Centenary of the 1926 General Strike: Putting the Question of Political Power On the Agenda

Centenary of the 1926 General Strike: Putting the Question of Political Power
On the Agenda
Volume 56 Number 10, April 4,
2026
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Centenary of the 1926
General Strike
Putting
the Question of Political Power On the Agenda
Photo: www.tuc.org.uk
The 1926 General Strike stands as one of the most significant episodes in
the history of the British working class movement. Lasting nine days in May
1926, it involved around 1.5-2 million workers and was called by the Trades
Union Congress (TUC) in support of coal miners resisting wage cuts and longer
working hours.
The immediate origins of the strike lay in the crisis of the British coal
industry after the First World War. During the war, coal mines had been placed
under state control, but in 1921 they were returned to private ownership. In
the following years, the industry faced falling prices, shrinking export
markets and increased international competition. Mine owners attempted to
restore their private claims through reducing wages and extending the working
day. Miners, whose wages had already declined sharply since the end of the war,
resisted these measures. Their union adopted the slogan "Not a penny off
the pay, not a minute on the day," reflecting widespread opposition to
further deterioration in living conditions.
With coal central to the British economy, supplying energy for transport,
industry and domestic use, a conflict in the coalfields had the potential to
spread across the wider economy. By the 1920s Britain had a large and organised
workers' movement. Between 1910 and 1914, a period often described as the
"Great Unrest", major strikes took place across mining, transport,
and manufacturing sectors. Trade unions had gained millions of members, and
this period of struggle had demonstrated workers' capacity for coordinated
action.
In 1925, faced with renewed conflict in the coal industry, the government
intervened to prevent an immediate general strike. It introduced subsidies to
maintain miners' wages and established a commission to investigate the
industry. This temporary retreat, known as "Red Friday", was widely
seen as a victory for the workers. However, the delay also allowed the
government to prepare for a future confrontation. Emergency plans were
developed, supplies were stockpiled, and arrangements were made to maintain
essential services in the event of a strike.
When the commission later recommended wage reductions, negotiations broke
down. Mine owners moved to impose new terms, and when miners refused, they were
locked out in May 1926. The TUC responded by calling a general strike, which
began on May 3. Workers in key sectors such as transport, railways, printing,
and heavy industry joined. The strike disrupted the functioning of the economy
and brought large parts of industry to a halt.
The government declared a state of emergency under the Emergency Powers Act
1920, instituting open rule by police powers. Volunteers were recruited to
operate transport and maintain supply networks, while police and troops were
deployed to protect infrastructure. The government also issued its own
propaganda newspaper,
The British Gazette
. It had already pre-emptively
arrested leading members of the recently-formed Communist Party in October
1925.
Tyldesley miners outside the Miners Hall during the 1926
strike
After nine days, on May 12, 1926, the TUC called off the strike without
securing guarantees for the miners. The miners continued their struggle alone
for several months but were eventually forced back to work under worse
conditions. The General Strike ended without achieving its immediate aims. The
miners' defeat and subsequent legislation restricting trade union activity was,
in itself, a setback for the working class movement.
The General Strike broke out in a period when revolution was very much in
flow, in the aftermath of the First World War when the shockwaves of the
Socialist Revolution in Russia were still being felt. Although capitalism had
matured into its monopoly, imperialist stage - a consequence of which had been
the War itself - this was still a recent development. Following the Russian
Revolution, the period from 1917 to the early 1920s had seen a wave of
uprisings in Germany, Hungary and Italy. Britain itself experienced significant
working class unrest during this period, with major strikes and political
agitation. The Communist Party of Great Britain had been formed in August 1920,
though its influence was still limited. At that time, any large-scale
industrial conflict had to be viewed as part of this broader struggle between
labour and capital.
The significance of the General Strike at that time was that it put the
question of political power on the agenda for the working class for the first
time in Britain. The government treated the strike as a challenge to its
authority, mobilising emergency powers and framing the conflict as a defence of
constitutional order. At the same time, the strike demonstrated the capacity of
organised labour to disrupt economic life on a national scale. In this sense,
the strike opened up the question of who ultimately controls the organisation
of society, a question that remains unresolved to this day. The nine days of
action gave workers a direct experience of their collective power.
The conditions of the present day are very different from those of the
General Strike a century ago. Imperialism has long-since overripened and now,
in the age of oligarchy, is in all-sided perpetual crisis and decay. The ruling
elites no longer follow with any coherence the political theory they
established out of, for example, the English Civil War. The big political
parties have degenerated into factions of a cartel system that bars people from
power. The liberal democratic institutions to which capitalist development gave
rise, of civil and political society, lie in tatters, as the state is
reorganised directly around the most powerful, yet narrow, private interests.
Nowadays, rule is increasingly openly of police powers as a matter of course.
Unions in particular face a serious struggle to remain effective as
self-defence organisations of the class at a time when civil society lies in
ruins. There is a complete absence of a social contract between workers and
employers, exemplified by imposition by employers as the modus operandi.
Resistance to "fire and rehire", for example, has exposed the
imbalance in employer-worker relations, with employers imposing decisions
without consultation. The historical alliance between unions, business and the
state is a long-distant memory, leading to a unilateral imposition of power by
those in control.
A new consciousness is emerging among working people, emphasising the need
for a society that recognises and affirms human rights. The workers' movement
is gaining momentum, as they declare "Enough is Enough!" and advocate
for control over their lives and rights. Increasing resistance from workers
reveals in practice that they can provide solutions aligned with the general
interests of society. Workers need a decisive role in decision-making processes
affecting society and the economy, emphasising that true political opposition
emerges from the working class when organised in and of itself, with its own
independent programme.
Engaging in the battle of democracy, the working class and people seek to
establish new forms in which the working people themselves constitute the
authority and decide matters directly. In this sense, the core issue raised by
the General Strike remains, and is in fact sharper than ever before: the issue
of political power.
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