E119: 1926 general strike, part 2

Part 2 of our three-part miniseries about the UK’s 1926 general strike, which saw one and three-quarter million workers walk out in the biggest single work stoppage in British history. In collaboration with the General Strike 100 project and told using interviews with striking workers themselves.

In this episode, we go into the action of the strike itself, the self-activity of the 'Councils of Action', and first-hand accounts of clashes between workers, scabs, and police.

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• Listen to Part 3 now (without ads) by joining us on Patreon
• Listen to our bonus episode to hear more from two participants in the general strike, exclusively on Patreon
• Listen to our bonus mini-episode where we explain the history behind the theme song used for this series

More info

• Find out about events to commemorate the strike in your area (and beyond!) on the General Strike 100 website
  • You will also find dozens of stories about incidents which took place during the strike in cities, towns, and villages across the UK
• Get a copy of our interviewee, Judy Cox’s Revisiting the General Strike of 1926: When Workers Were Ready To Dare
• More information including sources, further reading, images and a transcript available on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e119-121-1926-general-strike/

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands and Fellow Worker.
• Episode graphic: Strikers and their supporters in the Poplar district around the East London docks (where Harry Watson, one of the speakers in our series, was on strike). Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
• Our theme tune for this episode is Montaigne’s version of ‘When the Coal Comes from the Rhonda’, a folk song originating from Welsh miners in the early twentieth century and sung during the general strike. Download the song here. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube.
• Edited by Jesse French