Minister, Lloyd George, and his coali*on cabinet persuaded a delegation of •e Allance s leaders to call ort tne aike by making a few minor concessons mixed with some vague proROBSCS.
At the time the government was already negotiating with the miners, and so was stalling. In fact the ruling class had already decided that they would counter-attack the unions in the rail industry. They believed trade unionism was weaker in rail and that tney could count on tne nostnty oelween the NUR leaderships to divide the membership on a sectional basis.
Lloyd George had the miners bogged down with the Sankey Commission - an inquiry into the state of the industry. Then he went for the throats of the railworkers. In August the final manoeuvre was accomplished.
The principle of 'standardisation upward' of grading and gianica to the train September the final offer was made to the other grades: a massive pay-cut.
in ine last minute talks.
George, on public record for describing the railworkers as 'disgracefully paid', told the 'Whatever we lay down in regard 1o railwaymen, you may depend upon it, it is going to be claimed throughout the country and therefore we have to consider not merely your case but the cases of all other trades Kingdom' Even in the face of this blatant threat the NUR leaders offered to get the strike called off for a 'special case' deal for the lowest grades. this Was forthcoming struck at midnight on 26 September The train drivers deal failed to buy them off. In response to the mood of their members the ASLEF leadership telegraphed Unity House saying: 'If want help we are standing by' vOu ASLEF members struck taneously with their NUR brothers and sisters in joint defence of the rail unions and the entire British working class. For the first time ever, the joint executives of ASLEF and NUR met every day during the strike.
As soon as the battle was ioined the class lines were sharply drawn. Although Lloyd George denounced the action as an 'anarchist spiracy', the support was solid. Edinburgh reported: 'All men and women out'. Glasgow and the Scotland claimed: 'All out to a man'.
Exeter declared the 'complete'; Carlisle announced 'unprecedented stoppage' bridge was '100 per cent'; ingham and District were Gravesend reported only three men at work.
A see or to treads Three Wight read: blacklegs, remainder Southampton were on duty and the railworkers at Bedford telegrammed 'Jimmy. — go to bed for a week. All well here'.
Three of Derby's 130 trains ran on day one. Only two went from Victoria. Nothing at all moved on the South Eastern lines. Industry began to shut down almost immediately in the North West and in South Wales. An express which left Aberdeen at 18.35 on Friday 26 September reached Kings Cross at 18.25 on Monday 29 September.
In face of the 'conspiracy', ruling class rallied to its own. At Paddington the scroll of scabs included Lord Cholmondley as a porter; the Earl of Arlington who milked strandLord Herbert Vane-Tempest and Herbert Vane-Tempest Lord Drogheda who moved goods and collected tickets.
At Kings Cross, Drury Wake, Lord Grimthorpe and Sir Frederick Banbury found a new vocation in life. Lord Montague of Beaulieu and Lord Louis Mountbatten drove engines elsewhere on the network.
After the work in work in une rest or tnel aves barbed ASLEF Royal Fusiliers tions in Glasgow.
agreed to set was Day drivers. In as a strike-breaking weapon.
commandered Lloyd and more WelC negulators.
them into surrender...like in the finish'.
gratuitous', Not even The NUR 'public meant CHLS of conspirators simul- the whole nation'.
But for ches when played the scores weren't even recorded!
CULLThe government of west an Case'.
CamBirm- the governell solid.
out'. At At this over the hill Thomas: government had trade union capitalism. the NUR was newsree to doing so.
Line Fearing L000ON Dus, workers, Transport and Admiral Sir National Workers and unions.
strike the nonconformist British Journal urged that the opportunity be seized. The editor and appealed to the countrv to get hold of these dukes and earls who helped us with the railways and set them to some other ¡tallic! . But most of them never did another day's Winston Churchill, the Minister for War, mobilised the armed forces blacklegs.
Woking station was surrounded by wire entanglements and Lewis gun was mounted. Units of the and Cameron Highlanders were sent to Paddington, and naval ratings occupied the staThe Cabinet turned down Churchill's request to place machine gun nests at the entrances of tunnels. but up radio communications. The 1919 railway strike was the first ever in which the radio was used Twenty-five thousand lorries were for strike-breaking brought in France. Units of the feet transported goods along the coast. This was war!
