FEATURE General Strike 1926
Rural mining communities were deeply affected by the General Strike
Mining communities across rural areas were central to the 1926 General Strike, the background to which was the national lockout, on May 1 of 1.2m miners who had refused to agree to coal owners’ demands for reductions in pay and conditions.
During World War I, with private enterprise unable to keep the fires of war burning, the government took control of several major industries, including coal, the primary energy source.
When the war ended, the government responded to calls to nationalise the coal industry by setting up a Royal Commission, that subsequently rejected the idea.
Mine owners immediately demanded cuts in pay and conditions. In return the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain appealed to the National Union of Railwaymen and the Transport Workers’ Federation to join them in a General Strike. When both bodies refused, the subsequent miners’ defeat became known as Black Friday.
With the USA and Germany heavily investing in their own coal industries, Britain’s coal exports continued falling. In 1925, coal owners again announced cuts in pay and conditions. The TUC responded by bringing together various groups of workers and on July 31, 1925 a strike of mine and transport workers was due to begin.
This action forced Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government to provide a subsidy to the mining owners to maintain miners’ wages. This victory for the labour movement was termed Red Friday.
At the same time, the government set up another Royal Commission, without trade union representation, to examine the coal industry.
They also established the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies. This was a secretive emergency services organisation, which compiled registers of people willing to help run certain industries, including the railways and buses to counter the strike action. The police, army and navy were given detailed contingency orders.
Meanwhile, the trade unions sat and waited. No plans were constructed about how to act if the commission overlooked the miners’ demands.
The Tories ended their coal subsidy and the Mining Association owners re-announced proposed cuts. The miners dug deep and refused to budge. 1.2m were then locked out.
On Saturday, May 1, 1926, the TUC established a negotiating committee to defend the miners and announced that a first wave of strike action by essential trades in iron and steel, transport and docks, road transport, electricity and gas would begin at midnight on Monday.
The government declared a state of emergency and 1.75m workers walked out on May 3 with a second line of workers due to be called out on Wednesday, May 12.
On May 11, a well-attended meeting organised by striking railway workers, strikers from other workplaces and Kent Mineworkers’ Association members was held in Whitstable.
Cheers – The Crewe public come out to cheer on the strikers 30 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2026
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