The Socialist Equality Party (British section of the International Committee of the Fourth International or ICFI), offers this two-hour event, an analysis of the General Strike of 1926. It was launched in response to a massive attack on the wages of Britain’s 1.2 million coal miners, amid a period of labour unrest. But the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which oversaw the strike, worked to bring it to an end, succeeding on May 12 and enforcing a crushing defeat.

This came during the decline of British imperialism and its eclipse by the United States, and the political impact of the Russian Revolution. No longer able to grant economic concessions to preserve social peace, Britain’s ruling elite determined to take on and defeat the miners as the most powerful section of the working class. The general strike was the response by the working class.

The general strike is examined primarily from the standpoint of a genuinely Marxist assessment resting on the writings of Leon Trotsky, and recently published internal discussions of the general strike within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The lessons of 1926 still resonate today.

Ticket prices £3 – £10 via the link below.