As a foretaste of the violence that was to come, 50 miners were arrested during a fierce strike in the anthracite belt of West Wales. While the government was taking serious measures, the trade union leaders were lulling the movement to sleep, and placing their hopes in the Royal Commission headed by Sir Herbert Samuel. The TUC had established, it is true, an Industrial Committee made up of five right-wingers and three lefts, but they did nothing in the way of making real preparations. For them, the best way to avoid a conflict was not to prepare for it!

The Samuel Commission reported on 10 March 1926. The Report was framed in such a way as to cause the maximum division and confusion on the eve of battle: recommending a reorganisation of the industry through wage reductions and longer hours. The miners’ leader Hartshorn declared the Report “impossible”, while Ramsay MacDonald described the Report as a “landmark”. The Industrial Committee, eager to avoid confrontation, urged using the Report as a basis for negotiations between both sides. The Miners’ Federation conference however stuck to its demands: “Not a penny off the pay, not a second on the day!” The miners were in no mood to capitulate or compromise and were determined to take action on their own if necessary. On 20 March, a further national conference of the National Minority Movement was held to discuss the impending conflict and render whole-hearted assistance to the miners. The attendance was massive, and reflected the groundswell of support for the miners, with 883 union delegates representing almost one million organised workers – or nearly a quarter of total trade union membership.

After a series of negotiations between TUC representatives and the government, positions became deadlocked. Incredibly, the General Council called a meeting for the first time on 27 April, three days before the end of the nine-month subsidy, to decide plans in the event of a breakdown in negotiations! Ernest Bevin only admitted this astonishing fact at the inquest of the General Strike in January 1927, some eight months after the event:

With regard to preparations for the strike there were no preparations until 27 April and I do not want anyone to go away from this conference under the impression that the General Council had any particular plan to run this movement. In fact, the General Council did not sit down to draft the plans until they were called together on 27 April …

At the end of April, the executives of the trade unions were called to London’s Memorial Hall to hear the General Council’s report. The General Council had chosen a “negotiating committee” of three right-wingers – Thomas, Citrine and Pugh – to conduct negotiations with the government, which would refer back to the full Council. After discussion, the three from the union side decided to accept the Samuel report as a basis for agreement, but the miners refused to countenance the idea and the government refused to budge. After hearing the report, the conference of trade union executives voted “to place their powers in the hands of the General Council”, and to conduct a general stoppage, by 3,653,527 votes to 49,911. The General Council had simply stumbled by accident into a General Strike that the majority did not want nor believe in.

The General Council was given the sole authority for running the proposed strike, including the terms of its termination. The Miners’ Federation would be consulted, but the General Council would decide. In the opening shot of the battle, Bevin announced that those unions deemed in the “first line” of the General Strike, would cease work from midnight on Monday 3 May.

“We look upon your ‘yes’ as meaning that you have placed your all upon the altar of this great Movement, and having placed it there, even if every penny goes, if every asset goes, history will ultimately write up that it was a magnificent generation that was prepared to do it rather than see the miners driven down like slaves.” Bevin’s oration ended: “I rely, in the name of the General Council, on every man and every woman in that grade to fight for the soul of Labour and the salvation of the miners.”

The TUC leaders, fearful of the mandate placed in their hands, reluctantly picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the Baldwin government. “It [the movement] was the first of its kind in this country: there had been no preparation for it at all: it was an improvised organisation”, stated Bevin later. Despite all the bold speeches, TUC leaders were entering into the struggle blindfolded and with one hand tied behind their back. If it had been left up to them, the fight would have ended before it had started. It was the magnificent response from below that stunned the government, and above all, shocked the leaders of the TUC.