Book I - Fading Glory and Class Wars: The Rise of Socialist Britain
Chapter IV
The Establishment's Last Stand, Part I
When Sir William Joynson-Hicks (Jix) became Prime Minister, he faced a nation and a party divided. Facing the worst industrial action Britain had ever seen, former Prime Minister Chamberlain had been exhausted politically. The way he muddled through the crisis, seemingly at a loss at how to control the situation, had caused the Conservative Party to turn on him. Despite avoiding an all-out strike by the Miners, Railwaymen and Other Transport Workers (the so called Triple Alliance), the underlying causes of the deep issues within British industry and society remained. The subsidy offered to the coal industry would contain unrest in the coal fields for only so long and failed to address the underlying problems that loomed over Britain like a dark shadow.
In choosing his Cabinet, Jix held fair sway despite the party being riddled with factional infighting and intrigue. With Chamberlain now a spent force and relegated to the backbenches, the new Prime Minister felt little need to appease his predecessor’s supporters. Jix decided to keep Baldwin as Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite the bad feelings about his handling of the fallout from the reintroduction of the Gold Standard during his time there. Lord Birkenhead, a friend and ally of Churchill moved to the Foreign Office. Jix moved Churchill across to the War Office, and also appointed him Minister responsible for the Department of Supply – the permanent body that emerged out of old Cabinet Strike Committee. The Department of Supply was granted a wide sweeping remit of powers and was to become the main piece of government machinery for dealing with industrial action across Britain. Sir John Gilmour took over the Home Office, whilst Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland was promoted to the Ministry of Labour. The men that Jix chose were prepared like him to take a hard-line with the Unions, to do whatever it would take to save Britain from the industrial strife and the spectre of Bolshevism. For Jix it was simple whoever blinked first would lose.
Jix saw the ongoing strikes as death by a thousand cuts – not enough to bring the nation to its knees in one fell swoop, but in time, eating away from the inside and rotting the core of the British state. With a passion, or as his critics would say a sadistic glee, Jix prepared to tackle the unions and break their will. Although uncoordinated, the number of lock-outs, picket lines and protests was causing significant disruption across the country. The conciliatory tones of the previous government evaporated in an instant. Across the country, the police moved in to break up and disperse the strikers. Although there was violence as strikers resisted, particularly in the coal fields and in the ship yards, generally injuries were few - compared to what would follow. For Jix was just beginning his campaign to ‘save Britain’. As the Government became more forceful, it was a propaganda coup for the unions, as workers flocked to join up in droves. Despite membership dropping in the wake of the Black Friday failures in 1919, by 1924 membership was skyrocketing, surpassing the eight million mark as workers sought protection, not just from the Government, but from the managers and owners, who saw this as an opportunity to keep wages low and costs down.
Peaceful strikers in south Wales, 1924.
Despite the best efforts of the Government, strikes blighted the country through that long hot summer of 1924 drifted lazily along. The number of wildcat strikes did not significantly drop and in fact increased as the unions retaliated with the coal fields particularly prone to violent strike action. It was a game of cat and mouse, for as soon as the police moved on from the strike site to other areas, the strikers simply returned to their pickets. Churchill described the situation as “like trying to kill a bolshie hydra”. The battle was not just being fought in the streets, but in the press as well. Pro-Government newspapers, most notably those of the press baron Lord Beaverbrook (and a close personal friend of the Prime Minister), portrayed the striking workers as dangerous revolutionaries and blood-thirsty thugs. . On the other hand, newspapers more sympathetic to the plight of the workers, such as C.P. Scott’s Manchester Guardian published endless stories about the brutal actions of the police, and the intolerable abuse of power committed by the ‘deeply reactionary’ Joynson-Hicks Government.
