’ leadership. “Cook was a mountain torrent, a man governed almost wholly by emotion”, wrote his contemporary Francis Williams. “He was an agitator on the grand scale; the propagandist incarnate containing within himself all the passionate sense of injustice that had bitten deep into the hearts of miners for generations.” Cook had the backing of the newly established left-wing Miners’ Minority Movement. Although he had resigned from the Communist Party in 1921, he described himself as “a disciple of Karl Marx and a humble follower of Lenin,” and still gave support to the CP as he agreed “with nine-tenths of its policy.”

To great jubilation, Cook was elected Miners’ Federation secretary. Cook was an honest and sincere class fighter, and held in great esteem by the miners, but was deeply influenced by syndicalist ideas from his days in the Unofficial Reform Movement. Like many on the left, he believed that a British miners’ strike would lead, almost automatically, to the downfall of capitalism. Given the strategic position of coal in the British economy at the time, such a strike could have devastating consequences, and even act as a starting point for revolution in Britain – but only on one condition. That is, only if a bold far-sighted leadership was at the head of the working class, prepared to go to the very end, could such a movement succeed. The energy of the masses is colossally powerful, but like steam, can be easily dissipated. Directed through a piston-box, however, this steam can be concentrated to tremendous effect. The party acts in the same way as the piston-box, serving to galvanise and direct the energy of the working class towards its final aim: the socialist transformation of society. Without this prerequisite, even a general strike can become simply a protest with folded arms, which, in any event, cannot last indefinitely.

At this time, a number of initiatives were undertaken by the Communist Party to pursue a United Front policy, drawing on the support of other lefts for a common purpose. This policy was encapsulated in the adage: “march separately, and strike together”. The application of the United Front to the trade unions resulted in the creation of the National Minority Movement. This important initiative came after the British Communist Party leadership attended a conference on British affairs in Moscow in July 1923. From this meeting sprang the Industrial Committee of the Communist Party, which decided to draw together the existing rank-and-file movements, starting with the miners, into one unified “Minority” Movement. The aim of the “Minority” was to eventually become the “Majority”. The general ferment already taking place in the trade unions helped to guarantee the success of this initiative.

Prior to this time, no socialist group had undertaken systematic work in the trade unions with a view to winning them to a revolutionary policy. Some work had been done by the SLP and the BSP, but it was limited in scope, and was mainly conducted by small isolated groups of individuals. The CP was to take a qualitatively different approach. “Every factory, a fortress of the Revolution”, stated Lenin. Work in the trade unions and the factories was now seen as a priority in building up the party’s base amongst the industrial working class. Before the party could conquer majority support in the working class, it would first have to win over its advanced layers in the trade unions and Labour Party. In the words of Gallagher, the aim of the Minority Movement was “not to organise independent revolutionary trade unions, or to split revolutionary elements away from existing organisations affiliated to the TUC… but to convert the revolutionary minority within each industry into a revolutionary majority.”