Rendering the Strike Innocuous’

This article considers the strikes in essential industries which the Churchill and Eden governments faced in the mid-1950s. These strikes affected oil distribution, the docks and the railways and appeared to threaten the prospering economy. The article demonstrates that ministers held back from using the strong powers that were available to them to counter such strikes. These Conservative governments were dedicated to removing the lingering wartime economic powers, but had to balance this desire against the powers' utility in the face of such industrial action. When these powers were used, they were targeted carefully to reduce the effects of the strike on society but with an eye to avoiding spreading the dispute. The article also considers the government's emergency machinery which was revived and became established in this period. Thus this article shows how plans and structures developed in response to these strikes between 1953 and 1955 subsequently became a permanent part of the government's arsenal for dealing with industrial unrest

Economics · Government (linguistics · Industrial action · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Unrest · Australian History and Society · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US