Nine Days In May

The 1926 General Strike in Southwark

The General Strike looms large in the mythology of the working class and the left in Britain...

In May 1926, nearly two million workers joined a General Strike, in a massive display of class solidarity in support of a million miners, locked out for refusing to accept wage cuts, after the ending of the Government's coal subsidy.

Nine days later, afraid of the losing control of the situation, in the face of massive working class solidarity, and careful government counter-measures, the TUC General Council called the Strike off.

This pamphlet describes some of the events of the General Strike in the then Metropolitan Boroughs of Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark (now all united in the London Borough of Southwark) - how the strike was organised locally, how news was distributed, clashes between strikers and police... With accounts from local participants.

A5 pamphlet, 54 pages. Originally published in 1976.