Strikebreaking and the Labour Government of 1924

For Britain the early I920s were peaceful if not prosperous years both at home and abroad. A compromise had been worked out with Ireland; the European continent was reasonably stable for the moment; and the empire was relatively quiet. The prevailing peace at home was the result of disappointment and confusion in the labour movement stemming from the recent defeats in industrial struggles and continued impotence. The strikes, especially the long coal strike following the humiliating collapse of the Triple Alliance on Black Friday, I5 April 1921, had depleted union treasuries and the downturn in the economy from 1921 to 1923 meant that unemployment and job security became the major union concerns. Membership in unions fell. The miners' union went down from 945,487 in 1920 to 756,368 in 1923, while union membership as a whole fell 3'5 per cent in I923. Unemployment surged upward from 858,000 in December 1920, to 2,500,000 in May 1921. The number then slowly dropped to I-4 million at the end of 1922 and then to .2 million a year later. Nineteen twenty-three brought a dramatic rise in the demand for coal caused by the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. Employment expanded and so did union membership. The Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) gained back 34,000 members by 1924. This increased strength was reflected in the miners' vote of December 1923 to end the 1921 wage agreement. On 17 January 1924, they gave three months' notice to the owners to end the agreement. In the same period, the Labour Party also gained strength, increasing its membership in the House of Commons from 75 to 142 in 1922, and then to 192 in November 1923. These developments increased the growing concern of Baldwin's government with this reawakening of the labour movement

Business · Economics · Government (linguistics · Labour economics · Linguistics · Political science · Labor Movements and Unions · Philosophy

• Implacable Enemies’? The Labour Party and the intelligence community in 1920s Britain

  Open Access•George Kassimeris, Oliver Price•Contemporary British History•2024

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