a striking summer
What with rail workers, teachers, lecturers and public sector workers all threatening industrial action it appears we’re set for a summer of disruption and hassle. I know I’m in a minority here but I do support strikes. The ability of the working man to remove his labour is sacra scent in our culture and should be supported at all costs. It never ceases to amaze me when the public-at-large throws up its collective hands in horror and demands a curtailing of these hard-fought and long-held rights as it…impacts their ability to get away for two weeks in the sun, makes them an hour late for work or forces them to shop on a Saturday as opposed to the Friday.
At the risk of painting myself as some sort of misguided colourful Derek Hatton-esque or Red Ken character do these people not realise that it was only through the power of collective labour that they have four or five weeks holiday in the first place, that they have well paid work to go to and enough money in their pockets to choose between Tesco and Lidl? As a timely reminder, here are some of the historic events that have helped shape our industrial landscape:
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of 19th century agricultural workers who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The rules of the society show it was clearly structured as a friendly society and operated as a trade-specific benefit entity. In 1824/5 the Combination Acts, which made ‘combining’ or organising in order to gain better working conditions illegal, had been repealed, so trade unions were no longer illegal and friendly societies had strong elements of what are now considered to be the predominant role of trade unions.
The Tolpuddle friendly society sought to peacefully protest against the gradual lowering of agricultural wages caused by the surplus supply of labour in an era when mechanisation was beginning to have an impact on agricultural working practices for the first time. This was a particular problem in remote parts of southern England, such as Dorset, where farmers did not have to compete with the higher wages paid to workers in London and in the northern towns experiencing the burgeoning industrial revolution. They refused to work for less than 10 shillings a week, although by the time of protest wages had been reduced to seven shillings a week and were due to be further reduced to six shillings.
In 1834 James Frampton, a local landowner, wrote to the then prime minister, fellow landowner Lord Melbourne, to complain about the union, invoking an obscure law from 1797 prohibiting people from swearing oaths to each other, which the members of the Friendly Society had openly done. Subsequently, the six friends were arrested, found guilty, and transported to Australia.
The campaign for women’s suffrage gained momentum throughout the early part of the nineteenth century as women became increasingly politically active and sought equal rights and voting rights. John Mills MP elected in 1865 and an open advocate of female suffrage campaigned for an amendment to the Reform Act to include female suffrage but was roundly defeated in an all male parliament under a Conservative government. This was to set the tone for decades to come.
During the later half of the 19th century, a number of campaign groups were formed in an attempt to lobby MPs and gain support, but universally failed to inspire the public at large. In 1903, a number of politically active individuals led by Emmeline Pankhurst, formed the Women’s Social and Political Union and decided it would use other methods to create publicity.
This began in 1905 at a meeting where Sir Edward Grey, a member of the newly elected Liberal government, was speaking. As he was talking, members of the WSPU constantly shouted out, ‘Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?’ When they refused to cease calling out, police were called to evict them and the two suffragettes were involved in a struggle which ended with them being arrested and charged for assault. When they refused to pay their fine, they were sent to prison. The British public were shocked and took notice at this use of violence to win the vote for women.
After this media success, the WSPU’s tactics became increasingly violent. This included an attempt in 1908 to storm the House of Commons, the arson of David Lloyd George’s country home (despite his support for women’s suffrage!). In 1913, Emily Davison, a suffragette, protested by interfering with a horse owned by King George V during the running of the Epsom Derby; she was trampled and died four days later. Following their support during the war years the 1918 Qualification of Women Act enfranchised women with the vote…provided they were over the age of 30 and they were householders, married to a householder or they held a university degree! Not until 1928 were women granted the right to vote on the same terms as men.
The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 70,000 that had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the lack of suffrage in northern England (at this time voting was restricted to the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more!), had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt.
Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called on the military authorities to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him, and to disperse the crowd. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and almost 700 were injured. The slaughter was given the name Peterloo in ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier. In time, the London and national papers shared the horror felt in the Manchester region, but Peterloo’s immediate effect was to cause the government to crack down on reform, with the passing of what became known as the Six Acts. One good piece of news however is that it led directly to the foundation of The Manchester Guardian (now, The Guardian) but in reality, had little other effect on the pace of reform.
