General Strike 1926 - Centenary

[JamesWales]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Anyone interested in the General Strike centenary?

Yeah it's really important to remember these very significant events in our social history and look at how unjust so much was in the country back then.

I'm guessing you may have been, but the People's History Museum in Manchester is worth a visit. (The national football museum, less so)

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Yeah it's really important to remember these very significant events in our social history and look at how unjust so much was in the country back then.

I'm guessing you may have been, but the People's History Museum in Manchester is worth a visit. (The national football museum, less so)

And you are going to ensure workers rights and union representation goes back to the dark ages by voting reform .....who will crucify decent working conditions

What an idiot you are 😃

[JamesWales]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

And you are going to ensure workers rights and union representation goes back to the dark ages by voting reform .....who will crucify decent working conditions

What an idiot you are 😃

Yes but that's not going to happen Sludge, and working class folk and culture has been greatlu damaged by the variety of parties we've had in power in recent years, so calm your little pants and get some sleep before your big day!

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Yes but that's not going to happen Sludge, and working class folk and culture has been greatlu damaged by the variety of parties we've had in power in recent years, so calm your little pants and get some sleep before your big day!

Well thats a quick change of tact from your original reply

But both were bollocks

A thread on the general strike and farages pr man on here is waxing lyrically about those poor workers during the depression ......who would be treated again like dirt by the party you are voting for

Good grief you are stupid beyond belief recently !

[JamesWales]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Well thats a quick change of tact from your original reply

But both were bollocks

A thread on the general strike and farages pr man on here is waxing lyrically about those poor workers during the depression ......who would be treated again like dirt by the party you are voting for

Good grief you are stupid beyond belief recently !

Bore off

[Feedback]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Anyone interested in the General Strike centenary?

Not really. None of us were there to be able to form an opinion or pass comment (but that won't stop some) and any individual interpretation will be based on their political ideology rather than events as they happened.

[jon1959]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Not really. None of us were there to be able to form an opinion or pass comment (but that won't stop some) and any individual interpretation will be based on their political ideology rather than events as they happened.

Well, that’s told history where to go!

No ‘lest we forget’ nonsense from you?

No angst about not repeating the mistakes of the past?

No curiosity about the lessons or the parallels?

Fair enough - your choice. Carry On Accounting!

[Feedback]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Well, that’s told history where to go!

No ‘lest we forget’ nonsense from you?

No angst about not repeating the mistakes of the past?

No curiosity about the lessons or the parallels?

Fair enough - your choice. Carry On Accounting!

Pavlov's dogs.

If I thought this was about critical appraisal of what lead to the events of the general strike in 1926, and whether the TUC or Baldwin Government's approach was (contemporaneously) correct, I'd take this post at face value and possibly comment. But its not, and its pointless you pretending otherwise.

[Gofer Blue]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Anyone interested in the General Strike centenary?

I have waited to respond to this thread until the usual suspects have finished their childish spats. In reply to Jon’s question “is anyone interested in the centenary of the 1926 General Strike”, yes I am, at least in the sense that I recall the stories my late father told me about his memories of that time. He was born in 1913 so was 13 years old in 1926.
His father and two of his oldest brothers were miners, so the strike had a profound effect on their lives. He recalled that when growing up most of the family conversations revolved around politics and religion. His was a staunchly Methodist church family and his father has pastoral responsibility for like-minded miners. Their church minister had compassion for those who were caught up in the strike and used his influence amongst other ministers/congregations in relatively wealthy London who subsequently regularly sent parcels from there, I guess akin to today’s foodbanks, but also included clothes and especially shoes for the children.

There was great disappointment amongst the miners that the support from other trade unionists ended after a mere 9 days and they struggled on for several months before effectively being starved back into work under worse employment conditions than before the strike. Obviously I was not around at the time to talk to my grandfather about how he really felt, something with which hindsight I would have liked to have done.

Sadly, and somewhat ironically, he was killed in a mining accident (roof fall) just 7 years later. He had already lost a brother in a mining accident – the true cost of coal as they say.

I can’t find any references on the Internet to any exhibitions or public meetings in the Valleys to commemorate the event. Maybe Jon could enlighten us?

[jon1959]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Thanks for that, Gofer. I didn't have any close family involved in the strike, but in the 1970s I did talk to people who were children at the time and still had vivid memories - but they were from Yorkshire, not South Wales.

I have seen a lot of commemoration events advertised online - mainly from individual trade unions and from socialist organisations - but I expect most of them are done now. The TUC put out a calendar of events (mostly London or Manchester) and I think most large Trades Councils also had events (Sheffield did):

https://www.tuc.org.uk/remembering-1926-general-strike-100-years/events-marking-1926-general-strike

Llafur (Welsh People's History Society) has run some events in South Wales.

The Cynon Valley Museum is (or was) exhibiting items from the archives about the General Strike.

There is a drop in event at Big Pit on 26 and 27 May (11.00 - 3.00) but that seems more focused on families and kids dressing up as miners and tip girls, and making badges to mark the centenary.

https://museum.wales/bigpit/whatson/12611/Pit-Portraits-The-1926-General-Strike---Remembering-100-Years/

There may be more - but most events would have been a few weeks ago.

[Gofer Blue]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

Thanks for that, Gofer. I didn't have any close family involved in the strike, but in the 1970s I did talk to people who were children at the time and still had vivid memories - but they were from Yorkshire, not South Wales.

I have seen a lot of commemoration events advertised online - mainly from individual trade unions and from socialist organisations - but I expect most of them are done now. The TUC put out a calendar of events (mostly London or Manchester) and I think most large Trades Councils also had events (Sheffield did):

https://www.tuc.org.uk/remembering-1926-general-strike-100-years/events-marking-1926-general-strike

Llafur (Welsh People's History Society) has run some events in South Wales.

The Cynon Valley Museum is (or was) exhibiting items from the archives about the General Strike.

There is a drop in event at Big Pit on 26 and 27 May (11.00 - 3.00) but that seems more focused on families and kids dressing up as miners and tip girls, and making badges to mark the centenary.

https://museum.wales/bigpit/whatson/12611/Pit-Portraits-The-1926-General-Strike---Remembering-100-Years/

There may be more - but most events would have been a few weeks ago.

As you say most of the events have already been and gone by the seem of it. I did come across this link to the Cynon Valley museum

https://cynonvalleymuseum.wales/2021/02/10/jazz-bands-of-the-south-wales-valleys-1926/

My other grandfather (on my mother's side) used to tell me stories about these jazz bands. I remember some of them had names which would be very "politically incorrect" today! They helped to maintain the morale of the striking miners and acted as a diversion from what must have been a very bleak and desperate time.

My father's brother who was about 4 years older than him literally "got on his bike" in 1926 and cycled back from Mountain Ash to Wiltshire (where some of our ancestors still lived) in order to find work. He became a painter and decorator.

Likewise in the mid 1930's my father went to London in search of work and became a rep for an electrical wholesaler. However in 1939 the outbreak of WW2 changed everything for him and the rest is history as they say.

[delmbox]

Re: General Strike 1926 - Centenary

its dibble

I had a sabbatical because business requirements needed it

Usually I'd be unable to understand how someone could possibly manage to spend so much time on here that it affects their real life but seeing your post rate since coming back I fully believe it did yours and you probably did the right thing in stopping