The General Strike of 1926 was a show of unity never experienced in the history of the British working class. Close on four million organised workers took action, out of a total membership of five-and-a-half million trade unionists. And not all members were asked to strike, but kept in a second and third-line “reserve”. It was an incredible display of class solidarity in the face of the attacks of the government and capitalist class.
Despite the crowing of the ruling class, the General Strike was an experience that transformed the outlook of many worker activists. The General Strike showed the enormous potential of the working class: its innate capacity for solidarity, initiative, creativity and self-sacrifice. In the caption of a national Labour Party women’s organ, Labour Women (June 1926), were displayed the defiant words:
“There SHALL be a Next Time!” And the editorial stated: “the most important thing is that the people themselves now know and feel their own power. Genuine class consciousness was born in the ten days of the strike and which followed its cessation… The General Strike has made a united working class.”
The lessons of the 1926 General Strike are some of the most important in the history of the British working class and need to be digested by the new generation of worker activists and youth. In the titanic class battles that lie ahead, the general strike will once again be on the order of the day. Those who have no confidence in the working class will scoff at such a thought. However, the development of a general strike is not determined by the subjective will of individuals, as 1926 proved, but is born out of the class contradictions and dynamics of society. There have been many general strikes in the history of post-war Europe – in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Above all, the marvellous general strike in May 1968 in France shows what can happen in the next period in Britain and other countries. Let us not forget that most people thought that a general strike was not possible in France – before it happened. But then, it is always the fate of sceptics to be wise after the event.
Let us leave the last word on the subject to one of the participants in the titanic events of 1926. At the TUC Special Conference in January 1927, a young miners’ delegate, Peter Chambers, while addressing Congress turned to the platform and said: “We will have another general strike without you, and we will win next time.”