In Jix’s world view, the left-wing was a single monolithic entity in both its operations and ultimate goals. He did not distinguish between Labour Party Members and those of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). To Jix, they were all the same. Of course in hindsight that was a false presumption, but an understandable prejudice of the time. In order to try and further his aims of regaining control of the country and eliminating the union menace, he personally introduced into Parliament a new piece of controversial legislation. The Industrial Action Resolution (Emergencies) Act was broad ranging and gave the Government far-reaching powers. The Act expanded the powers of the Department of Supply, codifying them into law. It granted extraordinary powers to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet in dealing with Industrial disputes, by allowing for a State of Emergency to be declared without the need to recall Parliament. Despite being extremely passionate and eloquent in the debates, there was extreme controversy surrounding the introduction of the legislation. In the often tempestuous debates between the Prime Minister and members of the His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition about the bill, dozens of members were suspended and ejected, order papers were thrown and privileges revoked in a swirling mêlée of point and counter point. James Maxton, the member for Glasgow Bridgeton was suspended more than once, with the journalists particularly relishing his expulsion for calling Jix “a tuppence dictator with the veracity of a rapid, foaming dog.” Despite the fiery debates, the bill passed through the parliament thanks to the invigorating efforts of the Tory whips.
The hope that the temporary lull in the gargantuan battle between the unions and the Government would emerge into a permanent peace was to be in vain as 1924 came to an end. In fact, 1925 was to be the year in which both sides thought they could force the other to submit through sheer force. In April, the coal subsidy provided by the Government would end. The more moderate union leaders and those within Government ranks hoped to negotiate its continuance. Despite reluctance from the hardliners, which included the Prime Minister, representatives from the Government and the Federation of Miners met in London to discuss the industrial problems. Jix immediately took a confrontational approach to the meeting and it was first time that he had personally met with the leader of the Federation of Miners, A.J. Cook. The meeting was an unmitigated disaster. Little actual negotiation took place as Cook indulged in long monologues about the working classes, industry and British society, whilst Jix continued the blinkered argument that the union movement was nothing more than a front for a Bolshevik revolution sponsored and controlled by Moscow. Despite being ideological polar opposites, Cook was surprised by Jix’s light-hearted banter over lunch and their discussion over of the proposed revision to the Book of Common Prayer was surprisingly amicable. Despite this, the meeting confirmed that talk would achieve little and that the inevitable showdown between the unions and the Government was rapidly approaching on the horizon.
The three faces of the British industrial struggle (l to r). The face of the establishment, Prime Minister 'Jix', the new radical face of the unions, Arthur James Cook, the moderate face of the TUC, Fred Bramley.
It was apparent that a large scale strike was going to occur by the three major unions – to prevent the supply of coal, cripple the railways and every other major transport worker from tram and bus drivers to the dock workers. This was the so-called Triple Alliance of Unions. Organised and coordinated by the Trade Unions Congress (TUC), it was a significant in its departure of the usual tactics seen up to this point. Cook was very much at the forefront of this alliance of the ‘mega-unions’ of Britain. For the unions, the Triple Alliance marked an increase in the coordination and effectiveness of the strikes along with the implementation on a large scale coordinated activities. The actual strike began well. On Monday 20 April, members of the Triple Alliance of Unions went on strike and there were sympathy strikes. As the country found itself grinding to a halt, the earlier uncoordinated industrial action seemed minor in comparison. When combined, the miners, railwaymen and other transport workers were a powerful force. The morning the paralysing strike was announced, Jix wasted no time and declared a State of Emergency. It was announced on the BBC, which was being manned by wireless operators from the Royal Navy. The police were placed on full alert and the army was moved into its prepared positions should the situation turn violent. The Railway Operating Division (ROD) of the Royal Engineers, greatly expanded by the Department of Supply, began deploying on the main trunk routes to keep the country moving. Soldiers were sent to work in the docks and the wharves to keep open the sea lanes. Violence was initially limited. Only on the second day did violence flare as scab workers attempting to cross picket lines were attacked by striking workers. This dragged the police into the brawls resulting in many injuries amongst the strikers and the police.
Mounted police break up striking workers. London, April 1925.
As large protests formed in the major industrial cities, the army was directed towards crowd control – a task which they were unsuited for. This visible military presence largely kept the crowds peaceful as they marched through the streets of the cities to hear their leaders speak. Despite his lack of faith in the ability of the TUC leadership to organise the strike, Cook participated with gusto, speaking before baying crowds across the North of England and Wales. His entrance into London was more like that of a conquering warrior, his open top tourer barely able to move through the throbbing masses. His speech in front of Trade Unions Hall was remarkable for its fieriness, flair and call for a workers revolution. Cook read an extract from his updated pamphlet The Worker’s Next Step, an updated manifesto of his 1912 The Miner’s Next Step. He roared and gestured before the crowds; “As long as Shareholders are permitted to continue their ownership, or the State administers on behalf of the Shareholders, slavery and oppression are bound to be the rule in industry across the land. And with this realization, the age-long oppression of Labour will draw to its end. The weary sigh of the overdriven slave, pitilessly exploited and regarded as an animated tool or beast of burden: the feudal serf fast bound to the soil, and life-long prisoner on his lord's domain, subject to all the caprices of his lord's lust or anger: the modern wage slave, with nothing but his labour to sell, selling that, with his manhood as a wrapper, in the world's market place for a mess of pottage: these three phases of slavery, each in their turn inevitable and unavoidable, will have exhausted the possibilities of slavery, and mankind shall at last have leisure and inclination to really live as men, and not as the beasts which perish.”
