BRITAIN Trade union militancy 1915-27 PART 3 Flashcards

1
Q

What were the problems with the 1926 General Strike?

A

Effective government response to the crisis; chaotic and sporadic support TUC secured

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2
Q

What was the hostile Conservative press led by the during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Churchill’s ‘British Gazette’

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3
Q

What were the priorities for the government during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Maintaining food supplies and essential services; preserving law and order

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4
Q

When did the government send out orders for volunteers to be mobilised during the 1926 General Strike?

A

3 May

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5
Q

What did the government do on the 5 May of the 1926 General Strike?

A

Sent instructions to the Boards of Guardians to refuse relief to strikers

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6
Q

How many middle- and upper-class volunteers did the government recruit during the 1926 General Strike?

A

300,000-500,000

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7
Q

What were the volunteers the government gathered during the 1926 General Strike used for?

A

To man power stations and docks; act as special constables and transport workers

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8
Q

Who manned the London Underground during the 1926 General Strike?

A

2,000 Cambridge undergraduates

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9
Q

What was an example of particularly upper-class solidarity during the 1926 General Strike?

A

At Dover, 460 Cambridge students worked the docks

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10
Q

What did the government use instead of the armed forces during the 1926 General Strike?

A

A civil constabulary reserve from former soldiers and members of the Territorial Army

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11
Q

Which city was responsible for 1/5 of the nation’s imports and kept supplies flowing during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Liverpool

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12
Q

Which area of industry did the government fail to resolve during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Railways

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13
Q

How many passenger rail services were running by the 12 May of the 1926 General Strike?

A

22.4%

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14
Q

Where were there several disturbances during the 1926 General Strike, despite law and order being maintained?

A

Plymouth; Glasgow; London

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15
Q

How many arrests were made during the 1926 General Strike?

A

1,760

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16
Q

What was the most iconic act of violence during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Derailing of the famous steam locomotive, the ‘Flying Scotsman’, by protesters at Newcastle on 10 May

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17
Q

What did the ‘British Gazette’ do during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Informed public that the government was in a strong position; raised fears that strike represented a revolutionary threat to state

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18
Q

When was the BBC formed?

A

1922

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19
Q

Why was the BBC not actually impartial during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Refused to publish content that would be damaging to government- depended on it for license

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20
Q

What tone did the BBC take on during the 1926 General Strike?

A

A conciliatory one

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21
Q

How was the TUC’s propaganda affected during the 1926 General Strike?

A

Severely restrained- reduced to 4 pages from usual 8

22
Q

What was the TUC’s pro-strike newspaper?

A

‘British Worker’

23
Q

Why did Churchill order the requisitioning of the TUC’s newsprint?

A

Believed government had right to propaganda, unlike the TUC

24
Q

What proves that Baldwin’s government never really took the 1926 General Strike seriously?

A

Limited use of armed force

25
Q

When was the Communist Party of Great Britain formed?

A

1920

26
Q

When was the 1926 General Strike?

A

3 May to 12 May 1926

27
Q

How many workers came out in support of the million locked out coal miners during the 1926 General Strike?

A

1.5-1.75 million

28
Q

When had the TUC began to make arrangements for the industrial action of the 1926 General Strike?

A

27 April

29
Q

Which of the leaders of the 1926 General Strike believed that it was success in terms of popular support?

A

TGWU’s general secretary, Bevin

30
Q

Which workers joined the strikers on the last day of the 1926 General Strike?

A

Shipbuilders; engineers

31
Q

Who directed the unrest of the 1926 General Strike?

A

Bevin and the Powers and Orders Committee

32
Q

Which areas had the most organised support for the 1926 General Strike?

A

Bradford; Leeds; York; Merseyside

33
Q

How many locomotive and firemen went on strike during the 1926 General Strike because of the TUC’s insistence?

A

98%

34
Q

How many GWR workers went on strike in support of the miners during the 1926 General Strike?

A

80%

35
Q

What are examples of the organisation and the extent of the 1926 General Strike being far from perfect?

A

Many London power stations remained in operation; Strike Organising Committee only ever had symbolic control

36
Q

What did the TUC General Council appear to do by calling off the 1926 General Strike?

A

Betray the workers it represented

37
Q

Why did the General Council become increasingly keen to end the industrial dispute of 1926 General Strike?

A

Didn’t want to start a revolution; memory of failure of Black Friday

38
Q

When was the ‘Samuel Memorandum’ rejected?

A

11 May

39
Q

What presented the opportunity for the TUC to withdraw from the 1926 General Strike?

A

‘Samuel Memorandum’

40
Q

What was the ‘Samuel Memorandum’?

A

Proposed that the coal industry be reorganised and miners’ wages cut for one year; National Wages Board would be established

41
Q

Which individuals from the TUC General Council sent out orders to end the strike?

A

Arthur Pugh; Walter Citrine

42
Q

Why was the ‘Samuel Memorandum’ rejected?

A

MFGB refused to consider any cuts

43
Q

What was another problem with the ‘Samuel Memorandum’?

A

Baldwin would not have been able to support it

44
Q

How did employers initially try and prevent a repeat of the 1926 General Strike?

A

Many attempted to make union membership a barrier to employment

45
Q

When did the coal miners remain locked out until?

A

November 1926

46
Q

Where were wages cut post-General Strike 1926?

A

South Wales; Scotland; north-east

47
Q

After the 1926 General Strike, where were workers made to work longer hours for the same wages?

A

Cheltenham tramway

48
Q

How was the trade union movement affected by the 1926 General Strike?

A

Divided by allegations of betrayal; General Council accused of failing to protect its workers from post-strike victimisation

49
Q

How did trade union membership decline after the 1926 General Strike?

A

From 5,219,000 to 4,392,000 by 1932

50
Q

Rather than revolutionary, how do many historians view the relationship between unions and employers?

A

Evolutionary

51
Q

How did the government take action to avoid future general strikes after 1926?

A

Trades Disputes and Trades Unions Act 1927