The millionaires' press waded in with their usual 'objective' views. The Times called the strike 'an attack on the community, an attempt to starve the war with Germany it must be a fight to the The Morning Post claimed that 'never was a strike more wanton the declared that there was 'no shadow or semblance of an excuse for a strike'.
The Daily Mail agreed, saying that opinion'...(by which was editor) was 'dead against the strike'. The Daily Express carefully explained to the world that Britain was the victim of 'a little band who forced their duped followers into a strike against nine days the strikers stood solid. The only apparent divisions between rank and file drivers and the rest were at two football matthe Locomotive HICL Permanent Way. The Hundreds of strike bulletins and local trade union and socialist journals sprang up to explain the issues.
began to lose the propaganda war. On 3 October, when the Exchequer had already lost £10m the Daily Express did a volte-face and headlined: "The Railworkers have a In desperation on that same day announced that wages earned by railworkers the week preceding the strike would not be paid. Even in the Tory press there was an uproar. This new move only stiffened the resolve of the rank and file and further isolated the government.
point the cavalry came to save the coalition and the rescuers all cards! Ine trade union bureaucracy saved the day for Replying to charges that 'attacking the community', JH Thomas went on cinema that he had 'always held back strikes'. He was still The NUR leadership never once turned to the Triple Alliance and even turned down offers of sympathy action from other unions. The pressure from the ranks was enormous.
sympathy strikes tramway ana dock Ernest Bevin Workers Federation organised a conterence ot over seven. ty bureaucrats from the Labour Party, TUC Parliamentary Committee Amalgamated Society of Engineers. National Union of General Workers, the Kailwav Clerks Association.
Federation of Women other trade What was posed was a general strike in support of the railworkers to bring down the coalition government. Instead, after speeches by Bromley, the ASLEF secretary, the conference unanimously adopted a motion declaring it was 'a purely trade union fight for wages and conditions.
They then dispatched eleven top bureaucrals including Henderson, Harry Gosling, Bevin and JR Clynes to wait upon Lloyd George at Downing Street.
As the reply was unsatisfactory, a called for the following Tuesday 7 October to determine moral and sympathetic could be given to the Talworkers. Three davs betore the conference, the 11 'tops' who had visited the Prime Minister sent him a signed statement, warning that unless more reasonable attitude' adopted by the Cabinet, it would be impossible to avert a widespread, extension of the strike with all its consequences.
By then the ruling class was convinced that although the trade union bureaucracy was equally eager avert a general strike, the pressure mounting from below was rapidly getScabs maintaining tracks in the 1926 General Strike.
ting out of hand. The Cabinet and the Thomas bureaucrats met and reached a rapid general settlement.
and Lloyd George were cooking up a deal in one room at Number 10, the NUR met another. Believing a favourable settleArthur ment had been reached, left-wingers Ernest burst into singing the 'Red Flag' and 'The Internationale'. At which point Winston Churchill round the door and remarked: 'Harmony at last, gentlemen form of 'Strike settled, support' Railworkers did so not knowing the embattled terms.
clear that they had fought nine days to stand still. The wage cuts were driven back, but pay was to be 'stabilised for a tull year' was subject to future negotiations day carrot, probably to later strike. But the rest of the National Programme was shelved although victory had been within reach.
The trade realised that further advance needed a While the conference delegation along.
separately poked his head Thomas telegraphed his branches:
return to work'.
When they found out, it was . Standardisation was to be It's true the guaranteed eight hour • conccucu ongilaly only as a be withdrawn railway - was established by the 1919 union bureaucracy leaders.
Socialist Challenge general strike, inevitably posing the question of state power. Here was the question they had wished to avoid all March the NUR General Meeting had called for strike action by the Triple Alliance, and got a delegation to Downing St instead In July the conference of the Triple Alliance voted for political strike action against military intervention Russia, only for this to be diffused by a proposal to ballot the memberships. The ballot never occurred. And during the strike itself. the conterence organised by Bevin prevaricated The bureaucracy knew that they could not hold the line after 7 October when the national trade union conference was due. So they thrust a shabby deal on the railworkers with only two days to go.
In 1926, Thomas, Bevin, Clynes and the others who misled the 1919 strike Were untortunately given a second and greater opportunity to betray. They took it with both hands and the general strike of 1926, unbowed before the ruling class, went down to a defeat inflicted by its own 28 January 1982