With the police spread to thinly and the army to cautious to intervene, his speech went uninterrupted. Churchill was furious and ordered his arrest by either the police or detention by the army. However the reality on the ground prevented it, there were simply too few boots there. Had it not been for the steely sage like advice of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the Earl of Cavan, a protest could have turned bloody extremely quickly had the orders for Cook’s arrest gone out.
Frederic Lambert, the Earl of Cavan, Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
In the end, despite the resources of the authorities being stretched thin, it was the strikers that broke first. There had been insufficient preparation in the strike and many workers, already struggling financially from ongoing industrial over the previous year were, simply couldn’t afford to stay away from their factories. For many workers, low pay was better than no pay and the TUC was unable to provide hardship pay. Within a few days, workers started drifting back to work so they could continue to provide for their families. However, many of the strikers from the bigger unions were better catered for – the miners and the railwaymen receiving decent support and consequently being the longest to last into the following week.
Another factor was that the resolve of the workers themselves which varied greatly. From enthusiastic revolutionaries who manned the barricades and pickets night and day, or those simply wanting for a better wage, or those who saw a chance to skive work and play cards in the warm April days or drink in the taverns and pubs. Another reason for the failure of the strike was it had been called in the week before the Cup Final on 25 April, and that their resolve might have been more revolutionary than Sunday afternoon picnic had the Cup Final not been a distraction. The fact that a near riot broke out at Sheffield’s main railway station between striking railway workers and fans travelling south to the capital caused so much consternation within the top ranks of the union leadership that it took the personal intervention of J.H. ‘Jimmy’ Thomas, the head of the National Union of Railwaymen, to organise special trains south for the match.
Despite the end of the strike and Government claims that it’s hard-line policies were working, the unions were hardly beaten It was not the Government’s actions that led to the collapse of the strike, it was the winder union movement’s failure to adequately organise its members and steel their resolve for the fight. This simply reinforced Cook’s view that a general strike, with sufficient planning and stronger leadership, would be enough to break the Government and bring about what he described as the “…inevitable revolution by the British working man.” However, Cook was bitterly disappointed by the performance of the TUC in organising and managing the strike action. For Fred Bramely, the General Secretary of the TUC, it was a bitter personal blow and gave credence to Cook’s loud calls for radical, universal action across the country. Bramley, and much of the cautious leadership of the TUC, viewed Cook as a dangerous radical who was taking things too far. Bramely even refused to refer to Cook by name, calling him "that raving Bolshie".
After the apparent failure of the TUC, Cook took it upon himself to build a new organisational structure to advance his radical agenda. Never one to rest, he convinced many that the TUC leadership was too timid, that the British workers were “…lions being led by asses.” During a clandestine meeting in Durham, Cook and other leading members of the union movement, along with key figures from the radical left of British politics (including Independent Labour Party (ILP) members and National Minority Movement representatives), agreed to form the National Action Committee for the Labour Movement (NACLM). Those in attendance included Cook, James Maxton, Manny Shinwell, Harry Pollitt, Willie Gallacher, J.H. Thomas and Herbert Smith. Although Cook despised Bramley and much of the TUC leadership, his shrewdness nevertheless prevailed and he invited the Assistant General Secretary of the TUC and Electrical Trades Union chief, Walter Citrine, to the Durham meeting. Citrine, with Bramley's approval, reluctantly agreed to attend the meeting and join NACLM.
