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First day of protests
A general strike is called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to support the miners in their quarrel with the mine owners, who want to reduce their wages by 13 per cent and increase their shifts from seven to eight hours. Huge numbers of road transport, bus, rail, docks, printing, gas and electricity, building, iron, steel, chemicals and coal workers stay off work. JH Thomas, a trade unionist and MP, says: 'God help us unless the government wins'. -
Birth of the British Gazette
The government acts aggressively against the strike and tries to exert greater control over the media. It attempts to take control of the BBC and publishes a newspaper - 'The British Gazette'. The government also sends a warship to Newcastle, and recruits 226,000 special policemen. -
Special Constables and Stanley Baldwin
Middle-class volunteers get some buses and trains, and the electricity working. A few buses are set on fire, and there are fights between police and strikers in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Stanley Baldwin, the prime minister, declares the strike an attack on Britain's democracy. -
Birth of the British Worker
Police and strikers clash in Liverpool, Hull and London. The government calls the army to London. It also seizes all supplies of paper, which hinders publication of the TUC's paper, 'The British Worker'. The TUC is embarrassed when Russian trade unionists send a large donation and it is sent back. -
The protests go on
Police make baton-charges on rioting strikers in Glasgow, Hull, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Preston. The number of volunteers increases. The army escorts food lorries from the London docks. Secretly, JH Thomas has talks with the mine owners. -
The Church intervenes
The Roman Catholic Church declares the strike 'a sin'. -
Massive arrestation
Some textile workers join the strike. Strikers in Northumberland derail the Flying Scotsman train. Baldwin declares that Britain is 'threatened with a revolution', and the government arrests 374 Communists. -
The strike is over
The TUC, led by JH Thomas, calls off the strike. The strikers are taken by surprise, but drift back to work.
The miners struggle on alone until November when they are forced to go back to work for less pay and longer hours.