The fact that Cook was able to gather these men in a single room was a tremendous achievement in itself and was attributed largely to the immense force of will that Cook possessed. As a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the associated National Minority Movement, Cook was keen to bring these organisations into the wider union movement, as he believed they were crucial in facilitating the radicalisation of the workers. However, the main difficulty was the CPGB’s perpetually impossible balancing act between towing the Moscow line and responding to British realities, a challenge it never quite succeeded in overcoming. To Cook's credit, the Durham meeting managed to forge a loose coalition of the left wing forces in Britain. For the Communists, they saw it as a chance to take control of the union movement and the Labour Party from within. For the more cautious TUC leadership, despite their reservations, they saw an opportunity to reign in Cook and try to moderate his growing appeal, hence Citrine's reluctant agreement to represent the TUC on the NACLAM. For the radical members of the ILP like Maxton, they saw the opportunity to continue the struggle for social and political upheaval outside of Parliament - harking back to their days organising strikes on the Clyde.
What emerged out of the first meeting in Durham was the feeling that only a full and well prepared General Strike would break the Government. The entire union movement had to be united and committed to breaking the Government. Cook argued that striking for wages and conditions within the existing politcal and economic system had failed, and that true progress could only be made by tearing the entire rotten edifice down.
With membership in the unions booming and valuable lessons learnt from the Triple Alliance strike, Cook’s NACLM would take the lead in organising the next round of industrial action and effectively supplanted the TUC. It was decided that organisation and preparation for the general strike would be completed by the end of June 1925. Supplies would be stockpiled and money would be collected to help workers buy essential goods for their families during the prolonged strike action.
For the Government, the Triple Alliance strike had shown the weakness of the existing anti-strike machinery. The Department of Supply had been strained to breaking point and Police resources had been stretched far too thinly. The army was small and the quality of the troops was questionable except amongst the handful of elite battalions (however most of the army’s best troops were stationed across the Empire, far from home). When violence did break out, Churchill was concerned that more was needed than just truncheons and batons. The Territorials were not called up, despite being provisioned under the new law, as the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the Earl of Cavan, had voiced deep concerns about their reliability and propensity towards ill-discipline. As a consequence, Churchill and Jix embarked on the task of creating a new force. Churchill dusted off an old scheme that had been drawn up by Lord Haig before his retirement as Chief of the Imperial General Staff which envisaged a new paramilitary force specifically tasked to break strikes. The Earl of Cavan pointed out the practical and legal restrictions of using the Territorials in domestic industrial disputes, despite the introduction of the Industrial Action Resolution (Emergencies) Act. To circumnavigate this, two new formations were created, the Civil Guard and the Auxiliary Force, both under the tight control of the Department of Supply.
A sign of things to come. Arming police and the creation of the Civil Guard.
The Civil Guard was to be a standing part-time reserve of constables that could man static check points and conduct low level activities to free up regular police. Unlike the regular police forces, they couldn’t be deployed away from their home county or city. Members of Civil Guard were drawn from across Britain from the lowest to the highest echelons of society. From the ranks of the unemployed, to ex-servicemen, to eager middle class amateurs to members of the idle rich, applications were received. Controversially, Churchill began gutted the Territorials of their best and brightest to form the core of this new force. Although receiving slightly less pay than the regular police, the Civil Guards had a system of very generous allowances. They were also issued with arms and ammunition that they kept in their own homes.
If the Civil Guard were the support, then the Auxiliary Force was the hammer that would smash the unions. As the Government knew that the unions were planning more action, it was imperative that the force be raised quickly. Recruits for the Auxies as they were called, were paid nearly one and a half times what the regular police received at a rate of nearly 7£ per week. As soon as the advertisements went out, thousands of applications were received. Many were former army officers, many of whom had been promoted in the field from the ranks and found it hard to adjust to ‘ungentlemanly’ status in civil life. Many were also experienced in fighting the IRA in Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War. They were also expected to conducted intelligence gathering as well as direct action against strikers. Three thousand recruits had been signed in little over a month as they began training in hastily constructed barracks across the country. Provided with transport from the regular army, they would form into highly mobile ‘flying squads’ that could react quickly to industrial action.
Critics derided them as Churchill’s private armies. And just like in Ireland, when paramilitaries were used, the streets would soon be spattered with blood and littered with human carnage. However it soon became apparent for both the Unions and the Government that it the strike action by the Triple Alliance had only been the relative calm before the storm. A prelude to the inevitable final showdown that would decide the fate of the British nation and its people.
